Lead Technical Artist

Cloud Chamber • Novato, CA

1d • Hybrid

About The Position

As a Lead Technical Artist at Cloud Chamber you will join our talented development team to help shape the technical foundations of our artistic vision. You will be responsible for leading a dedicated technical team to build robust art pipelines and performance-driven systems. Utilizing your deep knowledge of Unreal Engine you will shape the technical efficiency of the art pipeline for our project, ensuring that our ambitious art output is technically feasible and ultimately bringing the richly imagined world of BioShock to life.
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.
In this leadership capacity, you will support the Technical Art Director’s vision, ensuring creative intent is translated into a performant reality while taking ownership of the most complex technical challenges that arise during production.
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.

Requirements

• Worked a minimum of 8+ years in game development, with at least 3+ years in a leadership capacity on a AAA project.
• Shipped 1, or preferably more, AAA console or PC titles, from concept to launch, that has been recognized for it’s high visual fidelity and/or complex technical constraints.
• Shipped one AAA game using Unreal Engine 5.
• Previously mentored and managed a Technical Art team, fostering their growth, setting performance expectations, and distributing ownership over critical pipeline components.
• Experience supporting large AAA teams using custom Blueprints, python scripts, or other unique pipelines inside Unreal 5
• Obtained your Bachelor’s Degree, or have equivalent work experience.
• Gained expert-level working knowledge of industry-standard 3D software (e.g., Maya, 3ds Max, Blender) including Python/scripting APIs for automation.
• Gained proficiency with supporting tools for texture/material creation (e.g., Substance Painter/Designer) and high-fidelity sculpting (e.g., ZBrush).
• Experienced procedural tools like PCG or Houdini to create complex assets, environments, or destruction effects that scale efficiently.
• Garnered a strong understanding of real-time pipelines, including asset workflows, performance budgets, and optimization techniques.
• Built a solid foundation in programming concepts to facilitate collaboration with Engineers.
• Experienced designing and maintaining robust, automated pipelines for asset export, validation, and integration.

Responsibilities

• Support the Tech Art Director’s technical vision and standards for the Art department, ensuring that creative intent is translated into technically sound and performant reality.
• Must have experience creating and shipping AAA quality environments using Unreal 5 pipelines as a Principal or Lead technical artist.
• Establish and enforce the technical budgets for all art content to meet framerate and stability targets.
• Help design, build, and maintain the art production pipeline, from content creation to engine integration.
• Take ownership of the most complex technical art challenges that cannot be solved by individual contributors.
• Serve as one of the key communication links between Art, Engineering, and Design, aligning technical requirements, asset constraints, and engine capabilities.
• Identify workflow bottlenecks and problem solve with elegant solutions.
• Proactively identify and resolve systemic, high-impact performance bottlenecks within asset creation and rendering systems.
• Mentor and manage the Technical Art team, and foster their professional growth.
• Ensure that all team members (including external partners) adhere to established technical standards, naming conventions, and workflow practices.

Benefits

• Regular, full-time employees are also eligible for a range of benefits at the Company, including: medical, dental, vision, and basic life insurance coverage; 14 paid holidays per calendar year; paid vacation time per calendar year (ranging from 15 to 25 days) or eligibility to participate in the Company’s discretionary time off program; up to 10 paid sick days per calendar year; paid parental and compassionate leave; wellbeing programs for mental health and other wellness support; family planning support through Maven; commuter benefits; and reimbursements for fitness-related expenses.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level