Who We Are
Founded in 2023, Small Axe Studios is 2K’s newest stand-alone studio, built to push the boundaries of game development and bring 2K’s next groundbreaking sports franchise to life. Headquartered in Burnaby, we are assembling a world-class team of visionaries, builders, and passionate gamers who thrive on creative collaboration, technical excellence, and bold ideas. At Small Axe Studios, we believe big things start with sharp focus—and we’re crafting an exceptional, player-first experience from the ground up. If you’re ready to tackle unique challenges, leave your mark on a brand-new IP, and help shape the future of interactive sports entertainment, we want you on our team!
What We Need
As a Senior Professional Character Artist at 2K Sports Lab, you will have a key role collaborating closely with our Art Director and Lead Character Artist to help bring our visions to life and forge authentic and believable characters that the players can enjoy for many years to come. You enjoy being responsible for crafting the highest quality, industry leading, characters that will make an everlasting impact for the game.
What You’ll Do
- Collaborate with leadership to establish visual targets and push boundaries on quality of character assets.
- Work closely with other departments (animators, artists, and technical artists) to ensure art assets are working well and build an excellent player experience.
- Build high quality digital sculpts, textures and groom hair.
- Work in Unreal Engine 5, while actively following development of character creation and pipelines in the industry while balancing performance.
- Assemble character assets to be used in the game engine.
- Create Industry-Leading Grooms: Procedurally groom realistic hair using industry-standard tools (XGen, Ornatrix), as well as author highly optimized hair cards for real-time rendering.
What Will Make You a Great Fit
- 5+ years of experience in the games, film, or animation industry.
- Previous experience shipping at least 1 AAA title.
- Ability to build believable groom hair using dedicated tools (XGen, Ornatrix).
- Knowledge of Maya, Unreal Engine, Substance Painter/Designer, PBR Workflow, zBrush, Marvelous Designer and Photoshop.
- Experience working with 3d scanned assets.
- Aesthetic ability to improve details with minimal concept and art direction.
- Have a proven understanding of human anatomy and clothing construction.
- Have a good understanding working with blendshapes and facial animation.
- Self-starter and independent, able to take feedback and run with it.
- Follow and collaborate with concept artists.
- Strong communication skills.
As an equal opportunity employer, we are committed to ensuring that qualified individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform their essential job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment. Please contact us if you need reasonable accommodation.
The pay range for this position in British Columbia at the start of employment is expected to be between $78,400 and $116,020 per Year. However, base pay offered is based on market location, and may vary further depending on individualized factors for job candidates, such as job-related knowledge, skills, experience, and other objective business considerations. Subject to those same considerations, the total compensation package for employees in regular roles may also include other elements, including a bonus and/or equity awards, in addition to a full range of medical, financial, and/or other benefits, provided that temporary or intern roles will not be eligible for many of these payments or benefits. Details of participation in compensation and benefit plans (if applicable) will be provided if an employee receives an offer of employment.
Please note that 2K Games and its studios never uses instant messaging apps or personal email accounts to contact prospective employees or conduct interviews and when emailing, only use 2K.com accounts.
Skills Required
- 5+ years of experience in the games, film, or animation industry.
- Previous experience shipping at least 1 AAA title.
- Ability to build believable groom hair using dedicated tools (XGen, Ornatrix).
- Knowledge of Maya, Unreal Engine, Substance Painter/Designer, PBR Workflow, ZBrush, Marvelous Designer and Photoshop.
- Experience working with 3d scanned assets.
- Aesthetic ability to improve details with minimal concept and art direction.
- Proven understanding of human anatomy and clothing construction.
- Good understanding working with blendshapes and facial animation.
- Self-starter and independent, able to take feedback and run with it.
- Follow and collaborate with concept artists.
- Strong communication skills.
2K Compensation & Benefits Highlights
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Healthcare Strength — Health coverage is described as comprehensive, with medical, dental, vision, mental-health resources and fitness/wellness perks available in many locations. It is often regarded as a strong part of the overall package.
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Retirement Support — A 401(k) with company matching and related retirement programs are consistently highlighted. These offerings help employees build long-term savings and are considered competitive for the industry.
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — The package includes paid vacation and sick leave, paid holidays, parental leave, compassionate leave, and an end-of-year break. Time-off policies are generally seen as a solid benefit, though specifics can vary by team and location.
2K Insights
What We Do
2K is headquartered in Novato, California and is a wholly owned label of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. (NASDAQ: TTWO). Founded in 2005, 2K Games is a global video game company, publishing titles developed by some of the most influential game development studios in the world. Our studios responsible for developing 2K’s portfolio of world-class games across multiple platforms, include Visual Concepts, Firaxis, Hangar 13, CatDaddy, Cloud Chamber, 31st Union, and HB Studios. Our portfolio of titles is expanding due to our global strategic plan, building and acquiring exciting studios whose content continues to inspire all of us! 2K publishes titles in today’s most popular gaming genres, including sports, shooters, action, role-playing, strategy, casual, and family entertainment. Our team of engineers, marketers, artists, writers, data scientists, producers, thinkers and doers, are the professional publishing stewards of our growing library of critically-acclaimed franchises such as NBA 2K, 2K PGA, Battleborn, BioShock, Borderlands, The Quarry, The Darkness, Mafia, Sid Meier’s Civilization, Marvel’s Midnight Suns, WWE 2K, and XCOM. At 2K, we pride ourselves on creating an inclusive work environment, which means encouraging our teams to Come as You Are and do your best work! We encourage ALL applicants to explore our global positions, even if they don’t meet every requirement for the role. If you're interested in the job and think you have what it takes to work at 2K, we encourage you to apply!
Why Work With Us
We pride ourselves on creating an inclusive work environment, which means encouraging our teams to Come as You Are and do your best work! We push ourselves creatively to do the best work of our careers. We’re direct, open, and you’ll probably meet some new best friends – along with their dogs – sitting nearby. In short, it’s kinda awesome.
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2K Offices
Hybrid Workspace
Employees engage in a combination of remote and on-site work.
We are a blend of onsite, hybrid, and remote roles. Please refer to individual job descriptions for more details on location.
