Principal Technical Artist

ClassDojo's mission is to give every child on Earth an education they love.

We started by building a network that connects teachers, children, and families. ClassDojo’s flagship app is the #1 communication app connecting K-8 teachers, children, and families, globally. They use it to share what’s happening throughout the day through photos, videos, messages, and activities. It is actively used at an unprecedented scale: in over 95% of US schools, reaching ~51 million children in ~180 countries. We are now beginning to use this network to give kids the best learning experiences in the world, far beyond those a standard school can provide. 

We hire for talent density. Our team comprises the most talented, entrepreneurial, and innovative teammates from around the world, with deep backgrounds in education and large scale consumer internet, including Instagram, Netflix, Dropbox, Uber, Y Combinator, and more. We’re building a company where the most talented people want to work. We believe you’ll do the best work of your life here—and you’ll pioneer the future of education, too.

What you’ll do:

• Work alongside artists to create rigs, animations, VFX, 3D models, textures, and other common asset concerns
• Help artists to streamline and automate the creation and delivery of game assets for optimized, non-photorealistic 3D games, by way of scripting tools for various DCC suites
• Work in a cross-functional team to help define technical standards, best-practices, and processes for in-house and external artists
• Research, explore, and communicate best practices, and discern which directions are most effective
• Work with small, flexible teams between the US and EU in a highly iterative scope and process
• Help the team to identify inconsistencies and opportunities for improvements in these areas

You will be a match if:

• You have a least 3 years of technical artist work experience
• You are in the Americas time zone

You might be a good fit if:

• You demonstrated experience in managing, or directly contributing to, delivery of 2D and 3D game art for shipped titles from the planning phases through live operations
• You have expert understanding of technical 3D modeling and animation fundamentals, including topology, and the underlying primitives within their workflow concerns (vertices, edges, polygons, UVs, normals, blend weights)
• You are an expert in at least one DCC tool, like Blender, Maya, or 3DS Max, and have a willingness to learn others
• You have strong applied knowledge of rigging, skinning, and animation.
• You have strong Python knowledge, and scripting experience in Blender, Maya, or 3DS Max
• You have familiarity and knowledge of materials and material graph tools
• You have familiarity with modern VFX workflows from popular game engines or middleware
• You have rigorous methodology for testing and improving technical content
• You are able to work effectively with cross-functional team members, both locally and remotely
• You can provide clear and candid artistic critique, both verbally and in writing.
• You have strong concern for the user’s experience, and want to make the best experience possible
• You are enthusiastic about learning new technologies, tools, and helping to apply them 

Bonus:

• Ability to help artists in multiple DCCs

[1] Some more context:

- ClassDojo's 125m Metaverse Mission (Forbes)

- ClassDojo's Second Act Comes with First Profits (TechCrunch) and Sam's note about it.

ClassDojo is committed to a diverse and inclusive workplace. ClassDojo is an equal opportunity employer that does not discriminate on the basis of race, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, protected veteran status, disability, age, or any other legally protected status. ClassDojo will make reasonable accommodations for the known physical and mental limitations of an otherwise qualified individual with a disability who is an applicant or an employee unless undue hardship would result. In accordance with applicable local ordinances, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.