Senior Technical Artist
This opportunity is a 12‑month fixed‑term contract (with possible extension) based in either of our UK studio sites (Daresbury or Newcastle) on a hybrid working basis. Working pattern: 3 days per week in the studio: Wednesday, Thursday, and one day of your choice.
Responsibilities
- Establish and maintain project art pipelines from inception and throughout the project life‑cycle.
- Support the art and animation team requirements and assist with resolving technical issues.
- Creating and integrating in‑house toolsets and creation of materials/shaders.
- Ensure all artwork hits memory and frame rate guidelines/restrictions by means of performance profiling.
- Collaborate with the artists and provide feedback on how they can improve the performance of the in‑game assets while maintaining visual fidelity.
- Able, when required, to take ownership of specific features of the game.
- Ensure all artwork adheres to guidelines regarding naming conventions, texture layering structures, etc.
- Keep up to date with industry advancements and technologies and share knowledge with the art team.
- Add to our library of tutorials, documents and technical guides to improve efficiency in the art pipeline and be proactive in finding solutions to technical issues.
- With a professional and organised approach, adhere to schedules and promptly feedback concerns regarding any aspects of the project.
- Ensure the right tasks are tackled in the right order, updating Jira, communicating progress and helping to manage team deliverables.
- Advise the Technical Art Leadership of resourcing concerns and production risks.
- Encourage and mentor other members of the Technical Art Team.
- Self‑driven, autonomous and confident, demonstrate responsibility for work quality and processes for both yourself and other members of the tech art team, actively contributing fresh ideas and encouraging the team.
- Confident with motivating Tech Artists, inspire colleagues to flourish and help promote a culture of collaborative innovation.
Qualifications
Essential Skills
- Enjoy the technical challenge and constraints of real‑time game art and have some understanding of modern rendering, shading and lighting techniques.
- Must be performance and quality focused.
- Must have an excellent working knowledge and proficiency in Maya and/or 3DS Max and an excellent in‑depth knowledge in Python.
- Excellent communication and organisation skills and confident working within a multidisciplinary art team.
- Evidence of being an enthusiastic leader or role model in an intermediate art role.
- Able to create materials/shaders and a good understanding of a PBR workflow.
- Excellent understanding of the technical limitations of current console hardware.
- Practical and methodical approach to technical and creative problem‑solving. Demonstrate dependability and commitment to projects and tasks, and a hunger to learn and improve as a Technical Artist.
- Flexible and calm approach with the ability to adapt to change.
- Ability to deliver quality work within fixed time constraints.
- Strong knowledge of modern game engines such as Unreal Engine or Unity.
- Excellent knowledge of current game development practices and terminology and a passion for staying up to date with latest technology and embracing newer game art techniques.
Desirable Skills
- Knowledge of other scripting languages is advantageous.
- Knowledge of the Maya API and programming in C++ or C# is advantageous.
- Some understanding of various other tools and software used in development, Photoshop, Substance, Houdini, etc. is also advantageous.
- Experience of working within game development for at least 4 years. At least three published titles.
- At least two full project cycles in an Intermediate Art position.
Benefits
- 22 days holiday + 3 festive studio closures + bank holidays.
- Company pension scheme.
- Flexible working hours.
- Private medical insurance scheme – BUPA.
- Anti‑crunch ethos – a professional, fun and supportive working environment.
- Free parking.
- Company socials, monthly lunches and annual d3t events.
- Breakout areas – filled with perks such as games, BBQ area, complimentary snacks to suit all dietary preferences.
