Senior Technical Artist (Video Game Studio) Job at DISBELIEF in Chicago

Job Title: Senior Technical Artist

Type: Full time

Who We Are: Disbelief is a game development studio focusing on contracting and consulting services. We’ve worked with both AAA and independent studios to help their projects ship. Notable projects we’ve worked on include Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, Minecraft, Borderlands 3, Gears Tactics, Gears 5, and Pacific Drive.

At Disbelief we value work-life balance, and want to create an alternative to the crunch-culture prevalent in game development. We also believe strongly in investing in our talent and our team. Disbelief is a place to puzzle out the solutions to cutting-edge problems for industry leading projects, but also a place where people can grow their careers and skills as valued members of a stable and close-knit team.

Description: Currently, we’re looking for a Senior Technical Artist. This opportunity is for a full-time position in Cambridge, MA or Chicago, IL. Senior Technical Artists at Disbelief are leaders and key contributors on their project. They act as a bridge between the technical and artistic aspects of game development, empowering programming, art and design to achieve more than either could on their own. Beyond solving tough problems on their own, tech artists act as mentors and teachers. As a Senior Technical Artist, you will be a key in investigating and solving difficult performance problems while maintaining visual quality. You will work in a variety of areas including modeling, materials, texturing, animation, FX, gameplay, UI, as well as building art tools to improve workflows. 

We work with leading edge technologies to make them perform at the top of their capabilities, and we take pride in solving problems others can't. We believe a diverse team is a stronger team, and we encourage marginalized candidates to apply.

Key Responsibilities: 

• Solve technical problems from an artist’s point of view 
• Diagnose and solve performance problems while championing visual quality standards
• Act as a primary bridge between art, engineering and gameplay teams
• Teach and mentor other artists
• Continue to explore new software and techniques, including novel solutions
• Prototype new workflows and systems
• Make improvements to existing pipelines as part of a team
• Clearly communicate internally and externally with clients
• Estimate the time it takes to complete tasks with a big picture of the project schedule

Skills and Requirements:

• Degree in art, computer science, or equivalent experience
• Excellent communication skills, both verbal and written 
• 5+ years of game industry experience as a tech artist
• 3+ years of Unreal experience
• One shipped Unreal engine title
• Deep understanding of real time rendering
• Experience working on at least one AAA or equivalent project
• Experience with version control with Perforce, Git, or equivalent on multiple projects
• Portfolio demonstrating 
• Shipped AAA quality technical art
• Gameplay, tools, and pipeline scripting
• Proficiency in cross disciplinary tasks
• Artistic sensibility

Location: Chicago, IL or Cambridge, MA

Relocation Assistance: Available where applicable

Remote: Hybrid. Developers are in the office based on project needs, but can often work from home. Some of our projects require access to physical infrastructure daily.

Visa Sponsorship: No. Disbelief does not offer visa sponsorship at the current time. 

We are an E-Verify employer.

Technologies: Our DCC tools vary depending on the project, but will typically involve a combination of 3ds Max, Maya, Substance, Photoshop. Our real-time work often requires knowledge of animation, physics, material and particle systems. Primarily we work with Unreal Engine, but we also work with custom game engines. Scripting in Python, Maxscript, Mel, Javascript, C# and Unreal Blueprint is often required to solve pipeline and workflow problems.

Contact: Please submit resume and portfolio to jobs@disbelief.com