Technical Artist (Tokyo Studio)

Niantic’s 3D Art Team is seeking a daring Modeling artist. In this role you’ll create 3D character and provide art direction to other 3D artists. You will also work with engineers and game designers on mobile platforms to create innovative new games and new features.

Responsibilities

• Work with the engineering and game designer teams to create 3D characters.
• Lead a team of internal and external 3D artists and manage the creative produced by the team.
• As art director, you provide feedback on the project's creativity.
• Collaborate with cross-functional team members and stakeholders to cultivate strong working relationships with project team members, including regular and reliable attendance and participation in meetings.
• Required in-office 3 days on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.

Qualifications

• 3D character creation skills.
• Experience in art direction of 3D characters.
• Outstanding skills in DCC tools for 3D modeling.
• Experience in game development using Unity.
• Experience in managing tasks as a leader in a team of 3D artists.
• Basic Japanese and English.
• Ability to work in a fast-paced hybrid environment and handle stress appropriately and/or ability to solve practical problems and be sufficiently adaptable to handle dynamic situations with little advance notice. 
• Experience working on cross-functional teams with ability to communicate effectively through written and verbal communications, including asynchronous interactions with others.

Plus If...

• Experienced in creating 3D asset specifications.
• Experienced in working with engineers to design DCC tools.
• Experienced in working with engineers to build a development environment for 3D assets.
• Scripting skills as a TA (C# or Python).
• Shader coding skills.
• Experience in creating character controllers.
• Experience in creating character animations.
• Experience in creating VFX.
• As a concept artist, have experience in designing, drawing and painting characters and mood boards.
• Experience with the following tools: Maya, Substance painter, Z Brush, Marvelous Designer, Unity, Photoshop, Perforce, Github or Gitlab, ShotGrid. Houdini, Mac OS

Join the Niantic team!

Niantic's global-scale augmented reality platform and digital map powers spatial computing experiences in the real world. Incubated out of the Maps team at Google, Niantic first created Ingress and then Pokémon GO, a cultural phenomenon and hit game played by tens of millions of people each month. Niantic’s Lightship platform, which powers Pokémon GO, also supports the company's other games including Pikmin Bloom, Peridot and Monster Hunter Now. Developers use Niantic’s platform to build their own AR applications and experiences, either with the Lightship Platform or directly through the web with 8th Wall.

We believe that cultivating a workplace where our people are supported and included is essential to creating great products our community will love. Our mission emphasizes seeking and hiring diverse voices, including those who are traditionally underrepresented in the technology industry, and we consider this to be one of the most important values we hold close.

Niantic is a hybrid first company. We believe that in person interaction and collaboration fosters creativity, a sense of community, and is critical to our future success as a company. Our hybrid work schedules allow for a mix of remote and in-office work.

We're a hard-working, fun, and exciting group who value intellectual curiosity and a passion for problem-solving! We have growing offices located in San Francisco, Sunnyvale, Palo Alto, Bellevue, Kansas, London, Tokyo, Hamburg, Hyderabad, and Zurich. #LI-HYBRID