3D Character Art Lead

As a Lead Character Artist at Riot, you will bring worlds to life through your vision, craft, and leadership. You’ll help define the next generation of character art style at Riot, build and guide a team of talented artists, and your work in sculpting, design, and texturing will stand as an example to the team. Beyond art, you will be accountable for your team’s artistic quality, performance, and growth.

As a 3D Character Art Lead on the Research & Development team, you’ll be responsible for building and leading a strong Character Art team to support the project's goals. Your role includes defining and executing the artistic vision while collaborating with Game Design, Production, Engineering, and Art to ensure alignment with the overall product objectives. You’ll report directly to the Art Director.

Responsibilities:

• Define the character art style through in-game work, style guides, best practices and communication with the team. Lead and empower the character team to high quality execution on the art style.
• Create exemplary stylized art assets in a broad range, including humans, creatures, weapons and armor, organics and hard-surface.
• Work with concept artists to establish the right process to fulfill your team’s concept art needs.
• Understand and be ready to discuss approaches in style, ranging from proportions to hand painted and PBR workflows, as well as technical and design constraints such as draw calls, poly counts, texture memory limits, modularity, and gameplay clarity.
• Work with design to understand their goals and how character art can support them. Lead the collaborative process with design and any other groups that require it.
• Build and maintain a diverse, healthy, highly performing character art team that’s strongly aligned with Riot Values, working quickly and effectively to resolve team health issues.
• Partner with production to create the right amount of visibility into your team’s deliverables and velocity.
• Be a great career mentor and coach for the artists on your team.

Required Qualifications:

• 5+ years of professional experience as a Lead Character Artist or Principal Character Artist
• Professional experience working in stylized art styles
• Experience working with modern game engines such as Unreal, Unity, or proprietary technologies
• Proficient skills in 3D/2D Software - Maya, 3DS Max, Substance
• Professional experience working in Unreal

Desired Qualifications:

• Strong understanding of Substance Designer and PBR workflows
• 2+ years of management experience
• Original IP development experience
• Early game development experience

When submitting your application, please provide a portfolio of your high-quality character art - including stylized artwork. And as a part of the application process, you may also be asked to complete an art test.

For this role, you'll find success through craft expertise, a collaborative spirit, and decision-making that prioritizes the delight of players. We will be looking at your past studies, experience, and your personal relationship with games. If you embody player empathy and care about players' experiences, this could be your role!

Our Perks:

Riot focuses on work/life balance, shown by our open paid time off policy and other perks such as flexible work schedules. We offer medical, dental, and life insurance, parental leave for you, your spouse/domestic partner, and children, and a 401k with company match. Check out our benefits pages for more information.

Riot Games fosters a player and workplace experience that values teamwork embodied by the Summoner's Code and Community Code. Our culture embraces differences as a strength, and our values are the guiding principles for how we approach work. We are committed to putting diversity and inclusion (D&I) at the center of everything we do, and promoting a fair and collaborative culture where Rioters treat one another with dignity and respect. We encourage you to read more about our value of thriving together and our ongoing work to build the most inclusive company in Gaming.

It’s our policy to provide equal employment opportunity for all applicants and members of Riot Games, Inc. Riot Games makes reasonable accommodations for handicapped and disabled Rioters and does not unlawfully discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, handicap, veteran status, marital status, criminal history, or any other category protected by applicable federal and state law. We consider for employment all qualified applicants, including those with criminal histories, in a manner consistent with applicable federal, state and local law, including the California Fair Chance Act, the City of Los Angeles Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance, the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers, the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, and the Washington Fair Chance Act.

Per the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance, the following core duties may create a basis for disqualifying candidates with relevant criminal histories:

• Safeguarding confidential and sensitive Company data
• Communication with others, including Rioters and third parties such as vendors, and/or players, including minors
• Accessing Company assets, secure digital systems, and networks
• Ensuring a safe interactive environment for players and other Rioters

These duties are directly related to essential operations, safety, trust, and compliance obligations within our organization. Please note that job duties may evolve based on business needs and additional responsibilities may be assigned as necessary to maintain operational efficiency and security.