--- title: 'Lead Character Artist at Cloud Chamber' canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/lead-character-artist-cloud-chamber-montreal-7vb3xjdt9mze' type: 'job' last_seen: '2026-09-06' --- # Lead Character Artist at Cloud Chamber - **Company:** Cloud Chamber - **Location:** Montréal, Canada - **Posted:** 2026-08-19 - **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-06 - **Apply:** https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/cloudchamberen/jobs/7888170003 ## Job description As a Lead Character Artist at Cloud Chamber, under the supervision of the Art Director, you will play a key role in establishing the overall visual quality bar and guidelines for character development on the project. In this role, you’ll lead a team of artists to achieve their full potential, collaborate with a passionate group of game developers to craft compelling stylized character assets that support our aesthetic, meet technical requirements, and gameplay needs, ultimately bringing the richly imagined world of BioShock to life. What You’ll Do: - Manage, coach, and mentor a team of character artists to support their career growth, development, and artistic output. - Set artistic standards in Unreal Engine, build exemplary reference assets, and establish clear workflows to ensure consistent quality. - Work closely with Directors, Leads, Concept, Environment, Design, Gameplay, and Animation teams to prototype assets and ensure character specifications align with project goals. - Collaborate with the Art Director and Outsourcing Manager to assign and schedule character assets for external development partners. - Contribute to material pipelines, track team output, supervise bug distribution, and provide input on custom tools and software. What We’ll Do Together: At Cloud Chamber, we are champions of high standards, pushing for progress and embracing change. We will work closely and constructively across design, art, engineering, animation, and audio teams to realize our creative ambitions. Together, we will stay current on technological advancements and identify solutions to overcome developmental obstacles to deliver a world-class AAA experience. Skills & Experiences: - 10+ years of professional experience in the video game industry, with 2 or more shipped titles as a character artist (preferably on a first-person title). - Proven success managing, guiding, and mentoring a team of character artists. - Expert proficiency in 3D creation tools including 3ds Max, Maya, ZBrush, Substance Painter, Marvelous Designer, and Unreal Engine. - Mastery of the PBR pipeline for texture creation, including baking tools, Substance Painter, and Photoshop. - Exceptional background in traditional art with an expert understanding of human anatomy, composition, proportion, volume, light, and color. Who You Are: - A reliable, positive force multiplier, actively seeking opportunities to integrate work across disciplines and contribute to a healthy, supportive team environment. - A solid communicator with excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to articulate complex ideas clearly, package information for diverse audiences, and deliver difficult feedback with empathy and professionalism. - Experienced in working in cross-disciplinary teams with strong communication skills. - Persistent and self-motivated with a proactive mindset. - Able to maintain effectiveness and quality under pressure, ambiguity, and fast-changing priorities. - An active listener able to build and maintain trust-based relationships across all levels of the organization, understand differing perspectives, and navigate organizational complexity with tact and emotional intelligence. - Highly open to feedback and direction, possessing a desire to learn new skills, and capable of producing quick, quality revisions based on new insights or constraints. - Strong ownership of tasks, striving to drive work forward autonomously while maintaining a critical eye for detail and organization, ensuring high standards of quality. - Dedicated to upholding Cloud Chamber's core values, contributing to a positive and respectful company culture while striving for excellence in all endeavors. Who We Are: At Cloud Chamber we strive to make BioShock games that move people: evocative, immersive, and meaningful experiences that stay with you long after you’ve rolled credits. Great games are born from great collaborations, supported by a culture that brings out the best in our teams. We work openly, learn through play, take ownership, push ourselves to be better, and deliver for our players. #LI-Remote For candidates located in Quebec: This position requires professional proficiency in both French and English. Proficiency in English is required to collaborate with our U.S. teams and international partners, as well as to handle specialized technical documentation (reading, writing, and communication). 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, perform their essential job functions, and receive other benefits and privileges of employment. Please contact us if you need reasonable accommodation. Please note that 2K Games and its studios never use instant messaging apps or personal email accounts to contact prospective employees or conduct interviews. When emailing prospective employees, we only use 2K.com accounts ## About Cloud Chamber ## Company Overview - **One-liner**: A AAA video game studio owned by 2K, currently in production on the fourth installment of the award-winning *BioShock* franchise. - **Entity Type**: Private (subsidiary/division of 2K, which is a subsidiary of publicly traded Take-Two Interactive) - **Headquarters**: Novato, California, United States, with a second major studio in Montréal, Quebec, Canada - **Founded**: December 9, 2019 - **Founders**: Kelley Gilmore ## Core Business - **Primary