Senior Technical Artist, Tools and Pipeline - The Initiative

The Initiative is looking for a Senior Technical Artist (Tools & Pipeline) to join our team. As a Senior Technical Artist, your call to action is to unlock the creativity of our Artists so we can create memorable experiences and the best possible art for our players. You will partner with artists, technical artists, and engineers to define, develop, and continually improve the creative workflow, pipeline, and best practices for asset production in engine and in Digital Content Creation (DCC) tools, including building tools and widgets that extend our DCC tools and the Unreal Engine 5 (UE5) editor.

At the core of The Initiative, we're about craft, storytelling, and looking ahead to the next big thing.We seek to shape the future of narrative-driven games by leveraging the most innovative tech and talent this industry has to offer. We value original, perseverant thinkers & doers who can come together as a cohesive team, capable of creating genre-defining games. We welcome talent from a wide range of backgrounds both in and out of the games industry and we strive to create a respectful, inclusive environment where you can bring your best self and do your best work.

On Team Perfect Dark, the multi-studio development team reimagining the science-fiction action-adventure game Perfect Dark, we're seeking collaborative problem solvers who are eager to surprise and delight players old and new to the franchise. When you join Team Perfect Dark, you join a group of developers across internal and external studios who have contributed to some of the most celebrated, critically acclaimed properties recognized for their excellence and cutting-edge technology, visuals, gameplay, and narrative.

The Initiative, headquartered in Santa Monica and fully distributed, is a Microsoft Xbox Game Studio. This is an amazing opportunity to join a studio with a great work-life balance and a talented, inclusive team working on the rebirth of the beloved, critically acclaimed franchise, Perfect Dark.

Qualifications:

Required/Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Graphic Design, Digital Arts, Technical Art, Game Design, or related field AND 4+ years technical art or industry-related design experience
  • OR Master's Degree in Computer Science, Graphic Design, Digital Arts, Technical Art, Game Design, or related field AND 3+ year(s) technical art or industry-related design experience
  • OR equivalent experience.
• 3+ years of experience using related software and packages (e.g., Autodesk Maya, SideFX Houdini, Blender, 3D Studio Max, Zbrush, Substance Suite)
• 2+ years of experience in game development using 3D game engines such as Unreal, Unity or proprietary game engine.
• 2+ years of experience in both modern scripting or programming languages, such as Python, C# or Blueprint AND 2+ years of experience in extending tool capabilities of industry standard content creation tools such as Maya, Photoshop, Blender, Houdini, Zbrush, through programming and scripting.

Additional or Preferred Qualifications

• 6+ years of experience with C++ and C#.
• Ability to prototype in engine, iterate, and then deliver final tools that can be leveraged by others.
• Experience with the management and analysis of art and animation assets to ensure content is optimal for performance and memory.
• Knowledge of material/shader development and experience with PBR pipeline, such as Substance Designer/Painter.

Technical Art IC4 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $112,000 - $218,400 per year. There is a different range applicable to specific work locations, within the San Francisco Bay area and New York City metropolitan area, and the base pay range for this role in those locations is USD $145,800 - $238,600 per year.

Certain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation. Find additional benefits and pay information here: https://careers.microsoft.com/us/en/us-corporate-pay

Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, color, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, marital status, medical condition, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran status, race, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by applicable laws, regulations and ordinances. We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements. If you need assistance and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application or the recruiting process, please send a request via the Accommodation request form .

Benefits/perks listed below may vary depending on the nature of your employment with Microsoft and the country where you work.

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Responsibilities:

• Partner with artists and engineers to define, develop, and continually improve the creative workflow and tools for art and animation teams.
• Collaborate with artists to understand their needs and provide technical support and tools development to improve effectiveness and efficiency.
• Leverage Blueprint, Python, and other scripting languages to build tools and widgets for Maya, Blender, other DCC tools, and the Unreal Editor
• Share knowledge of processes, workflow, and best practices through documentation to help others to be effective and expand their knowledge.
• Collaborate with others to learn, train, coach and/or share techniques and ideas.
• Seek out, provide, and receive feedback and contribute to a positive working environment that focuses on both implementation and experimentation.