Senior Technical Artist (Shaders & Materials)

THE STUDIO

We are a company for gamers, by gamers. We believe that truly good and deeply compelling games are timeless and will ultimately prevail over fine-tuned shallow addiction cycles. Our mission is to make deeply engaging and technically outstanding games, while embracing all the opportunities of cross-platform, new business models and a games industry in flux.

We are looking for motivated and highly skilled people who share our love for making outstanding games. You will need to be ready to take on the task of being part of a small but experienced and dedicated team, not be afraid to get your hands dirty, and have a can-do attitude. Join us! It’s going to be a thrilling ride.

Senior Technical Artist (Shaders & Materials)

We are looking for an experienced and knowledgeable Senior Technical Artist to join our team to work on the companion game for Netflix’s Rebel Moon. Reporting to the Technical Art Director, the Senior Technical Artist will focus on driving and developing high quality, functional materials, as well as helping to develop other crucial visual systems.

As a senior technical artist, you are passionate about shaders, for the purpose of meeting or exceeding our players expectations. You will create intuitive, high-quality shaders/materials that are stylistically expressive, plausible and grounded, while also hitting our performance targets.

You are someone technical-minded, embracing critical thinking skills and has an artistic eye. You are someone who has demonstrable technical capabilities, who can embrace our game development philosophy and lift the quality bar for our players. Lastly, you’re someone who is innately curious and is eager to learn more about our proprietary technology, and shape its development into the future.

Responsibilities:

• Create and own the shaders for environments, characters, and VFX for our project.
• Create a structure for a shared Material and Substance Library to support artists.
• Maintain and optimize run-time shaders, bugs, usability, and documentation.
• Force multiply yourself through training and mentoring tech artists.
• Through cross-discipline collaboration, design and implement systems that drive visual feedback.
• Troubleshoot and prioritize artist issues with tools and art creation workflow.
• Work with engineers, artists, and designers to address performance & memory usage issues.

Requirements:

• 8+ years of games industry experience as a technical artist, with deep experience in shaders.
• Solid understanding of PBR pipelines, requirements and limitations.
• Ability to create shaders in a stylized visual target.
• Shipped at least one AAA title from start to finish.
• Proficient working in standard and proprietary engines.
• Expertise with writing shaders in node-based graphs.
• Expertise with Content Creation Pipelines (Maya, Max, Photoshop, Substance, etc.).
• Ability to own a challenging issue and find practical solutions.
• Ability to both receive and deliver constructive criticism.
• Empathy when addressing the problems of others.
• Passion for making and playing games.

Bonus points for:

• Experience with writing HLSL, GLSL or CG shader code
• Programming and or scripting knowledge is a bonus (Python, C++).
• Experience shipping competitive multiplayer games is a big plus.
• Solid understanding of lighting fundamentals
• Traditional drawing, painting, photography or 3D sculpture skills

The base annual salary range for this position in the United States is $70,000 - 150,000. The base salary is just one part of the overall compensation package. SEMC also offers a package of benefits, including, healthcare coverage, unlimited PTO, a remote work environment, flex working schedule, parental leave support, 100% 401k match on the first 3% of your contribution, and paid local hangout meals and events. All full time roles are also eligible for annual bonuses and equity.

This base pay range is for the United States only and does not apply to international locations. The range for each job posting reflects the minimum and maximum target for new hire salaries for the position across all US locations. Within the range, individual pay is determined by location and additional factors including job-related skills, experience, and relevant education or training.

Do you feel like you don’t meet each and every requirement on the job description? Many people don't apply for jobs unless they feel they exceed at every one of these job requirements. It’s very important for us at SEMC to ensure we have a diverse and inclusive group of talent, so please go ahead and apply!