Lead Material Artist (Character/Wardrobe, World/Props) / (Personnage/Garde-robe, Monde/Accessoires)

NBCUniversal • Montreal, QC

3d • Hybrid

About The Position

NBCUniversal is seeking a Lead Material Artist to define and drive material systems for an ambitious interactive project set in a contemporary, real-life urban environment. This role owns the quality, consistency, and scalability of materials across either character-focused surfaces (skin, fabric, wardrobe) or world-focused surfaces (environments, props, tiling systems)—candidates are only expected to specialize in one area.
This leader will partner closely with Art Direction, Technical Art, and cross-disciplinary teams to ensure materials are fully integrated into pipelines and rendering systems, supporting production from high-end platforms to mobile. The role also includes leading a team and establishing scalable workflows, shader standards, and material libraries that can support large-scale production.

Requirements

• Minimum of 7+ years of experience in game development with a focus on material creation (character or environment)
• Extensive experience in AAA production environments
• Proven experience leading and managing a team of artists on at least one shipped title.
• Strong portfolio demonstrating high-quality materials relevant to your specialty
• Deep understanding of PBR workflows and shader-based material systems
• Experience working with real-time pipelines and performance constraints
• Experience with modern game engines such as Unreal Engine.
• Positive leadership, communication, collaboration and feedback skills.

Nice To Haves

• Experience building scalable material libraries and reusable systems
• Experience with Unreal Engine 5 and advanced shader workflows
• Familiarity with large-scale, production-driven pipelines (e.g., modular assets, customization systems, or procedural workflows)
• Positive experience working with outsourcing partners or distributed teams.
• Strong eye for realism, material definition, and visual consistency
• Ability to balance visual quality with performance requirements.
• Excellent communication and natural practice of positive communication and leadership skills and the ability to thrive in a fast-paced environment.
• Desire to think and explore innovative solutions.

Responsibilities

• Translate art direction into high-quality materials that meet both visual and technical requirements
• Lead and mentor a team of material artists, ensuring consistency, quality, and scalability across assets
• Define, maintain, and evolve material pipelines, workflows, and best practices
• Oversee creation of materials within your specialty: Character track: body, skin, fabrics, accessories and wardrobe materials; World track: environment and architectural surfaces, props, tiling systems, and modular materials
• Ensure materials scale across large worlds and diverse asset types, from hero assets to high-volume content, but also across platforms from high end to mobile.
• Collaborate closely with Character, Environment, Tech Art, and Lighting teams for proper integration
• Partner with engineering and tech art to ensure correct implementation in rendering and runtime systems
• Identify and improve pipelines to support efficient, scalable production

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: No Education Listed