Technical Art Director, Riot Games

• 12+ years of experience as a technical artist or rendering engineer who has deep Digital Content Creation and Tools Development Knowledge in games or related industries
• 8+ years experience in leadership in games or related industries
• Experience bringing stakeholders together to drive alignment on strategy and vision
• Experience building strategic visions and working with leadership in large organizations
• Capability to act as an ambassador between art and engineering
• Mastery in at least one industry established game engine (e.g. Unreal, Unity, Frostbite or Cry Engine) or a mature proprietary engine that supports AAA games at scale
• Experience with and commitment to building long-term maintainable, testable, portable, easy to use, and stable systems
• Experience in multiple aspects of 3D pipelines (rigging, modeling, texturing and look development)
• Proficiency with one or more programming or scripting languages (e.g. python, C++, C#)

Desirable

• As a Technical Art Director, you will lead efforts to understand and improve Riot’s core creative suite of content creation tools
• You will partner with Senior Tech Artists, Art, Engineering, and Production Leadership across the company to guide creation and implementation of cutting-edge long-lasting tools, workflows, and pipelines, so that creatives can iterate efficiently and painlessly
• This role blends technical expertise, creative vision, and leadership to help Riot align around and execute a new approach to shared creative pipelines
• As a Technical Art Director on the Central Creative team you will report to the Senior Director of Operations
• You will drive the vision for optimizing Riot’s creative pipelines to leverage shared development at company scale, and help identify the largest opportunities for efficiency gains through technology and process
• Working with leaders across the company you will establish core future-facing workflows and a pipeline vision driven by product needs, guide ethical and effective use of AI tools, and establish a path forward to deliver these features to creatives everywhere
• Pipeline and Workflow Optimization:
• Design and execute strategy for implementation & refinement of art pipelines that leverage automation and procedural generation techniques to reduce manual work and improve production efficiency
• Explore and champion internal processes through which teams across Riot can benefit from shared tooling innovation and refinement
• Collaborate with software engineers, tool developers, and production teams to build efficient workflows for asset creation, integration, and management
• AI and Automation Integration:
• Identify opportunities to integrate AI and machine learning (ML) tools to automate repetitive tasks, such as asset generation, procedural content creation, texture generation, or animation
• Develop strategies for the deployment of AI tools across various stages of production, from concept art to final rendering
• Cross-Department Collaboration:
• Act as the bridge between the art department, engineering teams, and production management, ensuring that artistic needs are met while technical solutions are feasible and effective
• Collaborate closely with Art Directors, VFX Supervisors, and other key stakeholders to align on creative goals and identify areas where technology can enhance the vision
• Process Improvement and Documentation:
• Continuously assess and improve existing production pipelines, identifying bottlenecks or inefficiencies and implementing solutions to streamline processes
• Document workflows, standards, and best practices to ensure consistency and scalability across teams
• Use technical expertise to consult on project timelines and resource allocation in order to optimize production schedules
• Research and Development:
• Stay up-to-date with the latest advancements in AI, ML, and automation within the art and entertainment industries, identifying emerging trends and technologies that can enhance production quality and efficiency
• Partner with the internal Production AI team to lead R&D efforts to prototype new tools, workflows, and techniques that can be integrated into future projects
• For this role, you'll find success through craft expertise, a collaborative spirit, and decision-making that prioritizes the delight of players