Senior Technical Artist

Certain Affinity, Inc.; Austin (TX); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Certain Affinity, Inc. in Austin, TX, is seeking a Senior Technical Artist to elevate visual fidelity and performance across current and future projects.

You will partner with Art, Design, Engineering, VFX, and Rendering to create efficient tools, workflows, and content pipelines within Unreal Engine. The ideal candidate brings deep production experience, strong technical judgment, and a passion for solving cross-discipline challenges to deliver high-quality visuals at scale, while maintaining

Qualifications

• 5+ years of game industry experience, with 4+ years in a Technical Artist role.
• Proven experience standing up or evolving pipelines in early or ambiguous production phases.
• Shipped 1+ AAA title as a Technical Artist.
• Strong scripting or programming skills (Python, MEL, C#, or C++) with a focus on rapid tool development.
• Experience working with both lighting and VFX in Unreal Engine.
• Knowledge in FluidNinja, Chaos Physics, and EmberGen.
• Deep familiarity with Unreal Engine systems, including Materials/Shader Graph, Blueprint workflows, and performance profiling tools (e.g., Unreal Insights, Stat commands).
• Expert-level experience with at least one DCC package (Maya, Max, Blender, or similar) including asset prep and export pipelines.
• Experience building or supporting environment art workflows and content pipelines (e.g., Substance Designer/Painter, Houdini for procedural generation).
• Strong problem-solving skills with the ability to prioritize speed and impact in a fast-moving environment.
• Clear communication and ability to operate effectively within a small, highly collaborative team.
• Portfolio demonstrating tools, workflows, or pipeline solutions that improved team velocity.
• A desire to work in a diverse and inclusive environment.

Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain scalable Technical Art workflows, tools, and pipelines that support high-quality visual execution across current projects.
• Partner with Art, VFX, Design, Engineering, and Rendering to improve visual fidelity, content iteration, and runtime performance in Unreal Engine.
• Support VFX pipeline development, simulation workflows, material systems, and content integration to help achieve project visual targets.
• Identify pipeline gaps and implement pragmatic, production-ready solutions that unblock teams and improve asset quality, consistency, and throughput.
• Build and deploy tools using Python, Unreal Editor Utility Blueprints, Houdini Digital Assets, or similar technologies to streamline content creation and validation.
• Own and improve core art pipelines, ensuring they remain stable, efficient, performance-conscious, and adaptable as project needs evolve.
• Troubleshoot complex content, rendering, material, VFX, and performance issues across multiple disciplines.
• Establish best practices for visual quality and technical scalability, including Nanite usage, texture streaming, LODs, material complexity, profiling, and optimization workflows.
• Facilitate clear cross-discipline communication to align visual goals, technical constraints, and production priorities.

Skills

Python scripting

Unreal Engine

Blueprint workflows

VFX integration

Tool development

Cross-disciplinary communication

Problem solving

Tools

Maya

Houdini

Substance Designer/Painter

Unreal Editor Utility Blueprints

Job description

Senior Technical Artist

Would you like to help push the visual quality of current and future games across some of the greatest franchises in gaming history, as well as new original IP? Certain Affinity has physical locations in Austin, Texas, and Toronto, Canada. Our culture reflects the values and vibrant nature of the cities we call home, including a commitment to evolution, diversity, excellence, and work-life balance. We are best known for co-developing numerous AAA FPS games, and we are continuing to expand the quality, ambition, and technical sophistication of the experiences we help bring to life.

As a Senior Technical Artist, you will play a hands-on role in improving the visual fidelity, efficiency, and scalability of our art pipelines for current projects. You will partner closely with Art, Design, Engineering, VFX, and Rendering to develop tools, workflows, materials, simulations, and content pipelines that help teams achieve a high-quality visual target while maintaining strong performance and iteration speed.

This role reports to the Technical Art Director and is ideal for someone who combines deep production experience with strong technical judgment, a sharp eye for visual quality, and the ability to solve complex cross-discipline problems in Unreal Engine.

Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain scalable Technical Art workflows, tools, and pipelines that support high-quality visual execution across current projects.
• Partner with Art, VFX, Design, Engineering, and Rendering to improve visual fidelity, content iteration, and runtime performance in Unreal Engine.
• Support VFX pipeline development, simulation workflows, material systems, and content integration to help achieve project visual targets.
• Identify pipeline gaps and implement pragmatic, production-ready solutions that unblock teams and improve asset quality, consistency, and throughput.
• Build and deploy tools using Python, Unreal Editor Utility Blueprints, Houdini Digital Assets, or similar technologies to streamline content creation and validation.
• Own and improve core art pipelines, ensuring they remain stable, efficient, performance-conscious, and adaptable as project needs evolve.
• Troubleshoot complex content, rendering, material, VFX, and performance issues across multiple disciplines.
• Establish best practices for visual quality and technical scalability, including Nanite usage, texture streaming, LODs, material complexity, profiling, and optimization workflows.
• Facilitate clear cross-discipline communication to align visual goals, technical constraints, and production priorities.

Requirements

• 5+ years of game industry experience, with 4+ years in a Technical Artist role
• Proven experience standing up or significantly evolving pipelines in early or ambiguous production phases
• Shipped 1+ AAA title as a Technical Artist
• Strong scripting or programming skills (Python, MEL, C#, or C++) with a focus on rapid tool development
• Experience working with both lighting and VFX in Unreal Engine
• Knowledge in FluidNinja, Chaos Physics, and EmberGen
• Deep familiarity with Unreal Engine systems, including Materials/Shader Graph, Blueprint workflows, and performance profiling tools (e.g., Unreal Insights, Stat commands)
• Expert-level experience with at least one DCC package (Maya, Max, Blender, or similar) including asset prep and export pipelines
• Experience building or supporting environment art workflows and content pipelines (e.g., Substance Designer/Painter, Houdini for procedural generation)
• Strong problem-solving skills with the ability to prioritize speed and impact in a fast-moving environment
• Clear communication and ability to operate effectively within a small, highly collaborative team
• Portfolio demonstrating tools, workflows, or pipeline solutions that improved team velocity
• A desire to work in a diverse and inclusive environment

Extra Credit

• Experience working in small or strike teams, covering multiple roles across Tech Art, Tools, and Rendering
• Experience supporting animation or technical animation workflows (e.g., Control Rig, Animation Blueprints, state machines, or runtime rigging/debugging)
• Experience setting up or improving content validation and build pipelines
• Experience creating documentation and onboarding workflows
• Ability to evaluate and integrate third‑party tools or middleware to accelerate development