Senior Artist

Magnopus is seeking a Senior Artist for their Los Angeles team to work on large-scale, boundary-pushing projects in games, VR/AR, and virtual production. The role involves advocating for best practices in in-game environment performance, collaborating with designers and artists, mentoring junior artists, and contributing to fun, impactful experiences using new technologies. The ideal candidate will have strong problem-solving skills and a passion for innovation.

Must Have

• Advocate for best practices in in-game environment performance.
• Integral contributor within Magnopus’s development teams.
• Exceptional problem-solving skills and creative thinking.
• Partner with designers and artists for cohesive lighting solutions.
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills for cross-team collaboration.
• Work closely with the team to tackle complex challenges and refine workflows.
• Document tools and techniques for departmental reference.
• Assist Lead Artist with creating schedules and timelines.
• Mentor junior artists and set visual quality standards.
• Work with Leads and stakeholders to address client or creative team notes.
• 5+ years experience with real-time environment art creation.
• 5+ years experience developing games or VR/AR titles using Unreal or Unity.
• Solid understanding of lighting and environment composition.
• Expertise in Maya for modeling and UV work.
• Proficiency in Substance Painter/Designer and Photoshop.
• Strong understanding of PBR principles for texture and material authoring.
• Ability to prepare film-quality assets for AR/VR environments efficiently.
• Strong artistic sensibility for lighting, composition, atmosphere, and player experience.
• Passion for innovation and commitment to leading-edge industry trends.
• Experience collaborating with multi-disciplinary teams using task-management software.

Good to Have

• Visual Effects experience (Nuke, VRAY).
• Knowledge of shaders/materials and their underlying mechanics.
• Basic Scripting Knowledge (C# / Javascript / Python).
• Background in cinematography, film lighting, or live-action production.
• Animation/Rigging Experience.

Perks & Benefits

• Ongoing education and mentorship opportunities through guilds.
• Generous health care benefits.
• Time off benefits.
• Support for happiness and productivity.
• Safe environment for taking risks and learning from failures.
• Collaboration-focused workplace.

We’ve been working on a variety of large-scale projects that will push boundaries and we’re building up the team to execute these ambitious visions on a global stage. We’ve got a rare opportunity to show the rest of the world what all this new tech is good for, while delivering fun experiences and engaging narratives that make a positive impact, but we need your help to make them truly amazing.

We are seeking a talented Senior Artist to join our Los Angeles team!

Responsibilities

• Advocate for and promote best practices in in-game environment performance, including asset creation, materials, lighting, and related workflows..
• Serve as an integral contributor within Magnopus’s development teams
• Exceptional problem-solving skills and the ability to think creatively
• Partner with designers and artists to provide cohesive lighting solutions
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to work collaboratively across teams and with key stakeholders.
• Work closely with the team to tackle complex challenges while shaping and refining best practices and workflows.
• Document tools and techniques for departmental reference.
• Assist Lead Artist with creating schedules and timelines for projects
• Mentoring junior artists while setting visual quality standards
• Work with Leads and stakeholders to address notes from clients or creative teams
• Additional responsibilities as assigned by the Art Lead.

Required Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience with real-time environment art creation
• 5+ years experience developing games, or VR/AR titles using a real-time 3D game engine like Unreal (preferred) or Unity, including at least 2 shipped titles
• Solid understanding of lighting and environment composition
• Expertise in Maya for modeling and UV work
• Excellent proficiency in Substance Painter/Designer and Photoshop
• Strong understanding of authoring texture and material following PBR principles
• Ability to take film-quality assets and prepare them for rendering in an AR/VR environment with focus on performance and memory efficiency
• Strong artistic sensibility for lighting, composition, atmosphere, and player experience
• Passion for innovation and a steadfast commitment to leading-edge industry trends and technologies
• Experience collaborating with multi-disciplinary teams using task-management software (JIRA, Shotgun, etc.)

Even Better if You Also Have

• Visual Effects experience (Nuke, VRAY, etc)
• Knowledge of shaders/materials and how they work under the hood
• Basic Scripting Knowledge (C# / Javascript / Python)
• Background in cinematography, film lighting, or live-action production
• Animation/Rigging Experience

Salaries offered are based on candidate experience, internal equity, and the level at which they are hired.

Magnopus is an experience focused technology company founded by a team of Oscar-winning artists, designers, and engineers from games, films, and other unusual places. We’re passionate about creating rich experiences that unite the physical and digital worlds.

Because we’re building the future, we endeavor to create a diverse, creative workplace where people from many perspectives collaborate across disciplines to create amazing things together. We invest in our employee's progression with ongoing education and mentorship opportunities through their guilds, and support their happiness and productivity through generous health care, time off, and other benefits.

We try to foster a safe environment where we can take risks, and learn from our failures. While we value individual talents, we favor collaboration more. We believe that the leadership of the company works for the employees, not the other way around. We feel strongly that our employees guide who we are as a company and the work we create, so we look for characteristics of curiosity, empathy, respect, honesty, and courage in every candidate.

Though we’ve delivered a lot of crazy stuff, here are a few you can check out at home:

Mission: ISS

Disney Pixar Coco VR

Blade Runner 2049: Memory Lab

The Lion King - Virtual Production

Elixir

We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process - for example, to transcribe interviews and generate summaries. These tools are not used to review applications or analyse resumes, and they do not replace human judgement. All hiring decisions are made by people. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please contact us.