Lead Technical Artist — Hybrid (Upington)

Placements24; Upington; Hybrid; ZAR 900,000 - 1,500,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid work model

Professional development opportunities

Industry event attendance

Job summary

Placements24 in Upington, Northern Cape, seeks a Lead Technical Artist to bridge art creation and engine implementation. You will define pipelines and tools, lead a team, and ensure high visual fidelity and performance across assets for cutting-edge games.

The role blends hands-on asset work with leadership, requiring strong shader, material, and engine proficiency in Unreal Engine or Unity. Upington studio with hybrid collaboration is offered.

Qualifications

• At least 6 years of experience in technical art for games with a leadership track record.
• Portfolio showcasing relevant work and leadership capabilities.
• Strong understanding of shaders, materials, lighting, and real-time rendering.
• Experience with scripting languages (Python, MEL, C#).
• Ability to optimize assets for performance and memory constraints.

Responsibilities

• Lead the technical art team, providing direction, mentorship, and support.
• Develop, implement, and maintain efficient art pipelines and workflows for 3D asset creation.
• Optimize 3D assets for real-time rendering to meet performance targets.
• Create and manage shaders, materials, and visual effects within the engine.
• Develop and maintain tools and scripts to improve art production efficiency.
• Collaborate with designers, programmers, and artists to resolve technical art challenges.
• Establish and enforce technical art standards and best practices.

Skills

Technical leadership

Mentorship

Communication

Problem-solving

Education

Bachelors in Computer Graphics / Game Development or related

Tools

Maya

3ds Max

Blender

Substance Painter/Designer

Photoshop

Unreal Engine

Unity

Python

MEL

C# scripting

Job description

Placements24 in Upington, Northern Cape, seeks a Lead Technical Artist to bridge art creation and engine implementation. You will define pipelines and tools, lead a team, and ensure high visual fidelity and performance across assets for cutting-edge games.

The role blends hands-on asset work with leadership, requiring strong shader, material, and engine proficiency in Unreal Engine or Unity. Upington studio with hybrid collaboration is offered.