Principal Materials Artist (Apex Legends)

About the Role

Electronic Arts creates next-level entertainment experiences that inspire players and fans around the world. Founded in 2010, Respawn Entertainment is the Academy Award-winning studio behind critically acclaimed multi-platform games Apex Legends, Titanfall, Titanfall 2, Star Wars™ Jedi: Fallen Order, Star Wars™ Jedi: Survivor, and Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond. We are looking for a Principal Materials Artist to join our Apex Legends team to establish, direct, and maintain a core material library and surfacing workflows.

As a Principal Material Artist, you will work within a multidisciplinary group on new asset pipeline initiatives that standardize and elevate our surfacing presentation. This role offers the opportunity to contribute to new asset pipelines, work in a multidisciplinary R&D group, and have broad agency to guide and deliver solutions. Your work will significantly impact our product and be highly visible to players.

Responsibilities

• Co-develop new surfacing strategies and pipelines in collaboration with rendering, technical art, and craft experts.
• Build, curate, and maintain a high-quality shared material library.
• Help design material systems or layered materials with an understanding of complex surface interactions.
• Contribute to tools and pipelines leveraging expertise in Substance Painter/Designer, Houdini Copernicus, or other related DCC tools.
• Champion technology that meets high performance expectations and technical constraints.
• Help test and validate new rendering and lighting features.
• Build partnerships and collaborative efforts between multiple disciplines to achieve successful solutions.

Qualifications

• 12+ years of professional game development experience.
• Portfolio demonstrating a wide range of high-quality materials and mastery of PBR.
• Expert-level knowledge of Substance Painter and Designer.
• Direct production experience building shared material libraries brought to market at a AAA scale and quality.
• Experience in live service titles, seasonal content, cosmetics, or character customization systems is a plus.
• Experience collaborating with technical disciplines on standing up new pipelines.
• Capability to author materials or shaders as proof of concept or visual targets is a plus.
• Comfortable working with proprietary technology that ships on a wide range of platforms with performance as a top priority.
• Strong ability to clearly communicate, both verbally and in writing, create documentation, training materials, or mentor junior artists.

Pay

The pay ranges listed below reflect what EA in good faith expects to pay for this role in these locations at the time of posting:

• British Columbia (e.g., Vancouver vs. Victoria): $133,500 - $186,400 CAD
• California (e.g., Los Angeles vs. San Francisco): $153,700 - $233,600 USD

Benefits

In the US, EA offers a package of benefits including:

• Paid time off (3 weeks per year to start), 80 hours per year of sick time, and 16 paid company holidays per year.
• 10 weeks paid time off to bond with a new baby.
• Medical, dental, and vision insurance.
• Life insurance and disability insurance.
• 401(k) retirement plan.
• Certain roles may also be eligible for bonus and equity.

In Canada, EA offers a package of benefits including:

• Vacation (3 weeks per year to start) and 10 days per year of sick time.
• Paid top-up to EI/QPIP benefits up to 100% of base salary when welcoming a new child (12 weeks for maternity, 4 weeks for parental/adoption leave).
• Extended health, dental, and vision coverage.
• Life insurance and disability insurance.
• Retirement plan.
• Certain roles may also be eligible for bonus and equity.