Games continue to evolve and push the boundaries of entertainment as we know it. The bar to deliver world-class games continues to rise, driven by advantages in better hardware and software capabilities. Along with optimizing game development engines, developing infrastructure and workflows for efficient remote and hybrid development, brings new opportunities and engineering challenges that all studios are facing today. Solving these challenges is critical to enabling efficient hybrid teams as well as external globally distributed development partners who help scale during peak phases of development.  At The Coalition Studio, through our work on the acclaimed Gears of War franchise, we are tackling these problems head-on by leading engine innovation, developing technical showcase technologies, and delivering world-class workflows, tools and features that are adopted across the wider Xbox Game Studios organization. The Senior Character Technical Artist is responsible for supporting a content creation pipeline balancing ease of use, visual quality, and optimal performance with a focus on characters, rigging and animation. In this role you will work directly with our Engine team in both developing and maintaining these systems but also help push and grow their adoption across Xbox Studios.  Required Qualifications: <ul><li><div>Masters Degree in Computer Science, Graphic Design, Digital Arts, Technical Art, Game Design, or related field AND 3+ years technical art or industry-related design experience OR Bachelors Degree in Computer Science, Graphic Design, Digital Arts, Technical Art, Game Design, or related field AND 4+ years technical art or industry-related design experience</div><ul><li><div>OR equivalent experience.</div></li></ul></li><li>4+ years experience using related software and packages (e.g., Autodesk Maya, MotionBuilder, 3D Studio Max, Adobe Creative Suite, SideFX Houdini, Zbrush, Substance Suite).</li><li>Proven experience rigging and building characters on a game production.</li><li>Shipped a AAA game. </li></ul>Preferred Qualifications: <ul><li>Experience authoring characters for game/realtime platforms:<ul><li>Experience creating rigs for the full-body, face, clothing and/or hair.</li><li>Experience optimizing high-fidelity characters for games.</li><li>Familiar with UE5’s Metahumans or similar scalable character solutions.</li><li>Familiar with the end-to-end character creation pipeline, including modelling, surfacing/texturing, materials, and animation.</li></ul></li><li>Proven track record of continuously improving content pipelines.</li><li>Understanding of data driven art content pipelines.</li><li>Understanding of physically based lighting and shading.</li><li>Material/Shader authoring experience is a bonus.</li><li>Scripting experience. Python preferred.</li><li>Experience with Unreal Engine 5 or equivalent is a huge plus.</li><li>Experience using Maya a plus.</li></ul> Technical Art IC4 - The typical base pay range for this role across Canada is CAD $114,400 - CAD $203,900 per year.Find additional pay information here: <a href="https://careers.microsoft.com/v2/global/en/canada-pay-information.html" target="_blank">https://careers.microsoft.com/v2/global/en/canada-pay-information.html</a>  Microsoft will accept applications for the role until November 23rd, 2025.  Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, color, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, marital status, medical condition, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran status, race, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by applicable laws, regulations and ordinances. If you need assistance and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application or the recruiting process, please send a request via the <a href="https://careers.microsoft.com/us/en/accommodationrequest" target="_blank">Accommodation request form</a>.  Benefits/perks listed below may vary depending on the nature of your employment with Microsoft and the country where you work. #thecoalitionjobs #gamingjobs<ul><li>Design and implement simple, fast, elegant data driven content creation pipelines.</li><li>Support both art and engineering.</li><li>Implement/maintain game wide pipelines collaborating with engineering and content teams on implementation.</li><li>Supports artists by troubleshooting artwork, fixing content issues or providing training and documentation.</li><li>Optimize content to hit performance targets or memory targets</li><li>Create high quality shaders and materials for a wide variety of surface types</li><li>Create tools and scripts to assist the artists in their workflow.</li></ul>