Senior Technical Artist (TEMP), Hearthstone | Irvine, CA or Remote

Blizzard Entertainment, Inc.•Irvine, CA

42d•$39 - $72•Hybrid

About The Position

Your Mission Pull up a chair and join us by the hearth. The Hearthstone team is seeking a dedicated and well-rounded Senior Technical Artist. As a Senior Technical Artist, you'll use your solid understanding of game creation tools and production methods to help maintain and grow our ability to develop art assets and integrate them into the game. You will bring your initiative and creative problem-solving abilities across a wide range of technical solutions that are operating on a large scale and in a distributed environment. We are a team that values open-minded collaboration, direct feedback, and work in a fast-paced, highly iterative environment. We'd love to have you join us! The duration of this contract position would be 12 months. This role is anticipated to be a hybrid work position, with some work on-site and some work-from-home. The potential home studio for this position is Irvine, CA We are also open to a remote agreement.

Requirements

Minimum of 8 years of experience as a technical artist in a professional game dev environment.
Experience in a live game environment
Experience with game art optimization
Experience as a digital artist, with extensive knowledge of digital art tools such as Maya, Photoshop, or similar applications.
The ability to create add-ons and extensions for art tools and Unity. You're comfortable developing in C#, Python, HLSL
A fundamental understanding of game development and how the art pipeline can support the development process.
Experience supporting a 3D art pipeline with rigging, animation, shader development, and implementation of assets.
Proficiency in technical problem-solving and debugging game content and process, with a focus on optimizing 2D and 3D assets for performance on a variety of platforms.
Strong written and verbal communication skills, with a service-oriented, support-focused approach.
Ability to illustrate a results-oriented and collaborative approach to tools development, problem-solving, and challenges of scale.

Nice To Haves

Experience working with AAA game engines such as Unity, Unreal, etc.
Experience with mobile game development
Knowledge and familiarity with Blizzard's art styles

Responsibilities

Supporting the creative development process with technical expertise such as prototyping, R&D and active development of new visual features.
Acting as a bridge between Art and Engineering, ensuring Hearthstone's unique visual style and technical requirements are met throughout the development pipeline.
Supporting the Art team through any technical issues they may encounter while using content creation tools or when integrating their assets into the Hearthstone engine, with an eye toward mobile and desktop compatibility.
Developing and maintaining art pipelines and processes that are tailored for Hearthstone's frequent content releases, card expansions, and cosmetics.
Identifying potential and recurring workflow problems specific to Hearthstone's production and collaborating with other developers to find viable solutions through communication, mentorship, and both custom and off-the-shelf tools solutions.
Testing new tools and vetting workflows before deployment to production, ensuring compatibility with Hearthstone's asset requirements and performance goals.
Helping to promote performance optimization for art assets by creating clear standards, performance monitoring tools, and building a maintainable process for reviewing and optimizing game assets in line with Hearthstone's style and technical constraints.
Championing the creation of accessible, inclusive, and engaging visual content that resonates with Hearthstone's diverse player base.

Benefits

Medical, dental, vision, health savings account or health reimbursement account, healthcare spending accounts, dependent care spending accounts, life and AD&D insurance, disability insurance;
401(k) with Company match, tuition reimbursement, charitable donation matching;
Paid holidays and vacation, paid sick time, floating holidays, compassion and bereavement leaves, parental leave;
Mental health & wellbeing programs, fitness programs, free and discounted games, and a variety of other voluntary benefit programs like supplemental life & disability, legal service, ID protection, rental insurance, and others;
If the Company requires that you move geographic locations for the job, then you may also be eligible for relocation assistance.

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