Tech Art Intern- Undergraduate

PlayStation; Burbank (CA); On-site; USD 41,000 - 59,000; Full time

Job summary

Insomniac Games, part of Sony Interactive Entertainment, seeks a Technical Artist Intern in California to help design, develop, and optimize shaders for real-time rendering. You’ll collaborate with artists and programmers to craft visual effects while maintaining performance and efficient workflows throughout the 12-week internship.

You will gain hands-on experience in shader development, graphics optimization, and production pipelines, strengthening problem-solving and teamwork skills in a game

Qualifications

• Pursuing degree in Computer Science, Computer Graphics, or related field.
• Proficient in HLSL shader programming.
• Experience with real-time rendering pipelines.
• Strong understanding of 3D math.
• Experience optimizing shaders for performance.
• Familiar with Unity or Unreal Engine.
• Strong debugging and problem-solving skills.
• Good communication and collaboration.
• Knowledge of PBR and post-processing effects.
• Interest in emerging game development technologies.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement small-scale shaders for environments and characters.
• Collaborate with artists and programmers to develop technical solutions.
• Maintain and improve existing shaders for quality and performance.
• Debug material graphs to resolve visual issues.
• Document implementation details to support workflows.
• Develop sample content to test new workflows.
• Explore industry tech and apply to shader development.

Skills

HLSL shader programming

Real-time rendering

3D math

Shader optimization

Unity / Unreal Engine

Debugging

Communication

PBR / post-processing

Education

Pursuing CS/CG degree

Tools

Unity

Unreal Engine

Job description

Role Summary:

Join Insomniac Games and gain hands‑on experience developing and optimizing shaders that help bring game environments and characters to life.

As a Technical Artist Intern, you’ll combine technical programming skills and artistic creativity to design, develop, and improve shaders within Insomniac’s content creation pipelines and processes. You’ll work alongside artists and programmers to create visual effects while maintaining real‑time rendering performance and efficient production workflows.

This internship offers practical experience in shader development, real‑time rendering, and graphics optimization while strengthening your technical problem‑solving skills and learning how technical art supports game development.

What You’ll Be Doing:

• Design and implement small‑scale shaders that help content creators (Environment Art, Character Team) develop game assets.
• Collaborate with artists and programmers to develop creative technical solutions that support game production.
• Maintain and improve existing shaders for various applications in the game environment, focusing on visual quality and rendering performance.
• Debug and fix materialgraphs to resolve visual and technical issues.
• Document technical implementation details to support development workflows and team collaboration.
• Develop sample content to test new workflows, evaluate tools, and demonstrate technical solutions.
• Explore technological developments in the game industry and learn how new techniques can support shader development and real‑time rendering.

What We’re Looking For:

• Currently pursuing a degree in Computer Science, Computer Graphics, or a related field.
• Proficiency in shader programming languages such as HLSL.
• Experience with real‑time rendering and graphics pipelines.
• Strong understanding of 3D math and algorithms related to computer graphics.
• Experience optimizing shaders for performance and quality.
• Familiarity with game engines such as Unity or Unreal Engine.
• Strong problem‑solving and debugging skills, with the ability to identify and resolve visual issues.
• Strong communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to work effectively with artists and programmers.
• Knowledge of PBR (Physically Based Rendering) and post‑processing effects.
• Interest in learning about emerging game development technologies and staying informed about industry trends.

Eligibility

• Students with expected graduation between May 2026 and December 2029 from an accredited university. Undergraduate
• Able to work during one of the following periods: May 17th - August 6th or June 14th - September 3rd. Relocation assistance is available for eligible candidates.
• Must be available for the entire 12‑week internship period.

At this time, SIE will only consider applicants who are authorized to work for any employer in the United States and who will not require work visa sponsorship from SIE now or in the future to maintain their authorization to work in the United States.

Our intern positions offer a fixed hourly pay rate. Please note that the pay rate is exclusive to the internship period and may not reflect what pay may look like following the completion of an internship.

Intern Pay Range

$36.50 — $36.50 USD

At SIE, we consider several factors when setting each role’s base pay range, including the competitive benchmarking data for the market and geographic location.

Please note that the base pay range may vary in line with our hybrid working policy and individual base pay will be determined based on job‑related factors which may include knowledge, skills, experience, and location.

Please note, Sony Interactive Entertainment conducts background checks at the offer stage for all new employees (which may include criminal background checks for some roles) and will need to process personal information to support these checks.

Please refer to our Candidate Privacy Notice for more information about what personal information we collect, how we use it, who we share it with, and your data protection rights.