Senior Technical Artist

Step Into the Multiverse: Your Next Adventure Starts Here \nAt Wizards of the Coast, we harness the power of imagination and connection to create unforgettable experiences. We create entertainment that inspires creativity, sparks passion, forges friendships, and fosters communities around the globe. In every pursuit our mission is to inspire a lifetime love of games. Whether it\u0027s through the strategic depth of Magic: The Gathering\u00ae, the rich storytelling of Dungeons \u0026 Dragons\u00ae, or our AAA digital game studios, we build worlds that bring people together, spark creativity, and fuel adventure. As we continue to grow and explore new realms, we\u0027re seeking passionate, curious, and innovative minds to join the adventure. Skeleton Key is a game development studio and division of Wizards of the Coast. We are a group of industry veterans who are guided by the belief that empowering our teams and providing the necessary time, tools, and support we can foster a creative culture where everyone can do their best work.\n\nOur studio is located in Austin, TX, and in Montreal, QC. We are looking for a Senior Technical Artist to join us and bring our first AAA game to life. This role will be based out of our Montreal, QC studio and will require to work 3 days a week onsite. \n\nReporting to the Lead Technical Artist, you will be a key contributor as we enter pre-production, focused on shader development, material systems, and technical art pipelines. This role supports artists and engineers by building robust, performant, and scalable material solutions while helping define workflows that balance visual quality with real-time performance within Unreal Engine. \n \n\n\nWhat you\u0027ll do:\n\n * Develop reusable, scalable material implementations that support a wide range of assets and use cases in collaboration with Environment Art, Character Art, and VFX.\n * Collaborate with Rendering Engineers to align material workflows with engine capabilities while profiling, debugging, and optimizing materials and shaders to meet performance and memory budgets.\n * Define and document best practices for material authoring, shader usage, and technical art workflows.\n * Support artists by troubleshooting shader, material, and rendering issues across tools and pipelines. \n \n\n\n\n\nWhat you\u0027ll bring:\n\n * 6+ years of professional experience as a Technical Artist, with a strong focus on shaders, materials, or rendering pipelines.\n * Deep hands-on experience with Unreal Engine material editor, shader graph workflows, and related systems.\n * Strong understanding of real-time rendering concepts, including lighting models, PBR workflows, and performance considerations.\n * Experience working across DCC tools such as Maya, Substance Painter/Designer, Houdini, or similar.\n * Ability to translate artistic intent into performant technical solutions.\n * Experience collaborating closely with artists and engineers in a production environment.\n * Strong problem-solving skills and the ability to debug complex visual or pipeline issues. \n \n\n\n\n\nNice to have:\n\n * Experience working with custom HLSL or shader code within Unreal Engine.\n * Familiarity with advanced rendering features such as virtual textures, material layers, or runtime parameter systems.\n * Experience supporting character, environment, or VFX pipelines from a technical perspective.\n * Background contributing to early pipeline definition or tool development during pre-production.\n\n\n\n \nWe are an equal opportunity / affirmative action employer\n\nWizards is committed to equality of opportunity in all aspects of employment. We are committed to making all employment decisions without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, marital status, or any other legally protected status.\n\nThe above is intended to describe the general content of and the requirements for satisfactory performance in this position. It is not to be construed as an exhaustive statement of the duties, responsibilities, or requirements of the position.\n\nWe will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment. If you are selected to move forward in our application process and need to request an accommodation, please let your recruiter or coordinator know.\n