Technical Artist - Onsite NZ Studio, Shaders & Tools

Blind Squirrel Entertainment, Inc.; Auckland; Hybrid; NZD 70,000 - 105,000; Full time

Job summary

Blind Squirrel Games (BSG) is seeking a Technical Artist for full-time, on-site work in Auckland, NZ. You will bridge art vision and technical execution, developing shaders, materials, and tools while collaborating with artists, designers, and engineers to deliver high-quality assets.

You will optimize rendering, support VR/AR content as needed, and mentor junior artists, shaping pipelines and workflows for efficient production. A strong portfolio and shipped titles are required.

Qualifications

• Three+ years in game development focusing on technical art; five+ years for senior roles.
• At least one shipped title as Technical Artist; seniors expected to have shipped two titles.
• Portfolio showing technical art assets, tools, and solutions with depth and complexity.
• Experience integrating and optimizing art assets in a game engine.
• Proficiency in shader development with HLSL and node-based material systems.
• Understanding of art pipelines, rendering concepts, and performance constraints.
• Ability to troubleshoot issues and collaborate with artists and engineers.
• Strong communication, organization, and time-management skills.
• Greater ownership and mentoring expected for senior roles.

Responsibilities

• Create/modify shaders using HLSL and develop custom materials.
• Integrate assets into game engines, troubleshoot, and optimize performance.
• Develop destructible assets and simulations (cloth, cables).
• Implement HDR workflows, lighting, color grading, post-processing.
• Use real-time rendering and ray tracing where appropriate for lighting/reflectivity.
• Develop scripts/tools to automate tasks and workflows.
• Apply procedural content generation for large-scale art production.
• Support art content for VR/AR as needed by project.
• Organize assets in version control systems and metadata.
• Analyze performance; profile GPU/CPU usage; optimize rendering pipelines.
• Collaborate with artists, designers, and engineers to resolve challenges.
• Assist production with schedules, dependencies, and risks.
• Document pipelines and best practices for training.
• Contribute to pipeline improvements and mentor colleagues.

Skills

Shader development (HLSL)

Node-based materials

Pipeline ownership

Optimization techniques

Mentoring

Cross-functional collaboration

Troubleshooting

Tools

Unreal Engine

Unity

Maya

Photoshop

Substance Designer/Painter

ZBrush

Jira

Job description

Blind Squirrel Games (BSG) is seeking a Technical Artist for full-time, on-site work in Auckland, NZ. You will bridge art vision and technical execution, developing shaders, materials, and tools while collaborating with artists, designers, and engineers to deliver high-quality assets.

You will optimize rendering, support VR/AR content as needed, and mentor junior artists, shaping pipelines and workflows for efficient production. A strong portfolio and shipped titles are required.