Avalanche Studios Group is seeking an exceptional, leadership-minded Lead 3D Character Artist to anchor our core art development team in Stockholm. This position acts as a vital creative and technical bridge, translating high-level vision from the Art Director into concrete, world-class character and creature assets executed by your team.
The successful candidate will offer an intersection of deep artistic expertise—specifically anchored in hyper-realistic animal and creature anatomy—and empathetic, modern people management.
Job Overview : 3D Character Artist
The foundational administrative, geographic, financial, and structural parameters of this position are organized below for clear reference.
| Parameter | Specifications & Details |
| Company Name | Avalanche Studios Group |
| Position Title | Lead 3D Character Artist |
| Department | Art / Character Development Department |
| Job Type / Tenure | Permanent Employment (Tillsvidareanställning) |
| Work Model | Hybrid (Mandatory In-Office days: Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays) |
| Primary Location | Stockholm, Sweden (Södermalm District) |
| Estimated Base Salary Range | 55,000 SEK – 70,000 SEK per month (Gross/Pre-tax) |
| Estimated Annual Value | 660,000 SEK – 840,000 SEK base |
| Relocation Assistance | Not Available (Candidates must manage local housing and possess existing legal right to work in Sweden) |
| Language Requirement | Full professional proficiency in written and spoken English |
| Confidentiality Level | Strict Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) required upon advancing past initial screening |
About Avalanche Studios Group
At Avalanche Studios Group, our defining operational philosophy is simple: we create worlds beyond limits. For over two decades, our studios have pushed the technological boundaries of open-world development. Our legacy is defined by systemic chaos, vast horizons, and tactile, emergent gameplay as seen in the Just Cause series, the brutal post-apocalyptic plains of Mad Max, and the visually stunning, biologically accurate wilderness of theHunter: Call of the Wild.
Our Stockholm headquarters is located in Södermalm, globally recognized as a primary hub for game development talent. The physical office environment is intentionally designed to reflect our creative portfolio—a striking architectural blend where the lush, vibrant vegetation of theHunter encounters the raw, industrial, and corroded metal aesthetics of Mad Max.
Avalanche Studios Group operate on a foundational commitment to building an inclusive, diverse, and psychologically safe workplace. We firmly believe that the strength of our studio stems from differing perspectives and unique cultural backgrounds. At Avalanche Studios Group, your heritage, gender, or sexual orientation have no bearing on your value or standing. What truly matters is your unique artistic perspective, your drive, your technical skill, and your collaborative spirit.
The Core Mandate: Animals, Characters, and Realism
While a strong foundation in general human character art is mandatory, this particular leadership role features a prominent, specialized emphasis on animal and creature design.
Avalanche Studios Group is an industry leader in simulating open wilderness and believable ecosystems. To maintain this reputation, the Lead Character Artist must serve as the team’s ultimate subject-matter expert on non-human anatomy, muscle behavior, skeletal structures, fur/skin shading pipelines, and biological realism. Your work ensures that creatures behave and look authentic within the game world, directly driving player immersion.
Core Responsibilities & What You’ll Do
The responsibilities of the Lead 3D Character Artist are balanced across three core pillars: Artistic Direction Alignment, Production Pipeline Advocacy, and Comprehensive People Management.
1. Artistic Direction & Asset Oversight
- Vision Translation: Partner closely with the Art Director to internalize the project’s visual goals. Clearly articulate, document, and demonstrate this vision to your team of character and creature artists to maintain stylistic alignment.
- Subject-Matter Expertise: Act as the final gatekeeper for organic realism. Provide deep technical and artistic guidance on animal anatomy, dynamic locomotion postures, tissue deformation, complex fur/hair generation, and layered skin textures.
- Quality & Benchmark Governance: Oversee the day-to-day visual asset creation pipeline. Ensure all models, textures, and materials meet established productivity metrics, delivery schedules, and aesthetic benchmarks.
- Hands-on Contribution: Maintain your artistic edge by occasionally contributing directly to high-level asset creation, look-development tasks, or complex troubleshooting where expert-level artistic execution is required.
2. Cross-Functional Collaboration & Pipeline Optimization
- Interdisciplinary Alignment: Work cross-functionally with Gameplay Designers, Animation Leads, Technical Artists, and Engine Programmers to eliminate production bottlenecks and align asset designs with animation rigs and performance budgets.
