Tech Art Director (Shaders)

Our client looking for an experienced Tech Art Director to join their team and play a crucial role in bridging the gap between art and technology. In this leadership role, you will be responsible for overseeing the technical aspects of art production, optimizing workflows, and ensuring the artistic vision is realized through efficient and effective technical solutions.

Your expertise will be essential in guiding the technical art team, collaborating closely with both artists and engineers to develop innovative solutions that enhance the visual fidelity and performance of our games. This position is ideal for someone who possesses a strong technical background in game development, a deep understanding of art pipelines, and a passion for leading and mentoring a team.

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead and mentor a team of technical artists (both internal and co-dev), setting goals and ensuring high-quality technical solutions align with project timelines and artistic vision.
• Develop and optimize art pipelines and workflows, identifying bottlenecks and implementing improvements.
• Collaborate with artists and engineers to develop and integrate tools and technologies that enhance the visual quality and efficiency of asset creation.
• Drive the research and implementation of new techniques and technologies to push the visual boundaries of the game.
• Establish best practices and standards for the technical art team, ensuring consistency and quality across projects.
• Actively participate in the creative process, providing technical guidance to ensure feasibility without compromising artistic goals.
• Work closely with Environments, Characters, VFX, Lighting, Rendering, and other content teams to build new tools and pipelines

Basic Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Digital Arts, or a related field.
• 10+ years of game development experience, at least two shipped AAA titles and 3+ years in a leadership role
• Strong leadership skills, with a track record of successfully mentoring and developing talent.
• Proficiency in industry-standard software like Maya, 3DS Max, Blender, and game engines such as Unreal Engine or Unity.
• Solid understanding of art and animation pipelines in game development.
• Prior experience with PBR shading, modeling and texturing on a AAA console title as well as Unreal/Maya shading graphs or HLSL
• Experience with setting content budgets, asset optimization, platform challenges and best practices/techniques in this area.
• Proficient scripting/programming skills in Python and C#. (C++ is a bonus, but not required).
• A portfolio demonstrating a history of successful projects and technical innovation.