Remote Senior VFX Artist - Unreal Engine & Niagara Lead

Snailgamesusa; United States; Remote; USD 115,000 - 160,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, vision, and Life/LTD

401k with company match

Paid holidays and vacation

Job summary

Snail Games USA is seeking a Senior VFX Artist to unify and elevate real-time visual effects across multiple Unreal Engine projects. You will serve as the VFX domain authority within the Art Center, defining standards, guiding technical foundations, and ensuring combat and environmental effects are both visually compelling and gameplay-readable.

This role requires hands‑on work during high‑priority moments, cross‑disciplinary collaboration, and a strong focus on scalability, performance budgets,

Qualifications

• Proven experience delivering high-quality real-time VFX in Unreal Engine (UE4/UE5).
• Strong expertise in Niagara systems and real-time shader/material workflows.
• Deep understanding of gameplay readability, combat feedback, and visual hierarchy.
• Experience optimizing VFX for PC and console performance targets.
• Ability to diagnose workflow inefficiencies and implement improvements.

Responsibilities

• Define and elevate VFX standards across multiple Unreal Engine projects.
• Monitor cross-project VFX quality and proactively identify artistic or technical risks.
• Develop solution plans before escalation to senior leadership.
• Design and build high-quality real-time VFX from concept through final implementation.
• Establish scalable, reusable Niagara systems and clean production pipelines.
• Ensure combat and environmental effects maintain gameplay readability and performance discipline.
• Lead performance optimization efforts, managing particle counts, shader complexity, and overdraw budgets.
• Provide direct, constructive feedback to distributed teams (US, Poland, Suzhou).
• Create benchmarks, documentation, and best practices for consistent VFX execution.
• Step in hands‑on during high‑risk or high‑visibility moments to stabilize delivery.

Skills

Unreal Engine

Niagara

Real-time VFX

Shader/Materials

Performance optimization

Tools

Unreal Engine

Niagara Editor

Job description

Snail Games USA is seeking a Senior VFX Artist to unify and elevate real-time visual effects across multiple Unreal Engine projects. You will serve as the VFX domain authority within the Art Center, defining standards, guiding technical foundations, and ensuring combat and environmental effects are both visually compelling and gameplay-readable.

This role requires hands‑on work during high‑priority moments, cross‑disciplinary collaboration, and a strong focus on scalability, performance budgets,