System Era is searching for a well-rounded Technical Artist to join our team and help shape the worlds of Astroneer with a skillful blend of creativity and technical wizardry!

Defined by bold visuals and delightfully unique gameplay, Astroneer provides endless possibilities for players and developers alike. As a technical artist you will be leading the way in expanding these creative possibilities by implementing new workflows, building custom tools, creating complex assets, and supporting the visual evolution of the game. From automating tasks to leveraging more procedural techniques, your work will have the potential to radically amplify the teams speed and effectiveness when developing planets full of content. And to maintain the game’s distinctive art style often means thinking truly outside of the box and exploring unique approaches to content creation. Finding exciting new ways to improve content authoring inside of Unreal as well as in the primary modeling software will be critical. As new content is generated, both engineers and artists will look to you to provide technical content support as well as regular performance monitoring to ensure all the art content performs as well as it looks.

We look for candidates who value joining a team with diverse backgrounds, experiences, interests, and viewpoints, so we encourage you to apply even if you don’t meet every qualification, as long as you believe you have something positive to contribute.

This is a full-time position. Compensation includes salary, benefits with full medical, vision, and dental coverage, 401k with company match, generous PTO policy, participation in profit sharing, equipment budget for remote work, and may include relocation assistance.

Please note that due to COVID-19, the System Era team is currently working remotely. As it becomes safe and reasonable to do so, the studio will transition to a hybrid work schedule combining both on-site and remote work. Unless otherwise noted, all our open positions will begin as remote work, but with the expectation of eventual co-location with the team in Seattle, WA. New employees from outside of Washington state will be expected to establish residency in Washington within 14 days of their start date.

Responsibilities:

Develop and implement new tools and techniques to improve content workflows
Collaborate with discipline leads to define asset integration strategies for features
Analyze and optimize art content while managing performance goals across platforms
Share guidance and documentation to support overall art team efficiency and effectiveness
Proactively seek out feedback and insights from team members to identify workflow inefficiencies
Create and optimize material shaders to support both art direction and gameplay needs
Research and demonstrate new authoring or rendering techniques in support of new features
Assist in the creation of technical content surrounding effects, animation, rigs, and procedural assets
Enforce asset naming conventions and content standards among the art team
Actively engage in playtest sessions and provide thoughtful feedback about the experience

Qualifications:

5+ Years industry experience as a technical artist
Portfolio of work documenting technical accomplishments and examples
Strong understanding of content creation fundamentals for 3D games
Experience developing engine specific pipelines and content tools, Unreal engine preferred
Proficient working in and developing for 3D Studio Max or Maya
Well versed in performance profiling tools and strategies
Ability to maintain an ever-evolving suit of content creation workflows & documentation
Self-motivated, excellent communication skills, and the ability to provide instruction

Bonus Points:

Unreal Engine tools development experience in C++ and Blueprint
Experience utilizing Houdini for procedural content creation
Understanding of animation pipelines and experience with rig construction
Experience creating VFX for Unreal
Solid understanding of Astroneer’s art style
An interest in science fiction, aerospace, and space exploration