Senior Technical Artist

Requisition Number: 176094

Position Title: Senior Technical Artist

External Description:

Welcome to Maxis, home to tinkerers, craftspeople, & storytellers. Our drive is to inspire everyone to make a better world through creative play. As the developer of the Sims, we create games and experiences for millions of people around the world and are always looking for new ways to inspire our players. Maxis is a place where you can do what you love and help others grow while doing it; a place where your unique voice can be heard and seen. We put creativity and inclusivity at the core of our work and don't settle for seeing the world only as it is, but aim to build a world as it could be. Read on to see how you can join our team and dream big.

Job Summary

Location: Remote North America - open to most North America locations

Reporting To: Senior Technical Art Director

As a Technical Animator with Maxis, you will be collaborating with multiple disciplines. This includes but is not exclusive to, Animation Directors, Animation Leads, Technical Artists, and Engineers across the Division. The model applicant is passionate about finding efficiencies, exploring new technologies, implementing new tools, and identifying solutions for current and future game development for both existing and new IPs.

Responsibilities:

• Collaborate with the Animation Director, Art Director, Engineers, Character Lead and Animation Lead to deliver tools, rigs and implementation with a forward-looking goal of delivering industry leading animation
• Aid in developing, improving and maintaining a technical pipeline for the Animation and Tech teams on both DCC and engine sides
• Assist and guide in the creation of rigs, best practices and development tools requirements needed to obtain the highest aesthetic quality value
• Create prototypes and pursue research in varying engines for best fits on a variety of products while planning for future technologies in projects pertaining to Animation Tech
• Understanding of performance and optimization requirements and experience diagnosing and profiling content costs
• Firefight production issues, investigating urgent issues and resolving roadblocks
• Keep up with the latest trends and technical tools for animation content development

Qualifications:

• Experience working in real-time engines such as Unity and Unreal Game Engine for technical animation purposes
• Tech art/animation development experience in Maya and video games
• Experience creating and maintaining character rigs
• Ability to create solid documentation and training material
• Knowledge of traditional, mocap and procedural animation workflows
• Experience with designing animation content that integrates well with dynamic systems like character and world physics
• Experience building custom deformers and blend shape solutions
• Proficiency in Python, particularly for scripting in Maya
• Knowledge of version control software (Perforce preferred).
• Familiarity with Shotgun, Jira or other bug tracking and project management software
• Must have excellent collaborative skills, coordinating and working with multiple departments to achieve set goals

COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS

The base salary ranges listed below are for the defined geographic market pay zones in these states. If you reside outside of these locations, a recruiter will advise on the base salary range for your specific location.

EA has listed the base salary ranges it in good faith expects to pay applicants for this role in the locations listed, as of the time of this posting. Salary offered will be determined based on numerous relevant business and candidate factors including, for example, education, qualifications, certifications, experience, skills, geographic location, and business or organizational needs.

BASE SALARY RANGES

• California (depending on location e.g. Los Angeles vs. Sacramento):
º $108,700 - $166,550
• New York (depending on location e.g. Manhattan vs. Buffalo):
º $107,450 - $166,550
• Jersey City, NJ :
º $107,450 - $166,550
• Colorado (depending on location e.g. Denver vs. Colorado Springs):
º $107,450 - $153,250
• Washington (depending on location e.g. Seattle vs. Spokane):
º $107,450 - $153,250

Base salary is just one part of the overall compensation at EA. We also offer a package of benefits including paid time off (3 weeks per year to start), 80 hours per year of sick time, 16 paid company holidays per year, 10 weeks paid time off to bond with baby (following 1 year of service), medical/dental/vision insurance, life insurance, disability insurance, and 401(k) to regular full-time employees. Certain roles may also be eligible for bonus and equity.

City:

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Community / Marketing Title: Senior Technical Artist

Company Profile:

We are a global team of creators, storytellers, technologists, experience originators, innovators and so much more. We believe amazing games and experiences start with teams as diverse as the players and communities we serve. At Electronic Arts, the only limit is your imagination.

EEOText:

About Electronic Arts

Everything we do is designed to inspire the world to play. Through our cutting-edge games, innovative services, and powerful technologies, we bring worlds with infinite possibilities to millions of players and fans around the globe.

We’re looking for collaborative and inclusive people with diverse perspectives who will enrich our culture and challenge us. We take a holistic approach with our benefits program, focusing on physical, emotional, financial, career, and community wellness to support our people through every chapter of life. Our goal is to provide a safe and respectful workplace that empowers you to thrive in both work and life.

Electronic Arts is an equal opportunity employer. All employment decisions are made without regard to race, color, national origin, ancestry, sex, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, genetic information, religion, disability, medical condition, pregnancy, marital status, family status, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. We will also consider employment qualified applicants with criminal records in accordance with applicable law. EA also makes workplace accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities as required by applicable law.

Days Open: 166

Can this position be remote?: 1

EEO Employer Verbiage:

About Electronic Arts

We exist to inspire the world to play. Through innovative technology and immersive storytelling, we deliver new ways of experiencing worlds of interactive entertainment for our millions of players worldwide. Our strength lies in the diversity of our people, combining creativity, innovation and passion. We fully champion inclusive culture, and provide opportunities for growing, learning, and leading that allows for the most impactful and rewarding work of our teams’ careers. 

 

We put our people first, and we make sure they’re taken care of both in and out of the office. As we reflect on our learnings and successes from remote work, we aim to provide dynamic, collaborative and flexible work environments for our teams. Our employees connect through our Employee Resource Groups, which are actively involved in driving business decisions every step of the way. But our support doesn’t end at the workplace—we also encourage a balanced lifestyle with paid time off and new parent leave, free video games, fitness reimbursement and more. 

 

Our goal is to provide a safe, respectful and inspiring workplace for all of our employees. Through our diversity, equity, inclusion and social responsibility programs, we’re doing the work to give everyone the space to be their full selves while giving back to our community. We’re looking for problem-solvers, game-changers, innovators, dreamers, doers—people that are ready to move the needle and build on our success. As our industry accelerates, we aren’t just keeping up—we’re staying ahead of the game.

 

Electronic Arts is an equal opportunity employer. All employment decisions are made without regard to race, color, national origin, ancestry, sex, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, genetic information, religion, disability, medical condition, pregnancy, marital status, family status, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. Electronic Arts also makes workplace accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities as required by applicable law.