Lead Environment Artist

Company Overview:
A leader in creating deep and engaging experiences on PC and mobile, Jagex was founded in 2001 and is today one of the UK’s biggest and most respected video game developers and publishers.
Famed for its flagship MMOs RuneScape and Old School RuneScape, Jagex has welcomed more than 260million player accounts to its world and created a $1bn lifetime franchise revenue. Today the RuneScape franchise exists beyond running games in live operations; our titles are living games that connect and inspire millions of players, with content and experiences both inside and outside of inexhaustible game worlds.
Both RuneScape and Old School RuneScape, on PC and mobile, offer ever-evolving, highly-active worlds and our community-focussed development ethos empowers players to have a real say in how each game is shaped.
Jagex is expanding and extending its portfolio with fresh franchise titles, new IP and, in 2018 launched Jagex Partners, delivering third-party publishing and operational services exclusively for the living games of the future.
Jagex employs more than 400 people at its Cambridge headquarters and is on the hunt for talented people to work across the business to help the company to achieve yet another year of record growth and player satisfaction.
THE JOB AND THE TEAM! We have an exciting opportunity for a Lead Environment Artist to join a growing team on our iconic game RuneScape!  This role gives a rare opportunity for a lead to make a significant impact from conception to completion.  Your craft and expertise will be applied directly to deliver and guide others to produce rich, diverse, high quality fantasy environments and props that surprise and delight our players.  Working within our talented art team, you will:

• Champion a healthy environment to unleash potential in others and facilitate career progression within your discipline.
• Split time effectively between leadership and task contribution.
• Collaborate directly with Art Directors, Leads and Principal Artists, to set and maintain a cohesive visual style and quality within your discipline, and document any guides, creative briefs, or pipelines in support of that goal.
• Inspire your team and others by being hands-on and performing the duties of your discipline when needed.
• Provide strong craft leadership within their discipline and effectively time manage yourself and others in your team to deliver.
• Set mechanisms to review, critique and guide quality ensuring alignment to the art direction and common standard of quality in your given area of ownership. 
• Liaise with production and external development to ensure your area of ownership has a solid and timely work stream including hiring/ growth. 

What we're looking for in your portfolio:

• We’re mainly looking for Environment Artists that can demonstrate to an exceptional level a range of styles and subject matter applied to their environments.  Portfolio examples that clearly showcase your understanding of layout, composition, use of colour, lighting, and atmospherics.  We’re also interested in seeing how you translate concepts and handle complexity within a scene, and craft set pieces and props to weave narrative and drama.  We’re especially interested in seeing your approach, mood boards, breakdowns and the thought process applied to the creation of your assets and environments, and examples of where you’ve helped guide others to level up their own artwork.

What we need:

• Exceptional knowledge of the art fundamentals and meticulous attention to detail.
• Understanding of both realistic and stylized visual elements.
• Full end-to-end industry experience of a modern environment art production pipeline.
• Previous experience collaborating with tech art and programming to ensure pipelines and tools are effective and capable of delivery.
• Understanding of technical game constraints and how to resolve them within related craft.
• Experience of building and recruiting into an existing environment team.
• Previous experience leading, mentoring, or coaching others to success within craft.
• Expert at levelling up junior to senior artists through teaching and mentoring. 
• Comfortable with running individual, group review and critique sessions.
• Willingness to transition between asset production and line management.
• Expert level experience with current 3D modelling tools such as 3ds Max, Maya or equivalent.
• Expert level experience with texture creation/authoring tools such as Substance.
• Excellent communication and organisational skills with the capability to successfully work across multiple teams.
• Solid experience working with outsource vendors and freelance artists.
• A positive collaborative and professional working attitude.
• Strong English skills, both written and verbal.

Even better if:

• Expert level experience lighting environments.
• Solid understanding or experience of level design.
• Prior knowledge of RuneScape.

We can only consider applicants who include evidence of their work, along with breakdowns in an online format such as personal website, blog, Github, Artstation or other online albums
Company Benefits:
- Flexible Working- Bonus Scheme- Private Health Care - Gym Membership- Generous Pension Contributions- Life Insurance- Free Cycle Repair- Income Protection- Dental Plan- Free Fruit and Drinks- Subsidised Canteen
Feel like you fit this role, but don’t meet all the requirements? We strive for fresh perspectives, so as long as you can demonstrate how your attitude and other abilities might make up for any gaps we would welcome your application! Jagex are an equal opportunities employer and positively encourages applications from suitably qualified and eligible candidates regardless of sex, race, disability, age, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy or maternity, religion or belief.