Senior Technical Artist

SmartRecruiters, Inc.; Paris; On-site; EUR 80,000 - 110,000; Full time

Job summary

SmartRecruiters, Inc. in Paris seeks a Senior Tech Artist to lay the foundations of a structured Tech Art discipline. You will own the asset pipeline across Blender, Houdini, 3DS Max/Maya and Unreal, documenting and scaling it for reusable workflows.

You will mentor a Tech Art individual and collaborate with Gameplay, Tech, Design and Art teams to ensure a cohesive pipeline and performant rendering. This role requires strong French and English communication and deep knowledge of the Unreal

Qualifications

• Mastery of Houdini and Blender.
• Solid Python scripting skills.
• Strong knowledge of the Unreal Engine asset pipeline.
• Knowledge of UE rendering and graphics pipeline: Blueprints, Material Editor, Niagara (VFX), Sequencer, Unreal Insights.
• HLSL and Material Editor mastery for shader authoring.
• Ability to identify and prioritize technical bottlenecks (rendering performance, memory).
• Proven experience in management and mentoring.
• Professional French and English (English is increasingly used day-to-day).

Responsibilities

• Tech Art pipeline ownership across Blender, Houdini, 3DSMax/Maya and Unreal, documenting and scaling it.
• Mentor one Tech Art person and support ramp-up on UE, JIRA task management, prioritization and follow-up.
• Align Tech and Art teams on a shared pipeline with daily collaboration with Gameplay, Tech, Design and Art teams.
• Identify bottlenecks in Unreal, prioritize fixes, and produce reporting via Unreal Insights to back up technical choices.
• Write HLSL shaders and work in Unreal's Material Editor, Niagara (VFX) and Sequencer.

Skills

Houdini

Blender

Python scripting

Unreal Engine asset pipeline

Shader authoring (HLSL)

Unreal rendering pipeline

Performance debugging

Mentoring/management

English/French bilingual

Tools

3DS Max/Maya

Job description

The Paris studio has never had a structured Tech Art function. Graphics development on Unreal Engine currently relies on scattered skills, with no real pipeline and no clear ownership. You will be the first Senior Tech Art to lay the foundations: building a robust pipeline around Houdini and Blender, integrating it cleanly into Unreal, and growing our actual Tech Artist. In short, you turn a function that isn't structured enought today into a recognized discipline within the studio, on a new starting production.

What it means on a daily basis

• Tech Art pipeline ownership: you own the asset pipeline across Blender, Houdini, 3DSmax/Maya and Unreal. You industrialize it, document it, and make it scalable.
• Team mentoring: you mentorone Tech Art people and support her ramp-up on UE, JIRA task management, prioritization and follow-up.
• Cross-team alignment: you align Tech and Art teams on a shared pipeline. Daily collaboration with Gameplay, Tech, Design and Art teams
• Rendering & memory performance: you identify bottlenecks in Unreal, prioritize fixes, and produce reporting via Unreal Insights to back up technical choices.
• Shader authoring: you write HLSL shaders and work in Unreal's Material Editor, Niagara (VFX) and Sequencer.

What success will look like

By the end of the probation period: you are autonomous on Unreal, you produce performance reporting and documentation through UE Insights to justify technical decisions, and in-game rendering metrics hit their targets.

At 12 months: a real pipeline built around Houdini is in place, operational, and adopted by both Art and Tech teams.

Who you would be working with

You report to our Tech Team Lead. You may mentor one Tech Artist and collaborate with all the over disciplines leads. You sit at the heart of a Paris-based Tech team in active structuring on our new game pre production.

Where this role can take you

This role is foundational: you build the Tech Art discipline in Paris from a blank page. Possible evolutions follow naturally from that structuring trajectory - broader scope, increased seniority across other Gameloft productions, or expanded management responsibility as the Tech Art team grows around you.

Qualifications

What you need to succeed

• Mastery of Houdini and Blender
• Solid Python scripting skills
• Strong knowledge of the Unreal Engine asset pipeline
• Knowledge of UE rendering and graphics pipeline: Blueprints, Material Editor, Niagara (VFX), Sequencer, Unreal Insights
• HLSL and Material Editor mastery for shader authoring
• Ability to identify and prioritize technical bottlenecks (rendering performance, memory)
• Proven experience in management and mentoring
• Professional French and English (English is increasingly used day-to-day)

Who you are

• Diplomatic: you navigate between Tech and Art teams with different cultures and build consensus
• Synthetic: you can boil down a complex technical problem into something any stakeholder can grasp
• Autonomous and structured: you manage your own time, you arbitrate between urgent and important without being told

A builder: the idea of laying the foundations of a discipline rather than joining an already-established setup genuinely appeals to you