Description
Electronic Arts is seeking a Senior Technical Artist to bridge the gap between creative vision and technical execution. The successful candidate will act as a force multiplier for art teams across sports titles, designing scalable art pipelines, optimizing real-time performance, and developing innovative workflows for characters, environments, lighting, or VFX.
The EA SPORTS Tech Art team provides specialized technology teams working on modern character articulation and motion, content pipelines and workflows, machine learning, game security, dev ops, as well as long lead feature and technology development for all EA SPORTS titles.
The Senior Technical Artist will report to a Technical Art Director, leading complex technical initiatives, mentoring junior and mid-level technical artists, and collaborating closely with Rendering Engineers, Art Directors, and Tools Developers to push the boundaries of visual fidelity in sports games.
Key responsibilities include:
- Pipeline & Tool Development: Architect, build, and maintain robust, scalable art creation and content integration pipelines using Python, C#, or DCC scripting (Maya, Houdini, Blender).
- Performance & Optimization: Lead runtime performance profiling (GPU/CPU, memory, draw calls) across current and next-gen hardware platforms, establishing performance budgets and best practices for art teams.
- Engine Integration: Deeply integrate procedural workflows, complex shaders, rigging systems, and visual effects into the proprietary engine.
- Cross-Discipline Collaboration: Work as a primary liaison between artists and software engineers,translating creative needs into technical specifications and engineering requirements into user-friendly art tools.
- Technical Leadership & Mentorship: Guide and mentor mid and junior-level technical artists, advocate for best practices, and contribute to standardizing technical art workflows across the Sports Tech organization.
- R&D & Innovation: Prototype new rendering techniques, procedural content generation setups, and digital human or apparel workflows to elevate visual realism across titles.
The ideal candidate will have 6+ years of professional experience in video game production or visual effects, with at least 3+ years in a Technical Art role. They will have deep experience working with modern game engines (e.g., Unreal Engine, Unity, or proprietary AAA engines) and advanced expertise in Maya and/or Houdini, including scripting and tool creation.
In terms of compensation, the salary range for this position is $141,400 - $204,400 CAD. Benefits include vacation time, sick leave, health/dental/vision coverage, life insurance, disability insurance, and a retirement plan.