Character Technical Artist

Core Responsibilities

• Partner with Character Artists to ensure character models meet technical, performance, and pipeline requirements.
• Support and maintain character pipelines spanning modeling, rigging, skinning, deformation, and engine implementation.
• Diagnose and resolve character-related technical issues, including geometry, skinning, deformation, LODs, and performance constraints.
• Collaborate closely with rigging and animation to ensure characters are animation-ready and behave correctly in-game.
• Implement and validate characters in Unreal Engine, ensuring correct setup for materials, LODs, cloth, and physics.
• Create and maintain technical documentation for character pipelines, workflows, and best practices.
• Proactively identify risks related to character production, performance, or pipeline bottlenecks and communicate them clearly to Production and leadership.
• Provide technical guidance and mentorship to Character Artists and other content creators.

Core Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience as a Character Technical Artist, Technical Artist, or similar role in the video game industry.
• Experience supporting character pipelines on at least one shipped AAA title.
• Experience with character rigging, facial rigs, or motion systems.
• Strong understanding of character modeling, topology, UVs, skinning, and deformation principles.
• Significant experience working in Unreal Engine (preferably UE5), including character setup, LODs, physics, Control Rig and optimization.
• Proficiency with industry-standard tools such as Maya and familiarity with Motion Builder, ZBrush and Substance Painter.
• Solid scripting or tool development experience (Python, MEL, Blueprint, or similar).
• Strong problem-solving skills with the ability to debug complex, cross-disciplinary issues.
• Excellent communication skills and a collaborative mindset.

Plus if...

• Familiarity with cloth, hair, or physics simulation workflows in Unreal Engine.
• Experience with performance profiling and optimization on console hardware.
• Previous experience establishing or evolving character pipelines on a large production.
• Familiarity with proprietary or custom engine pipelines.