Outsourcing Technical Artist | North America | Canada | Europe | Fully Remote

What we are looking for:

Escape Velocity is looking for an Outsourcing Technical Artist, who is focused on Materials development and responsible for developing, maintaining, and optimizing real-time materials within Unreal Engine. This role will support the art and engineering teams by building scalable shader systems, ensuring high visual fidelity while maintaining performance across multiple platforms.

What we will do together:

• Work with art and engineering to understand visual requirements and performance constraints.
• Develop, optimize, and maintain advanced materials and shaders using Unreal Engine
• Create reusable material functions and dynamic systems to support a wide range of surface types (environment, characters, VFX).
• Research and prototype new shading techniques to push visual quality and efficiency.
• Collaborate with rendering engineers to identify and resolve performance bottlenecks related to materials.
• Help define and maintain material pipelines and documentation for the art team.

What you will bring:

Our ideal Material Technical Artist has both an artistic and technical background in real-time rendering and material creation. We need someone who understands how surfaces respond to light and can convert artistic goals into efficient, scalable shader solutions. You are a collaborative problem-solver who thrives at the intersection of art and technology.

• 3+ years of experience in a Technical Art or Material/Shader Art role.
• At least one released title on the current or previous console generation (gen8, gen9), preferably AAA.
• Strong knowledge of Unreal Engine’s material system (Material Editor, Material Functions, Material Instances).
• Deep understanding of PBR workflows, surface response, and lighting fundamentals.
• Experience creating and optimizing complex shaders for real-time performance.
• Proficiency with Substance Designer/Painter, Photoshop, or similar texturing tools.
• Familiarity with scripting or shader languages (HLSL, GLSL, Python) a plus.
• Ability to balance visual quality and technical constraints.
• Strong communication skills and ability to collaborate with multiple disciplines.
• Excellent time management and creative problem-solving skills.
• Ability to work independently with a high level of autonomy.