Senior Technical Artist

Black Shamrock; Dublin; On-site; EUR 45,000 - 65,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading game development studio in Dublin is seeking an experienced Technical Artist to bridge the gap between art and technology. You will work closely with artists and engineers to enhance visual quality while maintaining performance. Key responsibilities include developing shaders, conducting engine profiling, and supporting art content pipelines. The ideal candidate has at least 2 years of experience in AAA games, strong problem-solving abilities, and proficiency in Unreal Engine 5. This position offers a dynamic environment with growth opportunities in a thriving studio.

Benefits

Comprehensive company healthcare plan

Occupational Pension Scheme

Global training and development plans

Career mobility opportunities

Healthy work-life balance

Relocation support

Qualifications

• 2+ years of experience in AAA games in 3D art, software engineering, or technical art.
• Experience in shader development and GPU rendering pipelines.
• Familiarity with editor utilities for automation.

Responsibilities

• Collaborate with artists and developers to address technical challenges.
• Develop and implement shaders, tools, and scripts.
• Perform engine profiling and communicate optimization areas.
• Research and prototype new technologies for art content.
• Document processes and assist in knowledge sharing across the team.

Skills

Problem-solving abilities

Attention to detail

Communication skills

Understanding of art and animation pipelines

Experience with engine profiling and optimization

Strong visual sense

Ability to work autonomously

Tools

Unreal Engine 5

Python

Blender

3DS Max

Maya

Houdini

Perforce

PIX

Razer GPU

Job description

PLAY, GROW and WIN

To be a part of Virtuos means to be a creator.

About The Position

As an experienced Technical Artist, you will bridge the gap between art and technology, ensuring that our games achieve the highest visual quality while maintaining optimal performance. You’ll collaborate closely with artists, designers, and engineers to create efficient pipelines, tools, and shaders. Your expertise will enhance the overall artistic vision and gameplay experience.

Responsibilities

• Collaborate with artists and developers to understand and address technical challenges in art content pipelines.
• Develop and implement shaders, tools, and scripts to enhance productivity and streamline workflows.
• Perform engine profiling, including GPU profiling and trace analysis (e.g., PIX, Razer GPU), to find and communicate areas of optimization regarding art content and scene composition.
• Test and validate assets, ensuring they meet technical quality, performance standards, and visual fidelity goals.
• Research, prototype, and iterate on new ideas and technologies to improve the quality and efficiency of art content, including exploring advances in Nanite, Virtual Texturing, Raytraced Lighting, and VFX systems.
• Document processes, create tutorials, and assist in knowledge sharing across the team.
• Define and support content budgeting, technical guidelines, and optimization strategies to maximize project efficiency.
• Independently address small to medium scale technical problems and collaborate with the technical team to resolve more complex issues.
• Support large open world development efforts, including working with world partitioning systems and procedural content generation tools.
• Utilize editor utilities to automate and validate scene workflows where applicable.

Qualifications

• 2+ years of experience within a role in AAA games in 3d art, software engineering and/or technical art.

Core Skills

• Strong problem‑solving abilities and attention to detail.
• Excellent communication skills, focused on collaboration, constructive feedback, and teamwork.
• Good understanding of art and animation pipelines.
• Experience with engine profiling and optimization techniques, including GPU frame analysis and performance trace capture.
• Strong visual sense and ability to push visual fidelity alongside technical constraints.
• Ability to work autonomously and escalates issues appropriately when needed.

Technical Requirements

• Experienced in Unreal Engine 5 covering: landscape materials and Runtime Virtual Texturing (RVT); Nanite, Skeletal Meshes, Materials, Virtual Texturing, and VFX systems.
• PCG tool development and water bodies implementation.
• Building large open worlds using world partition.
• Blueprint scripting.
• Proficient in Python.
• Experience with Houdini to optimize art content pipelines.
• Proficiency in version control systems such as Perforce.
• Managing and communicating art content memory and performance budgets.
• Skilled in shader development and understanding GPU rendering pipelines.
• Experience with 3D modeling tools such as Blender, 3DS Max, or Maya.
• Ability to quickly learn new programming languages, tools, and systems.
• Ability to review and provide feedback on Technical Artist code and tools.
• Experience with profiling tools like PIX and Razer GPU for trace capture and analysis.
• Familiarity with Editor Utilities for automation and validation.

Nice To Have

• Knowledge of Substance Designer/Painter.
• Experience creating tools for batch processing repetitive tasks.
• Understanding of texture compression techniques.
• Experienced in C++/C#.
• Experience creating art content and strong core art fundamentals.
• Knowledge of Raytraced Lighting techniques and optimization strategies.

About Us

Founded in 2004, Virtuos is one of the largest independent video game development companies. We are headquartered in Singapore with offices in Asia, Europe, and North America. Specializing in full‑cycle game development and art production, we have delivered high‑quality content for more than 1,500 console, PC, and mobile games. Our clients include 23 of the top 25 gaming companies worldwide.

About Our Team

Black Shamrock was founded in 2016 and acquired by the Virtuos Group in 2017. The studio is Ireland’s largest PC and console game development studio and provides unique opportunities to work on multiple AAA titles. Our people are diverse, exciting, creative, and dynamic. Black Shamrock is a place for talent to flourish and lifelong industry connections to begin.

What We Offer

• Being part of one of the largest and fastest‑growing game development studios in Ireland
• Dynamic career paths contributing to some of the world’s biggest AAA titles in gaming
• Opportunities to grow in a tight‑knit community with a people‑oriented culture
• Healthy work‑life balance and flexible work arrangements
• Comprehensive company healthcare plan
• Occupational Pension Scheme (including employer contribution)
• Global training and development plans - study support, formal education, international experience, career planning and progression opportunities
• Bank for paid sick leave and wellness leave
• Subsidised leave
• Relocation support
• Taxsaver plans
• Career and international mobility opportunities with Virtuos Internal Mobility Program

People matter. Diverse opinions and experiences matter. At Virtuos, our talented teams are the cornerstone of our success, and we recognise that fostering and advocating for inclusivity is at the centre of what we do best - we make games better, together. Virtuos is proud to be an equal opportunity employer that embraces diversity of thought, expression, culture, and backgrounds.