Senior Technical Artist II, Characters - Unannounced Game | Irvine, CA

Team Name:

Unannounced Project

Job Title:

Senior Technical Artist II, Characters - Unannounced Game | Irvine, CA

Requisition ID:

R026780

Job Description:

Your Mission

At Blizzard, we craft genre‑defining games and legendary worlds for all to share. Through unparalleled creativity and technical excellence, we create immersive universes and iconic characters that are beloved across platforms, borders, backgrounds, and generations – only made possible by building a work environment that cultivates the artistry of game development and unleashes the aspirations of our people.

We are looking for a Senior Technical Artist, Characters to help craft a new, unannounced game for Blizzard. As a senior individual contributor on the team, you will play a critical role in defining, building, and maintaining high‑quality character rigging pipelines while ensuring runtime performance and scalability. You will partner closely with animation, character art, and engineering teams to deliver best‑in‑class character solutions and act as a technical leader within the character discipline.

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 role is Irvine, CA.

Responsibilities

Priorities can often change in a fast‑paced environment like ours, so this role includes, but is not limited to, the following responsibilities:

• Help define and maintain standards and best practices for the character rigging pipeline across the project.

• Build high‑fidelity character rigs while balancing animation needs and runtime performance constraints.

• Serve as a technical problem‑solver and force multiplier by providing support to animators and other technical artists.

• Collaborate closely with character artists, animators, engineers, and production to ensure smooth pipeline integration.

• Mentor and guide other character technical artists, including internal team members and external partners.

• Diagnose, debug, and resolve complex character‑related technical issues across tools and runtime.

• Contribute to documentation, workflows, and pipeline improvements that scale across the team.

Experience

• 12+ years of relevant professional experience as a technical artist on AAA game development teams.

• Proven experience shipping at least one major title in a character technical art or closely related role.

• Proven ability to work collaboratively within multidisciplinary teams and foster strong cross‑disciplinary partnerships.

• Demonstrated ability to take ownership of complex systems and drive solutions from concept through implementation.

Knowledge and Skills

• Deep knowledge of character animation technologies, including rigging, motion capture, retargeting, physics, runtime rigging, and vertex animation.

• Thorough understanding of anatomy, animation principles, and deformation techniques.

• Solid scripting experience, including proficiency with Python.

• In‑depth knowledge of AAA game engines with a strong understanding of art implementation and integration methods.

• Comprehensive understanding of modern art pipelines and best practices, including proficiency with industry‑standard 3D content creation tools.

Key Attributes

• A team‑oriented approach to your work, with a strong emphasis on collaboration and partnership across disciplines.

• The ability to inspire and elevate others through mentorship, technical leadership, and a passion for craft.

• A self‑motivated mindset with the ability to proactively identify and solve complex technical problems.

• A solid understanding of broader game development disciplines outside of technical art, such as character art, animation, VFX, audio, rendering, systems, and design.

Extra Points

• Experience working through early development and pre‑production phases of a project.

• Unreal Engine expertise.

• Ability to flex into other areas of technical art to achieve higher‑quality results.

• Passion for playing a wide variety of video games.

Required Application Materials

• Portfolio demonstrating character technical art work, including detailed breakdowns of rigs, tools, and problem‑solving approaches.

Your Platform

At Blizzard Entertainment, we pour our hearts and souls into everything we create. Best known for iconic video game universes including Warcraft, Overwatch, Diablo, and StarCraft, we’ve been creating genre‑defining games for millions of players around the world for more than 30 years. We’re on a quest: bring our dreams to life and craft the most epic entertainment experiences…ever. Hard work, iteration, and polish go into the Blizzard “secret recipe,” but the most important ingredients come from talented people who share our vision. If that sounds like you, join us.

Our World

Best known for iconic video game universes including Warcraft®, Overwatch®, Diablo®, and StarCraft®, Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. (www.blizzard.com), a division of Activision Blizzard, which was acquired by Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), is a premier developer and publisher of entertainment experiences. Blizzard Entertainment has created some of the industry’s most critically acclaimed and genre‑defining games over the last 30 years and engages tens of millions of players worldwide across PC, console, and mobile platforms.

Our ability to build immersive and innovative worlds is only enhanced by diverse teams working in an inclusive environment. We aspire to have a culture where everyone can thrive in order to connect and engage the world through epic entertainment. We provide a suite of benefits that promote physical, emotional, and financial well‑being for every world.

The videogame industry is fast‑paced and constantly evolving. As such, the duties and responsibilities of this role may be changed as directed by the Company to support business needs.

We love hearing from anyone enthusiastic about changing the games industry. Not sure you meet every qualification? Let us decide! We are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment and strongly encourage you to apply. We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company.

Rewards We provide a suite of benefits that promote physical, emotional and financial well-being for ‘Every World’ - we’ve got our employees covered! Subject to eligibility requirements, the Company offers comprehensive benefits including:

• 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.

Eligibility to participate in these benefits may vary for part time and temporary full-time employees and interns with the Company. You can learn more by visiting https://www.benefitsforeveryworld.com/.

In the U.S., the standard base pay range for this role is $46.73 - $86.49 Hourly. These values reflect the expected base pay range of new hires across all U.S. locations. Ultimately, your specific range and offer will be based on several factors, including relevant experience, performance, and work location. Your Talent Professional can share this role’s range details for your local geography during the hiring process. In addition to a competitive base pay, employees in this role may be eligible for incentive compensation. Incentive compensation is not guaranteed. While we strive to provide competitive offers to successful candidates, new hire compensation is negotiable.