Senior Technical Artist: Real-Time Immersive Visuals (VR/AR)

The Walt Disney Company; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 134,000 - 172,000; Full time

Job summary

ILM in San Francisco is hiring a Senior Technical Artist to advance real-time visuals for immersive experiences and collaborate across art and engineering teams. You will prototype advanced visuals, develop toolchains, and mentor other artists to optimize performance and quality.

The role requires 5+ years in related fields, strong scripting (Python/C++/C#/Java/VEX/MEL), and expertise with Maya, Unreal, and shader work. Portfolio submission is required with applications.

Qualifications

• 5+ years experience in games, film, television, AR/VR or related fields.
• Programming/scripting languages such as Python, C++, C#, Java, VEX, or MEL and a proficiency with linear algebra.
• Strong 3D art skills with experience and deep understanding of optimizing and constructing modeling, texturing, uv mapping, animation, shading, lighting and particle effects for real-time workflows.
• Proficient in Maya, Houdini, Blender, Substance Designer, Substance Painter, and/or Photoshop.
• Unreal Engine: extensive experience working with UE workflows: Blueprints, material networks, real-time lighting and simulations, post processing.
• Shaders: in-depth knowledge of real-time shader implementations, limitations of shaders in VR, strong knowledge of PBR pipelines and subsurface shaders.
• Materials: extensive experience in the development, authoring & organization of efficient node-based materials, hierarchies, material functions, and custom shaders via the UE4 material editor.
• Familiarity with profiling tools in the examination & diagnosis of performance issues.
• Team-player mindset: open & receptive to ideas, constructive feedback, direction and changes.
• Ability to work independently and efficiently under tight deadlines. Works well with direction, but also is self-motivated and will seek out or devise solutions to unexpected challenges.

Responsibilities

• Conceive, prototype, implement technically advanced visuals and procedural systems.
• Contribute to look development of the highest-caliber real-time art by creating shaders, lighting and particle effects, and partnering with character and environment artists on asset lookdev.
• Partner with the art and engineering teams to understand, define and manage project technical requirements and project asset production.
• Assist artists and designers via tool development, and in concept testing of new ideas, and building of rapid prototypes.
• Look/dev passes of environmental supporting elements, atmospherics, lighting, post-processes and other VFX for scene / level. Actively participate in optimizations, identify, triage, and fix bugs as required.
• Explore and implement new tools and techniques to continuously push the visual bar to the leading edge using scripting (Blueprints, Python) and rapid prototypes.
• Mentor and collaborate with other Technical Artists to improve studio tools and pipelines.
• Proactively identify problems, propose solutions, and seek out buy-in from the team regarding implementation strategy.
• Provide hands‑on support to the development team for asset performance profiling and optimization. Identify, triage, and fix bugs as required.
• Standardize and improve best practices for production of assets, materials, shaders, LODs, asset streaming, collisions, and interactions.
• Innovate discipline workflows and keep up to date on new tools/applications/trends in the industry.

Job description

ILM in San Francisco is hiring a Senior Technical Artist to advance real-time visuals for immersive experiences and collaborate across art and engineering teams. You will prototype advanced visuals, develop toolchains, and mentor other artists to optimize performance and quality.

The role requires 5+ years in related fields, strong scripting (Python/C++/C#/Java/VEX/MEL), and expertise with Maya, Unreal, and shader work. Portfolio submission is required with applications.