Principal/Lead Technical Artist

Who we are looking for:

We are looking for a 5+ year experienced Lead/Principal Technical Artist, excited to work on a challenging mobile-first/PC game. This position will report to the Art Director and coordinate between Art, Engineering, and Design to implement pipelines necessary to speed up production and improve artists’ quality of life. Must be self-motivated, willing to take the initiative, and passionate about helping the team learn and grow. The candidate must thoroughly understand the technical needs of the different art disciplines and processes. Generative AI will be part of our pipelines, so AI experience and an openness to advance our pipeline through AI is a plus.

What you will be doing:

• Working closely with the Art, Designers, Engineers, and the AI team to support the overall visual direction and features for the game
• Helping to guide the artists on best practices to develop assets that meet the visual goals as performantly as possible.
• Breaking down high-level requirements into deliverable tasks
• Identify areas that can be optimized and make smart performance decisions early and critically.
• Developing early tools for performance profiling.
• Excellent working knowledge of real-time engines (preferably Unity) and any external tech that will facilitate the game art pipelines.
• Working with Engineering to develop custom scripts and tools for implementing assets, shaders, and materials.
• Maintain and extend current and new production pipelines, processes, and workflows
• Identify problems; solve them: invent or build robust, quality technical implementations

How you benefit:

• Have a genuine and direct impact at a new and growing studio
• See the impact of your work as it helps shape the game and eventually impacts the players
• High amounts of ownership and autonomy over features
• Accelerate growth professionally and personally
• Be part of a hugely talented team that values a feedback-driven learning environment and work/life balance

 The skills you need:

• 5+ years of professional real-time technical art experience
• Great communicator and inter-departmental collaborator
• Experience working within a real-time game engine (preferably Unity)
• Experience building efficient art pipelines
• Experience in optimization
• Understanding of technical constraints of engines and mobile platforms
• Strong technical/mathematical mindset, excellent problem-solving skills
• Strong debugging capabilities, including Art/Visual issues in-engine, technical issues, performance, and memory analysis
• Ability to write clean, maintainable, and extensible code with attention to reusability
• Enthusiasm and initiative

 Additional skills that would make you shine:

• Tool designing skills
• Strong understanding of Houdini and setting up Houdini Pipelines
• Programming skills (C# for Unity, Python for Maya, etc.)
• Preference for procedural workflows (Houdini, Designer)
• Experience in optimization in Unity for Mobile, specifically
• Passion for games of similar genres
• Experience with efficient multi-disciplinary production pipelines + documentation
• Rigging experience

The perks of working at Azra:

• Competitive salary & equity 
• Platinum healthcare plan for you and your family 💯 paid for by Azra Games. Including health, vision, and dental!
• Parental leave
• Unlimited paid time off
• Work that fits your lifestyle – Work from our studio office in Austin,TX, and/or hybrid, and anything in between
• Occasional catered lunches and dinners
• Office social events including happy hours and parties
• A generous technology budget to provide the best gear you need to be your most productive and happy self
• An authentic office environment where you get to be YOU

Azra Games is an equal opportunity employer and considers qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, or other applicable legally protected characteristics. Azra Games is an inclusive workplace where everyone is welcome and employee differences are celebrated.