Technical Design Artist, Intern 2027

Allen Control Systems•Austin, TX

3d•Onsite

About The Position

As a Technical Design Artist Intern, you'll work at the intersection of art, engineering, and real-time technology. You'll help build and improve the Unreal Engine 5 systems that bring our products to life — from 3D assets and materials to visual effects, tools, and content pipelines. This is early-career work with real stakes. You'll work closely with engineers and technical artists to solve problems, build things, and iterate on technology that needs to perform reliably in real-world environments.

Requirements

Currently pursuing a degree in Computer Science, Game Development, Computer Graphics, Animation, Interactive Media, or a related field.
Coursework, project, or internship experience with Unreal Engine, real-time graphics, technical art, 3D content creation, or game development.
Experience working in Unreal Engine 5, including familiarity with the editor, Materials, and Blueprints.
Experience with a 3D content creation tool such as Blender, Maya, or 3ds Max.
Basic understanding of real-time rendering, including materials, lighting, textures, geometry, and performance.
An interest in understanding how software and technical systems work.
Strong problem-solving skills and attention to detail.
Curiosity about working closely with engineers and learning how technical decisions affect the final product.
A builder's mindset: you'd rather create something, get feedback, and iterate than wait for a perfect spec.
A portfolio or examples of projects that demonstrate your work with Unreal Engine, 3D content, shaders, tools, visual effects, or other real-time technology.

Nice To Haves

Experience with Python, C++, or HLSL.
Experience building Unreal Engine tools or workflows with Blueprints or Python.
Experience creating custom materials, shaders, or visual effects.
Experience with Niagara, Nanite, Lumen, Control Rig, or Chaos.
Experience with Houdini or procedural content generation.
Experience using graphics or performance profiling tools such as RenderDoc, PIX, Unreal Insights, or the Unreal GPU Visualizer.
Experience working directly with software engineers on a technical or creative project.
Projects involving simulation, robotics, autonomy, embedded systems, or other real-time technology.
Experience taking a project from prototype to a working, usable result.

Responsibilities

Build and integrate 3D assets, materials, textures, animations, and visual effects in Unreal Engine 5.
Work closely with engineers and technical artists to develop and iterate on real-time visual systems.
Create materials and shaders using Unreal Engine's Material Editor, including custom node-based and HLSL-based solutions where appropriate.
Build tools and workflows that help artists and engineers work faster and more consistently.
Use Blueprints and Python to automate repetitive tasks and improve content pipelines.
Help investigate and solve performance issues across graphics, memory, rendering, and content.
Work with Unreal Engine technologies such as Nanite, Lumen, Niagara, and Chaos.
Collaborate with engineers and product teams to understand technical requirements and turn them into working visual solutions.
Document tools, workflows, and technical decisions so others can build on your work.
Take projects from an initial idea through implementation, feedback, and iteration.