Senior Technical Artist – Character Rigging & Technology

This Senior Technical Artist role focuses on developing character rigging technology, pipelines, tools, and workflows for content creators across EA SPORTS. The position sits within the Technical Art Team, part of EA SPORTS Tech, a central group of Technical Artists that helps push visual boundaries and experiences for players. The role partners with artists, engineers, and development teams to build shared and scalable solutions that improve character quality and content production.

• Collaborate with Art Directors, Development Directors, Artists, Technical Artists, and Engineers to deliver high-quality character deformation and animation solutions for EA SPORTS games.
• Develop and improve character rigging pipelines, tools, and workflows to solve production challenges and increase efficiency for content creators.
• Design and implement technical solutions for skeletons, control rigs, skin deformation, secondary motion, and other character rigging and deformation systems.
• Leverage shared technology and workflows to solve character animation and deformation challenges across multiple EA SPORTS titles.
• Support asset integration and optimisation while balancing visual quality, runtime performance, and production requirements.
• Investigate, debug, and resolve technical issues across character content, tools, pipelines, and game-engine workflows.
• Evaluate and help introduce new technologies and techniques that improve character production and scalability.
• Partner with technical and creative leadership on new initiatives and contribute to technical direction, documentation, and knowledge sharing.
• Mentor and support other Technical Artists while helping establish best practices across teams.

• 6+ years of games, cinematic, or related production experience in Technical Art, Rigging, Character Technology, Animation Technology, or a related discipline.
• A bachelor's degree or equivalent professional experience in a related field.
• Strong experience with character rigging and deformation, including complex skeletons, control rigs, skin deformation, and secondary animation systems.
• Strong understanding of human anatomy, animation principles, and how they relate to character deformation.
• Experience developing tools, pipelines, and workflows for artists and other content creators.
• Proficiency in scripting/programming in Python or C#.
• In-depth experience with relevant 3D content creation packages such as Maya and Houdini.
• Experience with asset optimisation and the performance constraints associated with real-time character systems.
• Experience in investigating, testing, and debugging technical issues across content and technology.
• Effective communication skills and experience collaborating with artists, engineers, technical artists, and leadership.
• A willingness to jump into the unknown, solve new problems, and navigate technical challenges and limitations.
• A passion for games.

• C++ experience is a bonus.
• Experience working with content-driven game engines such as Frostbite, Unreal, or Unity is desired.

• Onsite at EA Vancouver (Burnaby office) 3 days per week, Tuesday to Thursday.

• Vacation of 3 weeks per year to start.
• 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, and 4 weeks for parental/adoption leave).
• Extended health, dental, and vision coverage.
• Life insurance.
• Disability insurance.
• Retirement plan for regular full-time employees.
• Certain roles may also be eligible for bonus and other incentive programmes.

EA SPORTS is one of the world's leading sports entertainment brands, with top-selling video game franchises, award-winning interactive technology, fan programmes, and cross-platform digital experiences. EA SPORTS creates connected experiences that ignite the emotion of sport through industry-leading sports video games, including Madden NFL and College Football, FC soccer, NHL hockey, and EA SPORTS UFC.