Assistant Technical Art Director

The Assistant Technical Art Director at KRAFTON Montreal Studio plays a crucial role in bridging art and technology for an AAA third-person action-adventure RPG. This position supports the Technical Art Director in defining pipelines, tools, shaders, and visual effects, ensuring both visual quality and technical performance. Responsibilities include guiding teams, optimizing graphics, and implementing new technologies across multiple platforms, while mentoring artists and engineers to deliver stunning and robust visuals.

Must Have

• Support the Director in leading, supervising, and growing Technical Art and VFX teams.
• Facilitate collaboration between Art, Engineering, and Design teams.
• Define and maintain art and VFX production pipelines, workflows, and technical standards.
• Guide the creation and optimization of shaders, materials, meshes, and visual effects.
• Ensure tools, documentation, and processes support efficient content creation at scale.
• Evaluate, prototype, and implement new technologies and graphical features.
• Diagnose and resolve complex art-related technical issues and workflow bottlenecks.
• Collaborate with rendering and engine programmers to optimize graphical performance.
• Ensure VFX and art assets meet engine constraints and platform technical requirements.
• Work closely with Art, Animation, Lighting, Rendering, and Engine teams.
• Communicate technical limitations, trade-offs, and solutions clearly.
• 10+ years of experience in Technical Art, VFX, Graphics, or similar role.
• Strong hands-on experience with Unreal Engine.
• Solid understanding of real-time rendering, shaders, materials, and VFX systems.
• Proficiency with Houdini, Niagara, Maya/3DS Max, Substance, Perforce.
• Experience building or improving pipelines, tools, and art workflows.
• Strong debugging, profiling, and optimization skills.
• Demonstrated ability to lead, mentor, or support a high-performance team.
• Experience working on AAA or large-scale game productions.
• Knowledge of scripting or programming languages (Python, HLSL/GLSL, C#, C++).
• Multi-platform development experience (PC + consoles).
• Strong communicator and collaborator able to bridge creative and technical disciplines.
• Solution-oriented mindset with the ability to balance artistic vision and technical constraints.
• Bilingual (English-French).

Perks & Benefits

• Truly hybrid work (remote in Quebec, or in-studio options)
• Generous RRSP employer contributions
• Health, dental & wellness coverage including telemedicine
• Personal & wellness days
• OPUS subsidy

About Krafton Montreal:

We are a leading game development studio composed of veterans of the game industry. We are working on a game based on an acclaimed intellectual property set in an enthralling medieval fantasy world. This game is an AAA third-person action-adventure RPG experience, with a rich narrative and strategic gameplay. At our company, we believe in having fun while creating memorable experiences, being proud of our work, and showing respect for each other's contributions.

Job Description:

The Assistant Technical Art Director plays a key role in bridging art and technology to ensure the visual quality and technical performance of the game. Supporting our Technical Art Director, this role helps define pipelines, tools, shaders, visual effects, and graphic features to achieve the studio’s creative vision.

In addition it will be critical to maintain performance, stability, and scalability across platforms as well as oversee and mentor the Technical Art and VFX teams. This person is both a technical expert and a collaborative leader who thrives in problem-solving, guiding artists and engineers to deliver stunning visuals that are technically robust.

Key Responsibilities

• Support the Director in leading, supervising, and growing the Technical Art and VFX teams.
• Facilitate collaboration between Art, Engineering, and Design to maintain alignment on visual goals and technical constraints.
• Assist in defining and maintaining art and VFX production pipelines, workflows, and technical standards.
• Guide the creation and optimization of shaders, materials, meshes and visual effects across environments, characters, UI, and gameplay.
• Ensure that tools, documentation, and processes support efficient content creation at scale.
• Evaluate, prototype, and implement new technologies, tools, and graphical features to enhance visual fidelity and performance.
• Diagnose and resolve complex art-related technical issues, workflow bottlenecks, and integration challenges.
• Collaborate with rendering and engine programmers to optimize graphical performance across platforms.
• Ensure VFX and art assets meet engine constraints, memory/performance budgets, and platform technical requirements.
• Work closely with Art, Animation, Lighting, Rendering, and Engine teams to maintain visual and technical cohesion.
• Communicate technical limitations, trade-offs, and solutions in a clear and actionable way to both technical and non-technical team members.

Qualifications & Experience

• 10+ years of experience in video game development in Technical Art, VFX, Graphics, or similar role.
• Strong hands-on experience with Unreal Engine
• Solid understanding of real-time rendering, shaders, materials, and VFX systems.
• Proficiency with relevant tools: Houdini, Niagara, Maya/3DS Max, Substance, Perforce etc.
• Experience building or improving pipelines, tools, and art workflows.
• Strong debugging, profiling, and optimization skills (GPU/CPU, memory, draw calls, shaders).
• Demonstrated ability to lead, mentor, or support a high-performance creative/technical team.
• Experience working on AAA or large-scale game productions.
• Knowledge of scripting or programming languages (Python, HLSL/GLSL, C#, C++).
• Multi-platform development experience (PC + consoles).
• Strong communicator and collaborator able to bridge creative and technical disciplines.
• Solution oriented mindset with the ability to balance artistic vision and technical constraints
• Bilingual (English-French)

Studio KRAFTON Montreal is committed to cultivating a work environment that respects all differences and encourages everyone to feel included and valued. We provide equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to age, race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression or any other characteristic protected by applicable laws. Our goal is to provide a safe and respectful workplace that empowers you to thrive in both work and life.

At Studio KRAFTON Montréal we want our team members to have ownership of their work from conception all the way through production while providing them with the best working conditions and benefits that have a positive impact on their lives. This includes:

• Being truly hybrid: meaning you choose if you work remotely all the time (in the province of Quebec), if you wish to come to the studio a couple of days or all the time;
• Generous RRSP employer contributions;
• Health, dental & wellness coverage including telemedicine;
• Personal & wellness days;
• OPUS subsidy.