Principal 3D Artist

Assured•Palo Alto, CA

20h•$155,000 - $185,000•Remote

About The Position

As a Principal 3D Artist on our Brand Team, you will be the core engine for 3D illustration and motion designs. Working closely with brand designers, web designers, motion designers and creative developers, you will translate high-level creative concepts into technically sophisticated 3D visuals using Cinema 4D. This role requires a deep technical practitioner - someone who excels at complex dynamic simulations, procedural workflows, custom shader creation, and building hyper-efficient 3D asset handoffs for video production, digital marketing, and modern web environments.

Requirements

Over ten years of expertise producing world-class 3D visuals within top-tier design studios, creative agencies, or premier in-house brand organizations.
Expert command of Cinema 4D and Redshift, encompassing advanced modeling, cinematic lighting, node-based material architecture, and sophisticated procedural workflows.
Profound understanding of visual hierarchy, composition, and form to translate intricate technical concepts into semantically legible and elegant solutions.
Ability to architect compelling visual stories by evolving abstract ideas from initial sketches into polished style frames and comprehensive production storyboards.
Meticulous attention to detail and an uncompromising passion for engineering premium, high-fidelity brand assets.
Ability to drive the entire creative cycle, from foundational concept development and illustration through complex animation, rendering, and high-end post-production.

Nice To Haves

Experience with X-Particles, Houdini, character rigging, or Python scripting for C4D
Familiarity with interactive web 3D tools like Spline or Three.js

Responsibilities

Design sophisticated 3D illustrations and motion designs that elevate our brand identity, combining high-level creative focus with a rigorous technical execution of complex, multi-layered compositions across web, marketing, and digital surfaces.
Distill abstract technical themes into clear, compelling visual stories. Develop style frames and storyboards that bridge the gap between high-level creative direction and precise technical execution.
Build complex, procedural scenes and dynamic motion systems using expert physics simulations and advanced deformers, moving from concept tests to final art-directed renders.
Craft expressive lighting setups and bespoke node-based shaders in Redshift to establish a premium, distinctive visual language for our brand assets.
Configure sophisticated multi-pass render outputs and EXR compositing pipelines in After Effects to ensure seamless high-end video production handoffs.
Define and maintain master project templates, lighting rigs, and material libraries to facilitate hyper-efficient asset creation across the design organization.
Command color-managed pipelines end to end — ACES/OCIO configs.
Architect and maintain the shared material and texture library that powers consistent look-dev across the team.
Partner with designers and engineers to bridge creative concepts and performance. Manage the end-to-end technical pipeline for interactive 3D, including geometry optimization, texture baking, and asset compression for web environments.