Lead Technical Artist

AGBO; Raleigh (NC); On-site; USD 110,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

AGBO is seeking a Lead Technical Artist to join our Interactive team. This hands-on leadership role blends art and engineering, from troubleshooting shaders to refining lighting setups and building production tools.

You will set technical direction, establish best practices, mentor other artists, and collaborate with engineering and production to balance visual fidelity with real-time performance. This position offers the opportunity to shape pipelines across disciplines while delivering

Qualifications

• Proven experience as a Technical Artist with a generalist background across lighting, character, and environment art; leadership preferred.
• Strong hands-on shader development experience (HLSL/GLSL or engine shaders).
• Experience building custom tools and pipelines to support art workflows.
• Deep familiarity with Unreal Engine and standard DCC tools (Maya, Blender, Houdini, Substance, ZBrush).
• Solid understanding of rigging, lighting workflows, and real-time optimization.
• Experience leading or mentoring a team of technical artists.

Responsibilities

• Lead the Technical Artist team with mentorship and day-to-day guidance.
• Provide generalist technical art support across lighting, character, environment, VFX and animation.
• Design, build, and maintain shaders balancing fidelity and real-time performance.
• Develop and maintain custom tools and pipelines to improve workflows.
• Define technical standards, budgets, and best practices across disciplines.
• Diagnose and resolve rigging, shading, lighting, and asset optimization issues.
• Own end-to-end technical art pipeline and proactively build solutions.
• Collaborate with art, engineering, and production leads on feasibility.

Skills

Technical Artist

Shader Development

Unreal Engine

Rigging

Lighting

Tools & Pipelines

Collaboration

Character Art

Tools

Maya

Blender

Houdini

Substance

ZBrush

Job description

About The Company

Founded in 2017 by Anthony and Joe Russo, AGBO is an artist-led independent studio shaping the future of film and television. The Russo Brothers and AGBO have generated more than $7 billion at the global box office, including Avengers: Endgame. The studio's projects include Academy Award–winning Everything Everywhere All at Once, Netflix hits The Gray Man and Extraction, and Prime Video's visceral thriller The Bluff and the global Citadel franchise. Citadel Season 2 premieres in May 2026.

AGBO is currently in production with Netflix on Tygo and Mercenary, both part of the Extraction universe, as well as with Lionsgate on John Rambo, a prequel to the iconic franchise. The studio is in post-production on The Whisper Man, starring Robert De Niro, and Avengers: Doomsday, which will be released December 18, 2026. AGBO will begin shooting Avengers: Secret Wars later this year. Both upcoming Avengers films are directed by Anthony and Joe Russo and co‑produced by AGBO and Marvel Studios.

In 2023, AGBO welcomed Donald Mustard—former Chief Creative Officer at Epic Games and co‑creator of Fortnite—as a partner. Mustard brings a bold creative vision to AGBO: to expand what storytelling can be through immersive, interconnected worlds that span across media. We're building the future of storytelling—and we're looking for bold, creative minds to help shape it. If you're ready to help define what comes next, we'd love to meet you.

Position Summary

AGBO is looking for a Lead Technical Artist to join our Interactive team. This is a generalist hands on leadership role for someone who thrives at the intersection of art and engineering – equally comfortable troubleshooting a shader, optimizing a character rig, refining lighting set up or building the tools that make an entire art team faster and more effective. You will set technical direction, and establish best practice.

Key Responsibilities

• Serve as the lead of the Technical Artist team, providing mentorship, code/workflow review, and day-to-day guidance to other technical artists
• Work across multiple disciplines – lighting, character, environment, VFX and animation – providing generalist technical art support wherever it's needed
• Design, build, and maintain shaders that balance visual fidelity with real-time performance
• Develop and maintain custom tools and pipelines (DCC plugins, in-engine editor tools, asset validation/ automation) that improves artist workflows and production efficiency
• Partner closely with engineering, art direction, and production to define technical standards, budgets, and best practices across disciplines
• Diagnose and resolve technical artist issues related to rigging, shading, lighting, and asset optimization
• Own the technical art pipeline end-to-end, identifying bottlenecks and proactively building solutions before they become blockers
• Collaborate cross-functionally with art, engineering, and production leads to ensure technical feasibility
• Perform all other duties as assigned

Qualifications & Skills

• Proven experience as as Technical Artist with a generalist background spanning lighting, character, and environment art ; Prior lead experience strongly preferred
• Strong hands-on shader development experience (HLSL/GLSL, node-based shader graphs, or engine-specific shader languages)
• Demonstrated experience building custom tools and pipelines to support art workflows
• Deep familiarity with Unreal Engine and standard DCC tools (Maya, Blender, Houdini, Substance, ZBrush, etc.)
• Solid understanding of rigging, character setup, lighting workflows, and environment/asset optimization for real-time rendering
• Experience leading or mentoring a team of technical artists with strong communication and cross-functional collaboration skills
• A problem-solving mindset with the ability to move fluidly between hands-on production work and high-level pipeline/tooling strategy
• Passion for interactive storytelling and a strong eye for visual quality balanced with technical performance.

Additional Information

• Candidates must be legally authorized to work in the U.S.

AGBO Labs LLC is committed to operating fair and unbiased recruitment procedures allowing all applicants an equal opportunity for employment, free from discrimination on the basis of religion, race, sex, age, sexual orientation, disability, color, ethnic or national origin or any other classification as may be protected by applicable law. We aim to recruit the right people for the jobs we have to offer, and to assess applications on the basis of relevant skills, education and experience. AGBO participates in E-Verify - English | Spanish The job description in no way states or implies that these are the only duties to be performed by the employee(s) incumbent to this position.