Expert Technical Artist
About The Position
For the first phase of production, you are BulletFarm's technical art department. Pipeline, VFX, lighting, and vendor technical standards all sit with you: simultaneously, not sequentially. There is no team to delegate to and no inherited infrastructure to build on. You will be building the art pipeline for a new AAA IP from scratch, establishing the technical standards that 50+ external artists will be measured against, and covering three disciplines until the team scales. This is a role for someone who has spent years as the most technically capable person in their art department and wants a project where that breadth is the requirement, not a workaround.
Requirements
- 7+ years of experience as a Lead Technical Artist, Principal Technical Artist, Expert Technical Artist, or equivalent on shipped AAA or AA titles.
- Deep expertise with Unreal Engine 5 content pipelines and technical art workflows.
- Strong proficiency with Niagara and real-time VFX creation.
- Experience creating and optimizing complex visual effects for gameplay and environmental applications.
- Strong understanding of lighting theory, atmospheric lighting, and real-time rendering workflows.
- Experience working with modern rendering technologies, including Lumen and related UE5 systems.
- Expertise in materials, shaders, asset optimization, and performance profiling.
- Experience building tools and pipeline automation solutions.
- Proficiency with Python, Blueprint scripting, or similar pipeline development tools.
- Active engagement with AI-assisted tools in the technical art pipeline: including Substance AI, AI-driven VFX workflows, or pipeline automation tooling. Comfort with AI tooling is a studio-wide requirement.
- Strong communication skills and ability to collaborate across Art, Engineering, Design, and Production teams.
- Experience supporting external development partners and outsourced content pipelines.
Nice To Haves
- Experience working on horror, action, dark fantasy, or atmospheric titles.
- Experience supporting large-scale external art organizations and vendor ecosystems.
- Familiarity with console performance optimization workflows.
- Experience creating procedural workflows and content generation pipelines.
- Knowledge of asset streaming, memory management, and platform-specific optimization techniques.
- Previous experience helping establish pipelines and standards for a new project or studio.
Responsibilities
- Own and maintain the end-to-end art pipeline from content creation through engine implementation.
- Establish technical art standards, workflows, documentation, and best practices for internal and external teams.
- Develop tools, automation systems, and workflows that improve artist productivity and content scalability.
- Partner with Engineering to solve technical challenges related to rendering, performance, asset management, and content integration.
- Collaborate closely with the Art Director to ensure artistic goals align with technical constraints and production realities.
- Serve as the primary VFX resource during prototype and early production phases.
- Design, implement, and optimize real-time visual effects using Niagara.
- Create and maintain lighting setups that support gameplay, atmosphere, mood, and storytelling objectives.
- Support material creation, shader implementation, and advanced Unreal Engine rendering workflows.
- Profile and optimize art content to meet performance targets across supported platforms.
- Coordinate with external vendors to ensure assets integrate properly into production pipelines and meet technical standards.
- Review incoming content and provide guidance on optimization, implementation, and technical quality.
Benefits
- Competitive base salary
- health, dental, and vision benefits
- 401(k)
- flexible paid time off
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Senior
Education Level
No Education Listed
