Senior Technical Artist – Character Rigging & Technology

We are seeking a Senior Technical Artist to join our EA SPORTS Tech team, focusing on character rigging technology, pipelines, tools, and workflows for content creators across EA SPORTS. As part of a central team of Technical Artists, you will partner with artists, engineers, and development teams to build shared and scalable solutions that improve character quality and content production.

Responsibilities:

• Collaborate with Art Directors, Development Directors, Artists, Technical Artists, and Engineers to deliver high-quality character deformation and animation solutions for EA SPORTS games.
• Develop and improve character rigging pipelines, tools, and workflows to solve production challenges and increase efficiency for content creators.
• Design and implement technical solutions for skeletons, control rigs, skin deformation, secondary motion, and other character rigging and deformation systems.
• Leverage shared technology and workflows to solve character animation and deformation challenges across multiple EA SPORTS titles.
• Support asset integration and optimization while balancing visual quality, runtime performance, and production requirements.
• Investigate, debug, and resolve technical issues across character content, tools, pipelines, and game-engine workflows.
• Evaluate and help introduce new technologies and techniques that improve character production and scalability.
• Partner with technical and creative leadership on new initiatives and contribute to technical direction, documentation, and knowledge sharing.
• Mentor and support other Technical Artists while helping establish best practices across teams.

Your Qualifications:

• 6+ years of games, cinematic, or related production experience in Technical Art, Rigging, Character Technology, Animation Technology, or a related discipline.
• A bachelor's degree or equivalent professional experience in a related field.
• Strong experience with character rigging and deformation, including complex skeletons, control rigs, skin deformation, and secondary animation systems.
• Strong understanding of human anatomy, animation principles, and how they relate to character deformation.
• Experience developing tools, pipelines, and workflows for artists and other content creators.
• Proficiency in scripting/programming in Python or C#. C++ experience is a bonus.
• In-depth experience with relevant 3D content creation packages such as Maya and Houdini.
• Experience with asset optimization and the performance constraints associated with real-time character systems.
• Experience in investigating, testing, and debugging technical issues across content and technology.
• Effective communication skills and experience collaborating with artists, engineers, technical artists, and leadership.
• Experience working with content-driven game engines such as Frostbite, Unreal, or Unity is desired.
• A willingness to jump into the unknown, solve new problems, and navigate technical challenges and limitations.
• A passion for games!