- Workflow Evolution: Proactively advocate for systemic pipeline improvements, automated asset variations, and scalable generation techniques to optimize long-term production workflows.
- Culture Engineering: Foster an open, high-performing, and solution-oriented studio culture that values constructive feedback, rapid artistic experimentation, and collaborative problem-solving.
3. Comprehensive People Management
- End-to-End Lifecycle Support: Take direct, active ownership of your team members’ professional journeys. This spans driving the hiring process and designing onboarding structures, through executing fair performance evaluations and mapping long-term career progression paths.
- Mentorship & Growth: Dedicate continuous effort to the professional development of your direct reports through regular 1-on-1 sessions, target-setting, and constructive technical feedback loops.
- Administrative Operations: Manage essential team logistics, including reviewing and approving weekly time reports, managing leave and holiday requests, and maintaining impeccable internal employee records.
- Compliance & Welfare: Act as an official representative of Avalanche regarding organizational, cultural, and Swedish legal workplace standards, ensuring strict adherence to employee privacy laws (GDPR), workplace safety, and healthy working hours.
Candidate Profile: Who You Are
Required Technical Expertise & Experience
- Proven Game Development Tenure: Extensive professional experience working within AAA game art departments, explicitly showing a progressive advancement into senior or supervisory roles.
- Creature Mastery: A world-class portfolio showcasing deep expertise in highly realistic animal and creature art, alongside excellent foundational work in human character modeling.
- Anatomical & Technical Knowledge: Comprehensive understanding of musculoskeletal anatomy (quadruped and biped), asset topology optimized for complex deformation, advanced material shaders, and modern fur/skin workflows (such as grooming tools and real-time hair solutions).
- Pipeline Literacy: Active experience with or a profound professional interest in building, optimizing, and documenting production pipelines and character workflows inside modern game engines.
Leadership & Soft Skills
- Demonstrated Leadership: A proven track record of managing, mentoring, and scaling high-performing art teams, with an emphasis on empathetic, transparent leadership.
- Exemplary Communication: Exceptional organizational skills coupled with the ability to translate abstract creative ideas into clear, actionable technical objectives for artists across multiple disciplines.
- Solution-Oriented Mindset: A proactive, highly adaptable approach to problem-solving, balanced with a passion for driving both creative excellence and structural production efficiency.
Compensation, Benefits, & Market Context
The estimated monthly salary range for this Stockholm-based permanent position is 55,000 SEK to 70,000 SEK gross (before income tax). Final compensation packages are determined individually based on an assessment of industry tenure, technical portfolio depth, and leadership experience.
Standard Swedish Employment Protections
As a permanent employee (Tillsvidareanställning) in Sweden, this position benefits from standard regional workplace practices, which generally include:
- Regulated Annual Leave: A minimum of 25 to 30 days of paid vacation per calendar year.
- Occupational Pension Contribution: Regular studio contributions toward your occupational pension scheme (Tjänstepension).
- Comprehensive Sick Leave & Parental Benefits: Robust legal protections and financial coverage for sick leave, alongside extensive parental leave allocations.
- Wellness Subsidies: Annual allowances (Friskvårdsbidrag) dedicated to fitness, health, or sports activities.
Commitment to Diversity & Alternative Qualifications
A Direct Note on Qualifications
Academic research indicates that individuals from under-represented demographics within the technology and interactive entertainment industries frequently hesitate to apply for roles unless they fulfill every single qualification checklist perfectly.
Avalanche Studios Group explicitly rejects this rigid paradigm. Our priority centers on your creative drive, your technical curiosity, your artistic leadership style, and your enthusiasm for solving complex pipeline challenges. We prioritize your continuous capacity for growth over a perfectly itemized resume. If you possess a deep passion for realistic creature design and team mentorship, we strongly encourage you to submit your application regardless of whether you meet every technical line item.
Application Instructions
To initiate your application process, please register through our official careers portal and submit your detailed Curriculum Vitae (CV) and Portfolio Link in English.
We review applicant submissions continuously. This position will close immediately upon identifying the appropriate candidate, making early submission highly advantageous. Please note that all subsequent project specifics, technical demonstrations, and studio infrastructures will be discussed exclusively under the protection of a binding Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA).
