Senior VFX Technical Artist — Unreal/Niagara Pipelines

Riot Games; Sydney; On-site; AUD 130,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Open paid time off policy

Paid parental leave

Flexible work schedules

Co-op gaming areas

Play fund

Snacks

Job summary

Riot Games seeks a Senior VFX Technical Artist to join our R&D efforts, shaping scalable Unreal Engine/Niagara pipelines and artist-facing tools. You will prototype Houdini workflows, optimize performance, and ensure content quality aligns with gameplay goals.

You will own end-to-end technical problems, document best practices, and collaborate with Art, Design, and Engineering to deliver reliable, reusable systems for live projects.

Qualifications

• Senior-level professional experience as a Technical Artist or VFX Technical Artist in games or real-time content production.
• Advanced hands-on Unreal Engine experience, including Niagara systems, modules and Scratchpad, Blueprint, and material authoring.
• Strong scripting and automation skills for artist-facing tools in Python, Blueprint, or similar environments.
• Hands-on pipeline development experience with procedural workflows and real-time content integration.
• Proven ability to design reusable, modular VFX systems and production workflows.
• Understanding of real-time VFX readability, profiling, optimization, and budgets.
• Ability to collaborate across Art, Design, and Engineering and support tool iteration.

Responsibilities

• Own and evolve scalable VFX systems, tools, libraries, and content pipelines in Unreal Engine and Niagara.
• Build reusable, modular, parameterized effects and workflows reducing production time and enabling varied content.
• Partner with VFX Art, Design, Engineering, and Technical Art to translate needs into robust solutions.
• Develop artist-facing tools and automation, including Houdini-based workflows and integrations with real-time pipelines.
• Prototype and validate systems in Unreal Engine using Niagara modules, Scratchpad, Blueprint, and materials workflows.
• Profile and optimize effects for quality, readability, memory, and runtime performance.
• Maintain documentation, standards, and production support practices for easy adoption.

Skills

Unreal Engine

Niagara

Blueprint

Python scripting

Houdini workflows

Tooling automation

VFX systems

Tools

Unreal Engine

Houdini

Scratchpad

Material Graphs

Python

Job description

Riot Games seeks a Senior VFX Technical Artist to join our R&D efforts, shaping scalable Unreal Engine/Niagara pipelines and artist-facing tools. You will prototype Houdini workflows, optimize performance, and ensure content quality aligns with gameplay goals.

You will own end-to-end technical problems, document best practices, and collaborate with Art, Design, and Engineering to deliver reliable, reusable systems for live projects.