About the role
Company Overview
Blackbird Interactive is a creative-fueled, future-driven, independent game studio where the best talent in the industry can find long-term careers to help grow their abilities while working on a wide range of projects, which encompass world-class IPs as well as our own creations across multiple genres. The studio operates as a remote-first workplace, offering flexible work arrangements.
Job Details
- Role: Senior Technical Artist
- Employment Type: Temporary Full-Time (7-month contract)
- Location: Vancouver, BC, Canada (Remote)
- Eligibility: Candidates must be legally eligible to work in Canada and reside within Canada.
- Compensation: $120,000 - $155,000 a year
Responsibilities
- Act as a bridge between Art, Engineering, and the game engine, helping teams communicate effectively and solve cross-disciplinary problems.
- Support artists with art-to-engine integration, including asset setup, debugging, and optimization.
- Design, build, and maintain tools, scripts, and workflows that improve artist productivity and content quality.
- Collaborate with artists across animation, modeling, texturing, shaders, VFX, and other real-time content disciplines.
- Identify visual and performance issues and develop high-quality solutions within technical constraints.
- Contribute to the development and maintenance of procedural tools, art pipelines, and production processes.
- Create clear, concise documentation for tools, workflows, and pipelines.
- Take ownership of technical challenges, work with minimal supervision, and proactively identify opportunities for improvement.
Requirements
- Strong understanding of real-time content development and game art pipelines.
- Technical proficiency in one or more art disciplines (e.g., animation, modeling, texturing, or VFX), with a solid understanding of how they interact within a game engine.
- Professional experience working in Unreal Engine 5.
- Experience with procedural workflows and content creation using tools such as Unreal Engine PCG and Houdini.
- Experience supporting or developing production tools and workflows.
- Experience working with DCC tools such as Maya.
- Programming or scripting experience using C++, C#, Python, or a similar language.
- Understanding of asset management and version control practices.
- Strong problem-solving skills, curiosity, and a collaborative mindset.
Pluses
- Understanding of shader development and material systems.
- Experience with particle systems and real-time visual effects.
- Familiarity with animation rigs and game animation systems.
- Knowledge of performance profiling and optimization for real-time content.
- Experience with Perforce (P4V).
- Strong interest in video game culture, art, and design.