About the role
Role Overview
The Technical Artist will own the space between art and engineering for new projects in the Shanghai studio. The role involves shaping the visual identity of the game through shaders, tooling, and pipelines. This is a small team with a high degree of ownership.
What You'll Be Doing
- Own the shader and material library: Author shaders, design a master-material architecture, and manage permutation counts and shader complexity.
- Build the tools artists live in: Develop DCC scripts, engine editor extensions, one-click export, and automated asset validation.
- Raise the visual bar alongside the art team: Collaborate on look-dev, build lighting and post-process templates, and close the gap between concept and in-engine visuals.
- Keep art content within budget: Profile real builds on devices, identify performance bottlenecks, and design LOD and quality-tier systems for various hardware.
- Prototype risky visual ideas: Evaluate visual concepts and provide honest assessments regarding their viability within the frame budget.
- Be the interface to the engine team: Translate artistic requirements into renderer features and communicate technical constraints to the art team.
- Set and hold the standards: Define build processes, document workflows, onboard team members, and monitor pipeline performance.
What You Have
- 8+ years of experience in games, with significant time spent on the technical side of art.
- Real shader authoring skill (HLSL, Unreal material graph) and scripting proficiency (Python, Blueprint, or C++) to build independent tools.
- A working mental model of rendering and Unreal Engine content pipeline costs.
- Fluency across the DCC stack (Maya, Blender, Houdini, Substance, or equivalents) and strong opinions on pipeline integration.
- Ability to profile before optimizing and persistence in identifying the root causes of regressions.
- Comfort acting as a translation layer between art and engineering disciplines with strong diplomatic skills.
- A self-starter approach to AI: experimentation and practical application of AI in day-to-day workflows.
- A collaborative mindset for working within a team-oriented environment.
Would Be Nice If You Also Have
- At least one shipped mobile title with experience handling thermal throttling, bandwidth ceilings, and memory budgets.
- History of extending the Unreal editor to improve workflows.
- Hands-on experience with AI agents and AI-assisted workflows for content or tooling.
- Experience across the full project lifecycle, from grey-box prototype to live service.
Working Conditions and Relocation
- Location: Shanghai, China.
- Format: Onsite, Full-time.
- Relocation: Support is provided by the mobility team for the candidate and their family, including human and animal family members.
Company Culture and Context
- About Supercell: A Helsinki-based company focused on creating great games by assembling independent teams with high levels of freedom and responsibility.
- The Shanghai Studio: The first international game development studio for Supercell, focused on making global hit games by leveraging advantages in the Asian development scene.
- Team Philosophy: Independent cells and trust are core values. Employees are not defined by their job titles.
- Compensation: The company focuses on fostering an enjoyable work environment rather than utilizing glitter, glamour, or gems for recruitment.