Art Director - Hard Surface (Apex Legends) - 214800 - Electronic Arts
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Electronic Arts
Art Director - Hard Surface (Apex Legends)
General Information
Locations: Vancouver - Great Northern Way, British Columbia, Canada
Role ID
214800
Worker Type
Regular Employee
Studio/Department
EA Studios - Respawn
Work Model
Hybrid
Description & Requirements
Electronic Arts creates next-level entertainment experiences that inspire players and fans around the world. Here, everyone is part of the story. Part of a community that connects across the globe. A place where creativity thrives, new perspectives are invited, and ideas matter. A team where everyone makes play happen.
Role Overview
Respawn is looking for an experienced Art Director, Hard Surface to help define, elevate, and maintain the visual quality of hard-surface content for Apex Legends. This role will guide the artistic direction of weapons, vehicles, props, environmental technology, gameplay objects, and other mechanical or manufactured assets that contribute to the game's distinctive competitive sci-fi identity.
As Art Director, Hard Surface, you will partner closely with Character Art, Concept Art, Environment Art, Design, Animation, VFX, Tech Art, Production, and Outsource teams to ensure hard-surface assets are visually striking, readable in gameplay, technically performant, and aligned with the evolving Apex universe.
This is a hands-on leadership role for someone who combines strong taste, production experience, clear direction, and a deep understanding of how form, function, storytelling, and gameplay readability come together in a live-service first-person shooter.
Key Responsibilities
Define, uphold, and evolve the core experience hard-surface visual direction for Apex Legends, including weapons, gadgets, props, vehicles, world technology, gameplay objects, and other mechanical or manufactured assets.
Ensure hard-surface designs support and evolve Apex's visual and gameplay pillars: functional sci-fi design, strong material language, player readability, and characterful worldbuilding.
Provide clear, actionable creative direction through paintovers, drawovers, reference boards, written feedback, asset reviews, and in-game evaluations.
Partner closely with Concept Art, Weapon Art, Character Art, Environment Art, Design, Animation, VFX, Tech Art, Production, and Outsource teams to deliver cohesive, high-quality content.
Maintain a high quality bar from concept through final implementation, balancing creative ambition with gameplay clarity, technical performance, production scope, and live-service timelines.
Lead reviews with clarity and respect, helping teams solve creative and production challenges while building alignment around visual goals.
Mentor artists and external partners, helping strengthen hard-surface design sensibility, technical execution, and overall artistic judgment.
Create and refine briefs, style guides, visual targets, benchmarks, and feedback processes that improve consistency and efficiency across hard-surface asset production.
Qualifications
Experience art directing weapons, first-person assets, gameplay props, vehicles, grounded sci-fi technology, or environmental hard-surface content.
Significant professional experience in game art, with a strong focus on hard-surface art direction, concept, weapon art, vehicle design, prop art, environment technology, or related disciplines.
Proven experience shipping high-quality hard-surface content for AAA games, ideally action, shooter, sci-fi, or live-service titles.
Strong understanding of visual design principles including silhouette, proportion, shape language, material definition, surface breakup, scale, readability, and functionality.
Excellent ability to give clear, constructive, and actionable feedback to internal teams and external partners.
Strong knowledge of modern game art pipelines, including concept-to-model workflows, PBR materials, optimization, LODs, engine implementation, and real-time constraints.
Experience collaborating across multiple disciplines and balancing creative ambition with gameplay, schedule, and technical needs.
Strong communication, leadership, and presentation skills.
A portfolio demonstrating excellent hard-surface taste, visual problem-solving, and experience guiding assets from concept to final in-game quality.
What Success Looks Like
A successful Art Director, Hard Surface will help Apex Legends continue to deliver visually iconic, gameplay-readable, and production-ready hard-surface content. They will raise the quality bar across weapons, props, vehicles, gameplay objects, and world technology while supporting the needs of a fast-moving live game. They will be trusted by artists and cross-functional partners as a clear creative leader who can make strong decisions, communicate effectively, and help teams do their best work.
Pay Transparency - North America
COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS
The ranges listed below are what EA in good faith expects to pay applicants for this role in these locations at the time of this posting. If you reside in a different location, a recruiter will advise on the applicable range and benefits. Pay offered will be determined based on a number of relevant business and candidate factors (e.g. education, qualifications, certifications, experience, skills, geographic location, or business needs).
PAY RANGES
Pay is just one part of the overall compensation at EA.
In the US, we offer a package of benefits including paid time off (3 weeks per year to start), 80 hours per year of sick time, 16 paid company holidays per year, 10 weeks paid time off to bond with baby, medical/dental/vision insurance, life insurance, disability insurance, and 401(k) to regular full-time employees. Certain roles may also be eligible for bonus and equity.
For Canada, we offer a package of benefits including vacation (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 you welcome a new child (12 weeks for maternity, and 4 weeks for parental/adoption leave), extended health/dental/vision coverage, life insurance, disability insurance, retirement plan to regular full-time employees. Certain roles may also be eligible for bonus and equity.
About Electronic Arts
We're proud to have an extensive portfolio of games and experiences, locations around the world, and opportunities across EA. We value adaptability, resilience, creativity, and curiosity. From leadership that brings out your potential, to creating space for learning and experimenting, we empower you to do great work and pursue opportunities for growth.
We adopt a holistic approach to our benefits programs, emphasizing physical, emotional, financial, career, and community wellness to support a balanced life. Our packages are tailored to meet local needs and may include healthcare coverage, mental well-being support, retirement savings, paid time off, family leaves, complimentary games, and more. We nurture environments where our teams can always bring their best to what they do.
Electronic Arts is an equal opportunity employer. All employment decisions are made without regard to race, color, national origin, ancestry, sex, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, genetic information, religion, disability, medical condition, pregnancy, marital status, family status, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. We will also consider employment qualified applicants with criminal records in accordance with applicable law. EA also makes workplace accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities as required by applicable law.
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LinkedInID
1040695
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