Materials Artist – Contract

Jobtailor; Bellevue (WA); On-site; USD 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

Jobtailor is seeking a skilled Environment/Prop Artist to craft high-quality PBR materials and props for Unreal Engine 5, collaborating across art and tech teams to drive the project's visual storytelling.

You will build Substance Designer graphs, create game-ready assets from high-poly to in-game, and iterate rapidly while maintaining polish and performance. Bellevue-based with a focus on immersive environments.

Qualifications

• 3+ years of professional game development experience creating environment or prop art for shipped titles.
• Strong portfolio demonstrating high-quality material and surface creation across a variety of styles and real world surfaces.
• Excellent understanding of form, composition, materials, scale, and environmental storytelling.
• Experience creating game-ready materials and assets from high-poly through optimized in-game implementation.
• Strong collaboration and communication skills with both artistic and technical teams, with ability to both give and receive constructive criticism.
• Ability to iterate quickly while maintaining a high level of polish and craftsmanship.
• Passion for games, world building, and creating immersive player experiences.

Responsibilities

• Create high-quality PBR materials and surface treatments that support and elevate the project’s visual direction.
• Build and manage Substance Designer graphs for tileable materials, trims, and surface detail.
• Create 3D props and environment assets for a wide range of locations in Unreal Engine 5.
• Partner closely with Tech Art, Concept Art, Environment Art, Design, and Art Direction to translate visual targets and gameplay needs into compelling in-game assets.
• Collaborate with Environment Artists to ensure materials are integrated consistently and effectively across in-game environments.
• Collaborate with Technical Artists and Engineers to improve workflows, pipelines, optimization, and asset integration processes.
• Contribute to the development and documentation of material workflows, standards, and libraries.
• Track and address material-related bugs.
• Proactively seek and apply feedback while contributing ideas that elevate the overall visual direction of the project.
• Balance artistic quality with performance, readability, gameplay needs, and production constraints.
• Continuously push the quality of the game through strong craftsmanship, iteration, and attention to detail.

Skills

Collaboration

Communication

Iterative craftsmanship

Visual storytelling

Tools

Substance Designer

Maya

ZBrush

Blender

Photoshop

Unreal Engine 5

Job description

• Create high-quality PBR materials and surface treatments that support and elevate the project’s visual direction.
• Build and manage Substance Designer graphs for tileable materials, trims, and surface detail.
• Create 3D props and environment assets for a wide range of locations in Unreal Engine 5.
• Partner closely with Tech Art, Concept Art, Environment Art, Design, and Art Direction to translate visual targets and gameplay needs into compelling in-game assets.
• Collaborate with Environment Artists to ensure materials are integrated consistently and effectively across in-game environments.
• Collaborate with Technical Artists and Engineers to improve workflows, pipelines, optimization, and asset integration processes.
• Contribute to the development and documentation of material workflows, standards, and libraries.
• Track and address material-related bugs.
• Proactively seek and apply feedback while contributing ideas that elevate the overall visual direction of the project.
• Balance artistic quality with performance, readability, gameplay needs, and production constraints.
• Continuously push the quality of the game through strong craftsmanship, iteration, and attention to detail.

Requirements

• 3+ years of professional game development experience creating environment or prop art for shipped titles.
• Strong portfolio demonstrating high-quality material and surface creation across a variety of styles and real world surfaces.
• Excellent understanding of form, composition, materials, scale, and environmental storytelling.
• Experience creating game-ready materials and assets from high-poly through optimized in-game implementation.
• Strong proficiency in Substance Designer, Maya, ZBrush, Blender and Photoshop.
• Experience working in Unreal Engine workflows, ideally UE5.
• Understanding of physically based rendering (PBR) pipelines and modern asset creation techniques. asset optimization and best practices in content creation.
• Strong collaboration and communication skills with both artistic and technical teams, with ability to both give and receive constructive criticism.
• Ability to iterate quickly while maintaining a high level of polish and craftsmanship.
• Passion for games, world building, and creating immersive player experiences.

Core Competencies

Demonstrates expertise in creating high-quality PBR materials and environment assets using Unreal Engine 5, with a strong focus on collaboration across artistic and technical teams to enhance visual storytelling and gameplay experience.

Highest-signal resume keywords

• Substance Designer Proficiency
• Unreal Engine 5 Experience
• High-Quality Material Creation
• Collaboration With Technical Artists
• Game Development Experience

ATS Optimization Keywords

Hard Skills

• PBR Material Creation
• Environment Asset Development
• Game-Ready Asset Optimization
• High-Poly to In-Game Implementation
• Form and Composition Understanding

Soft Skills

• Strong Collaboration Skills
• Effective Communication
• Constructive Criticism Reception

Industry Keywords

• Game Development
• Environment Art
• Visual Direction
• Asset Integration
• Material Workflows

Tools & Technologies

• Substance Designer
• Maya
• ZBrush
• Blender
• Photoshop