Technical Artist

Paradox is searching for a Tech Artist to join our teams in Stockholm, home of our star sci-fi game Stellaris. If you enjoy challenges and pushing technical boundaries: you could be the person we’re looking for! You will be part of a growing team, working in an iterative and creative environment where everyone strives to reach the highest possible quality.

You will act as a bridge between artists & programmers to ensure art assets and features can be easily integrated into our games without sacrificing the artistic vision and while respecting the technical constraints. In partnership with the Art Director & Art Manager, it will be your job to find solutions and specify tools for the further development of our graphical features, art pipelines and process, working with our in-house tools and engine teams. You have a deep understanding of existing graphical fundamentals, and enjoy keeping up to date with changes in technology, as well as being curious about new techniques.

As a champion communicator you will contribute to the department, team and cross discipline to share your methods.

Responsibilities:

• Work with programmers and artists to implement art, features, and tools into the engine
• Create & deliver mockups, wireframes and prototypes for features and user-facing engine tools
• Research, evaluate and challenge our current tools to ensure the best workflow
• Be a champion for development of new tools and pipelines, improving efficiency and usability for the artists
• Solve technical issues in the art assets pipeline and collaborate with engineers to solve in-game problems
• Work with shader development, optimization and debugging in hlsl
• Troubleshoot asset-related technical issues (Maya, Photoshop, etc.)
• Work across discipline to share knowledge via documentation, training and mentoring
• Set best practices around content organization and how to achieve the desired quality

Required Qualifications:

• Minimum 3 years of experience in games or software projects or one major game title or software shipped
• Strong working knowledge of common artist software, such as Substance, Maya, Photoshop etc
• Experience with shader development and procedural methods
• Good artistic skills (proportion, color, composition), visible in your portfolio
• Ability to work with and build technical documentation
• Up to date knowledge of current art techniques and development processes such as PBR
• Excellent communications skills, fluent in English; both written and spoken
• Experience using scripting languages (such as Python, MELScript) to build macros and workflow tools
• Experience programming with C++ and an understanding of programming fundamentals.

A Bonus:

Not required for the role, but is good to mention and is a plus for you as a candidate

• Familiarity or interest in Paradox development studio games
• Proven track record of 2+ shipped games
• Experience on a variety of projects, both in terms of art tools, platforms & games
• Well versed in one area of creating art for games such as VFX, modeling, or texturing
• Ability to troubleshoot and fix complex workflow issues in artist software, VC systems, and game engines
• Knowledge of other programming languages, JavaScript, C#
• Knowledge of additional software: Houdini, Blender, Unreal, Unity, Marmoset

On a personal level you are a curious, detail-oriented, thorough person that can clearly document progress and build a guideline for the team during integration phases. You gain energy from learning, challenging yourself, improving the player experience and succeeding together as a team. You are comfortable communicating giving/receiving constructive feedback, contributing your voice, taking initiative, asking for assistance from your peers. You can express your ideas in writing convincingly and you thrive in a fun, agile, creative and team oriented environment.

We also know you are passionate about videogames and want to contribute to an organization that delivers meaningful experiences to players.

Additional:

If you have any public github projects, relevant already released product links or a personal website/blog, we welcome its inclusion with your personal letter and CV.

Practical information

Scope: Full time and permanent

Reports to: Art Manager

Location: This position is based in Stockholm.