Technical Art Director - Unpublished R&D Product

The Technical Art Director is responsible for ensuring our content creation ecosystem is efficient, scalable and built to support both creative excellence and production realities. As part of the Technical Art team, this role establishes the pipelines, tools and foundational workflows that enable our teams to deliver the game to players. The Technical Art Director continuously evaluates and improves workflows, pipelines, tools and processes so teams can create high quality content with speed and confidence, bringing expert-level knowledge of 3D content creation and problem-solving to drive best practices across asset production.
As Director, Technical Art in R&D, you are the Art Director’s primary technical partner. Working closely with Engineering, you will own the technical health of content creation across the game. You are responsible for solving the most complex content-related technical challenges by breaking them into clear, executable solutions, building the right team to deliver against milestones, and ensuring our workflows scale as the project grows. You champion forward-looking tools and technologies that meaningfully support product goals, including identifying when new expertise is required and hiring specialists to meet those needs. You know how to translate an ambitious art vision into performant, sustainable systems that ship to players.

Pipeline, Workflow and Technical Strategy

• Own the vision, standards and execution of content creation workflows and pipelines across Characters, Environments, VFX, UI, SFX and Cinematics
• Continuously evaluate tools, processes and pipelines to surface inefficiencies and drive improvements that increase iteration speed and reliability
• Ensure artistic ambition is supported by efficient, scalable and sustainable solutions that meet memory and performance requirements
• Partner with Engineering to ensure all solutions align with development standards and technical best practices
• Evaluate when to leverage existing Riot technical art solutions versus building new technology to meet project needs

Technology Leadership and Innovation

• Identify opportunities to apply new tools, procedural approaches, and automation to improve workflow efficiency and unlock creative potential
• Champion future-facing technologies that align with the project vision and production realities
• Define and maintain a technical art roadmap that supports current milestones and long-term sustainability

Team Leadership and Discipline Growth

• Build, lead and mentor technical artists and technical art leads, with clear accountability for growth and career development
• Establish staffing plans and ensure appropriate allocation of technical artists across teams to meet product goals
• Partner with project leadership and recruiting to grow the technical art discipline utilizing a mixture of internal and external resources
• Collaborate with other Technical Art Directors to align on shared standards and a cohesive vision across the studio

Hands-On Contribution and Collaboration

• Contribute as an individual contributor on select high-impact tools and pipeline initiatives
• Work directly with artists and other clients to gather requirements and validate solutions
• Ensure artists and technical artists have the tools, support and guidance needed to succeed

• 13+ years of professional experience as a technical artist
• 5+ years of professional experience managing other technical artists
• Expertise with Maya, scripting in Python, and modern game engines
• Experience with and commitment to building long-term maintainable, testable, portable, and stable systems
• Experience building strategic visions and pipelines, and working within cross team leadership 
• Highly proficient communication skills and capacity to act as an ambassador between art and engineering
• Superb critical thinking skills, particularly as it pertains to translating artistic requirements to sustainable workflow design

• Experience developing tools and systems using C++, HLSL, or scripting frameworks (e.g. Blueprints or Python)
• Strong understanding of 3D math and computer graphics
• Leading pipeline development for a live game 

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!

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.

At Riot Games, we put players first. That mission drives every decision in our quest to create games and experiences that make it better to be a player. Whether you’re working directly on a new player-facing experience or you’re supporting the company as a whole, everyone at Riot is part of our mission. And just like in our games, we’re better when we work together. Our goal is to create collaborative teams where you are empowered to bring your unique perspective everyday. If that sounds like the kind of place you want to work, we’re looking forward to your application.

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.