Senior Shader Tech Artist - Unreal Engine

2K; San Mateo (CA); Hybrid; USD 113,000 - 165,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical coverage

Dental coverage

Vision coverage

Life insurance

Paid holidays

Vacation days

Sick days

Parental leave

Wellbeing programs

Commuter benefits

Fitness reimbursements

Job summary

2K is seeking a Senior Shader Technical Artist in California to lead the shader pipeline across disciplines. You will craft and optimize shaders in Unreal Engine, write clean HLSL/GLSL, and help define standards that balance beauty and performance.

Collaborate with Art, Engineering, Design, Lighting, and more to push real-time rendering boundaries while ensuring workflows scale for teams. This role blends artistry with technical depth in a dynamic studio.

Qualifications

• 7+ years in Technical Art role or at least one shipped title.
• Proficient in stylized and PBR shaders using node-based editors, shader networks, procedural texturing, and HLSL code.
• Strong understanding of textures and shaders in a physically-based rendering pipeline.
• Able to communicate and collaborate across disciplines and share ideas.

Responsibilities

• Craft and optimize shader/master materials in Unreal Engine using node-based graphs and HLSL/GLSL/CG.
• Collaborate with teams to uphold artistic and technical shader standards under performance constraints.
• Develop innovative approaches, shaders, shading validation tools, and standards.
• Profile performance, identify bottlenecks, and optimize shaders for visual fidelity and frame rate.
• Demonstrate ownership and push for pipeline efficiency with minimal oversight.
• Create docs, examples, and reusable best practices for distributed teams and naming conventions.
• Work with Art, Engineering, Design, Lighting, and other disciplines to solve cross-discipline issues.
• Assess workflows to identify risks and bottlenecks before they become problems.

Skills

Unreal Engine

HLSL/GLSL/CG

Shader Graph

Shader Optimization

Cross-Discipline

Documentation

Asset Pipeline

Tools

Unreal Engine

Substance Designer

Substance Painter

Photoshop

Job description

2K is seeking a Senior Shader Technical Artist in California to lead the shader pipeline across disciplines. You will craft and optimize shaders in Unreal Engine, write clean HLSL/GLSL, and help define standards that balance beauty and performance.

Collaborate with Art, Engineering, Design, Lighting, and more to push real-time rendering boundaries while ensuring workflows scale for teams. This role blends artistry with technical depth in a dynamic studio.