Associate Art Director

Job Description

Associate Art Director, Characters - Unpublished R&D Product

Associate Art Directors at Riot oversee the quality and management of a team with a focus on Mission, Direction, and Cohesion. Your scope of responsibilities covers the Character Art efforts on a project where you are accountable for your team's deliverables and artistic quality. These responsibilities include overall culture, performance and growth of your direct reports as the team grows through prototype, pre production and production.
As the Associate Art Director, Characters on an Unpublished R&D Game you'll be accountable for designing, implementing, and maintaining a healthy organizational structure to meet objectives of the product. You will build a vision for and direct a character team to execute the visual direction, quality, and cohesion of the player characters, gear, and creatures of the world. Additionally, you will find the right balance between creating beautiful characters and the gameplay/product needs. You will report to the Art Director.

Responsibilities:
• Create & guide the look/feel of 3D character and creature assets required to realize the the diversity of cultures and creatures in the world
• Manage, mentor, and review the work of your team to meet quality expectations and performance standards
• Explore different development techniques that allow for rapid content creation at scale
• Use your understanding of optimized systems for asset creation to take into account efficiency, speed, and cross dependencies
• Partner with recruiting to hire world-class artists to build a team that can scale to meet the development goals of the product
• Champion the development of efficient character art pipelines
• Create a stylized character art approach using current character art production workflows
• Create performance artwork that is modular and is highly readable to maximize gameplay clarity
• Build outsourcing strategies and necessary documentation to ensure internal and external teams are set up for success
• Build and maintain a diverse, healthy, highly functional Character Art team globally that's strongly aligned with Riot Values, working quickly and effectively to resolve team health issues
Required Qualifications:
• Experience working with modern game engines such as Unreal, Unity, or proprietary technologies
• 10+ years of industry experience
• 5+ years of professional experience as a Senior or Lead Character Artist
• 4+ years of management experience
• Proficient skills in 3D/2D Software - Maya, 3DS Max, Substance, Zbrush
• Professional or personal experience working on stylized game art
Desired Qualifications:
• Experience working in player character customization systems
• Development experience creating materials and PBR assets within Unreal, Unity
• Familiarity with the League of Legends IP
For this role, you'll find success through craft expertise, a collaborative spirit, and decision-making that prioritizes the delight of players. We will be looking at your past studies, experience, and your personal relationship with games. If you embody player empathy and care about players' experiences, this could be your role!
Our Perks:
Riot has a focus on work/life balance, shown by our open paid time off policy, in addition to other perks such as flexible work schedules. We offer medical, dental, and life insurance, parental leave for you, your spouse/domestic partner and children, and a 401k with company match. Check out our benefits pages for more information.
At Riot Games, we put players first. That mission drives every decision in our quest to create games and experiences that make it better to be a player. Whether you're working directly on a new player-facing experience or you're supporting the company as a whole, everyone at Riot is part of our mission. And just like in our games, we're better when we work together. Our goal is to create collaborative teams where you are empowered to bring your unique perspective everyday. If that sounds like the kind of place you want to work, we're looking forward to your application.

• (Los Angeles Only) Base salary range between $185,200.00 - $258,000.00 USD + incentive compensation + equity + 401K with company match + medical, dental, vision, and life insurance + short and long-term disability + open PTO.

Jobcode: Reference SBJ-repox0-216-73-216-118-42 in your application.