Senior Unreal Shader Artist

Join Romero Games as we develop John Romero’s next First Person Shooter in partnership with a major publisher! This is an unprecedented opportunity to join a thriving independent development studio and work on a high-profile title that will be played by millions of gamers worldwide.

We are seeking a highly skilled Senior Unreal Shader Artist to join our expanding team on a full-time basis. In this role, you will bridge the gap between the art and programming teams to ensure our assets achieve the highest technical and visual quality. Your responsibilities will include supporting artists with custom shaders and functions, setting up efficient workflows, and incorporating artistic vision and game design into materials and textures. You must have a strong understanding of shader optimization, material creation, real-time performance, and Unreal Engine to be able to integrate high quality, efficient materials for the game.

Ideally, you can relocate to join us in Galway, Ireland, but a remote role is also possible for the right candidate in a European timezone. In your cover letter or email, please note your preference (remote/hybrid/onsite in Galway).

What you will do:

• Custom Shader Development: Design, develop, and optimize custom shaders and material functions within Unreal Engine to meet specific artistic and technical needs.

• Pipeline and Workflow Setup: Establish and refine workflows, pipelines, and best practices for shader creation, ensuring efficiency and consistency across the art production process.

• Artistic Integration: Collaborate closely with art direction and game design teams to translate artistic vision into highly optimized materials and textures that enhance the game’s visual fidelity.

• Technical Problem Solving: Serve as a bridge between the art, programming, and design teams, troubleshooting and providing solutions to maintain a visually consistent and performant game.

• Material Library Management: Oversee the creation, organization, and maintenance of a comprehensive material library, ensuring it aligns with the game’s aesthetic and technical standards.

• Optimization: Continuously optimize shaders and materials to meet performance requirements, reducing draw calls, shader complexity, and memory usage without sacrificing visual quality.

• Technical Documentation: Develop and maintain clear, detailed technical documentation for shaders, materials, and related workflows to support the team’s efficiency and knowledge sharing.

What you will have:

• Extensive Experience: A minimum of 5 years in a shader artist role within the games industry, with a proven track record of developing high-quality, real-time shaders.

• Unreal Material System: Deep understanding of PBR principles and extensive Unreal Engine material node system experience

• Technical Proficiency: Expert knowledge of real-time rendering, post-processing pipelines, and the technical demands of game content, including draw calls, polycounts, shader complexity, and memory usage.

• Problem-Solving Skills: Demonstrated ability to develop art-driven technical solutions for visual gameplay features, and to optimize performance while maintaining high visual standards.

• Communication and Collaboration: Strong communication skills with the ability to work effectively with cross-functional teams, facilitating smooth interactions between art, programming, and design departments.

• Detail-Oriented: High attention to detail with an artistic mindset, ensuring the highest quality and consistency in all shader and material work.

• Proactive Mindset: A self-driven approach with the ability to prioritize tasks effectively in a fast-paced production environment.

What is nice to have:

• Experience with Unreal Engine 5, including newer features such as Nanite, Lumen, Niagara, etc.

• Experience with shader customization for skins (content creation)

• Understanding of 3d asset needs and performance optimization

• Shader & material development experience

• Experience scripting languages used to create the scripts/tools necessary for accelerating and optimizing art production workflows

• Experience working on a First Person Shooter

• A strong portfolio

Romero Games Benefits

• Ownership. Everyone in the company benefits from ownership in the company. Every full-time Romero Games employee is given a stake. (This benefit is not open to contractors.)

• Vacation: Time off for vacation. Five weeks vacation per year + 10 national holidays. Extra vacation days after 5 and 10 years of service.

• Hybrid Working. Flexible working hours, including work-from-home and remote work.

• Sabbaticals: At 5+ years, should you choose to take unpaid time for a personal project, we will cover 20% of your pay provided that it is in your area of interest.

• Premium Health. Premium health benefits, plus extended healthcare coverage.

• Fertility Leave: For employees undergoing IVF treatment, surrogacy or other forms of fertility treatment, two days per cycle for recovery or travel.

• Relocation assistance. Flexible start dates, relocation reimbursement and assistance in finding housing. 

• Life-Friendly Policies: We understand that work is one of the things that you do and that life happens. We have a long and consistent pattern of life-friendly management, whether taking your kids to creche, assisting your parents with an appointment, or taking your pet to the vet.

• Menopause: Up to five days off per year for appointments or recovery days.

• Clothing Assistance Program: A financial support for people going through a major life event such a pregnancy or gender affirming care.

• Compassionate Leave / Bereavement. We support employees by offering paid time off during bereavement for immediate family. This includes loss of pregnancy, including the loss of surrogate pregnancy.

• Parental Leave and Support. Family-focused benefits include fully paid maternity and paternity leave and flexible work hours. Most people here are parents. We get it.

• Professional Development: World-class workshops on accessibility, diversity, design and more, from internationally recognized experts.

• Social Events. Regular social events such as pub nights (including online pub nights), holiday parties, barbecues and conferences, with accommodation and travel covered by us. 

• Expert Speakers. Monthly insider expert seminars with renowned creators such as John Carmack, Rhianna Pratchett (Tomb Raider), Warren Spector (Deus Ex), David Brevik (Diablo), Harvey Smith (Dishonored), Josh Sawyer (Pillars of Eternity), and more.

• Bike to Work Program: Within Ireland, using the Bike-to-Work government initiative, employees obtain a brand new bike and safety equipment worth up to €1,250 for a regular bike, and up to €1,500 for an electric bike. The scheme covers your new bike and gear, saving 52% of the retail price of bike and equipment.