Industry**: Video game development (AAA console/PC games) - **Target Customers**: B2C; core gamers and fans of narrative-driven, immersive single-player experiences, particularly the *BioShock* franchise. - **Mission or Purpose**: To create "yet-to-be-discovered worlds – and their stories within – that push the boundaries of what is possible in the video game medium" [wikipedia.org]. ## Products & Services - **[Untitled BioShock Game]**: A new, AAA installment in the legendary *BioShock* series. The game is in active production. Type: Video Game (Console/PC). ## Market Standing - **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not applicable (private division of a larger entity). Parent company Take-Two Interactive’s market cap is publicly traded. - **Key Metric**: Not publicly available. As a private studio within a larger publisher, specific financials are not disclosed. The studio's success will be measured by the critical and commercial reception of its upcoming *BioShock* title. - **Notable Investors/Partners**: **2K** (publisher and parent company), **Take-Two Interactive** (ultimate parent). The studio includes several veterans from the original *BioShock* games, such as Hoagy de la Plante, Scott Sinclair, and Jonathan Pelling [wikipedia.org]. - **Growth Signals**: The studio is actively hiring (28 active job postings as of mid-2025) with a 100% month-over-month increase and 366.7% quarterly increase in postings, indicating a ramp-up in production [linkedin.com]. The studio has two locations (Novato, CA and Montreal, QC). Recent leadership changes (Rod Fergusson appointed studio head in August 2025) signal a strategic refocusing of the project [wikipedia.org]. ## Competitive Advantages - **Legendary IP**: The studio owns the mandate to develop the next *BioShock* game, one of the most acclaimed and beloved franchises in gaming history, providing a built-in audience and a powerful creative foundation. - **Veteran Talent**: The team includes key members who worked on the original *BioShock* series, ensuring a deep understanding of the franchise's unique tone, art style, and narrative complexity [wikipedia.org]. - **AAA Resources**: Backed by the full financial and publishing power of 2K and Take-Two Interactive, the studio has access to industry-leading technology, marketing, and production budgets without the funding uncertainty of an independent studio. ## Strategic Focus - **Delivering the Next BioShock**: The primary and singular focus is the successful completion and launch of the next *BioShock* title. The recent leadership change (Rod Fergusson replacing Kelley Gilmore) after a failed review suggests a strategic pivot to get the project back on track and meet quality benchmarks [wikipedia.org]. - **Franchise Stewardship**: With Fergusson brought in to oversee the entire *BioShock* franchise, the studio's work is seen as central to the long-term health and future direction of the series. ## Why Work Here - **Work on a Legendary Franchise**: The opportunity to contribute to the next chapter of a critically and culturally iconic game series is a primary draw for many developers. - **Creative and Ambitious Environment**: The studio’s stated mission is to "push the boundaries of what is possible," appealing to those seeking challenging, creative work on a AAA scale. - **Established Support**: Being a 2K studio provides stability and resources, allowing developers to focus on game quality rather than business survival. - **Remote/Hybrid/Office Policy**: Not explicitly stated on the website or career pages. The two-studio setup (Novato and Montreal) suggests a preference for in-studio or hybrid work, given the collaborative nature of AAA game development. - **Notable Perks/Culture**: The company culture is described as focused on creating groundbreaking immersive experiences. Employee reviews rate Work-Life Balance at 3.9/5.0, Culture at 3.7/5.0, and Career opportunities at 3.2/5.0 [linkedin.com]. The studio is known for bringing in top talent from other major studios like Ubisoft Montréal, Eidos-Montréal, and Electronic Arts [linkedin.com]. ## Sources 1. [2k.com](https://2k.com/studios/cloud-chamber/) 2. [2k.com](https://2k.com/studios/cloud-chamber/careers/) 3. [greenhouse.io](http://job-boards.greenhouse.io/cloudchamberen) 4. [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_Chamber_(company)) 5. [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/cloudchamber) ## Other roles at Cloud Chamber - [Lead Animator](https://feeny.ai/job/lead-animator-cloud-chamber-novato-california-20ea9ec150yj) — Novato California, United States - [Lead Animator](https://feeny.ai/job/lead-animator-cloud-chamber-montreal-cq7gjeahee5d) — Montréal, Canada - [Lead Character Artist](https://feeny.ai/job/lead-character-artist-cloud-chamber-novato-california-fbfzhtmwmjmb) — Novato California, United States - [Lead Lighting Artist](https://feeny.ai/job/lead-lighting-artist-cloud-chamber-montreal-mkz6dadwtn68) — Montréal, Canada - [Associate Producer](https://feeny.ai/job/associate-producer-cloud-chamber-montreal-jahhg7cnn8cm) — Montréal, Canada - [Lead Lighting Artist](https://feeny.ai/job/lead-lighting-artist-cloud-chamber-novato-california-wb445mfjb316) — Novato California, United States - [Lead Level Artist](https://feeny.ai/job/lead-level-artist-cloud-chamber-novato-california-n8as4vk71bmw) — Novato California, United States - [Lead Level Artist](https://feeny.ai/job/lead-level-artist-cloud-chamber-montreal-5w5zx4a2qd87) — Montréal, Canada - [Senior Level Designer](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-level-designer-cloud-chamber-novato-california-1n9tgtzty396) — Novato California, United States - [Senior Level Designer](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-level-designer-cloud-chamber-montreal-jtkqcak8q0na) — Montréal, Canada