Lead Technical Artist - Azra Games

LEAD TECH ARTIST

Azra Games is recapturing the childhood thrill of storytelling with your entire toy box for modern AAA gaming. We are dedicated to one genre, role-playing games, and led by veteran designer Mark Otero (Zero-to-one director of Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes, EA's most successful mobile game of all time, with $1.5B lifetime revenue). Azra has assembled an expert team with decades of experience building blockbuster games. Our debut release, Code named 'Project:Legends', will be Mark's ninth RPG. And his best. Azra Games believes in harnessing the power of technology, with a focus on generative AI, to radically disrupt & transform game development.

Description: 

Azra Games is looking for a Lead Technical Artist specializing in asset optimization to join us in crafting a AAA collectibles & combat open world RPG based on an original IP, built in the Unity Game engine.

As a Lead Technical Artist, your goal is to push the visual quality and performance of our AAA game. This is accomplished by enabling artists achieve their best possible results in the Unity Engine. We are looking for expertise in performance monitoring, optimization, and shader creation. You will also be responsible for providing support, problem solving and creating innovative solutions.

Responsibilities:

• Work closely with artists and engineers to pinpoint and fix game performance and memory usage issues.
• Brainstorm, R&D, and help implement multiple project pipelines and toolsets.
• Diagnose problems related to asset and level creation and support the art and design teams with:
• Lighting systems
• Shaders
• Art assets
• Visual scripting
• Evaluate and improve game textures for PBR correctness.
• Build and maintain node-based shaders in Unity.
• Support in content creation when needed.
• Ideally able to work locally in the Sacramento area, or at least on the West Coast of the United States

Requirements:

• Solid experience with what it takes to deliver high-quality visuals while following memory and performance targets.
• Experience profiling performance and memory within game engines.
• Solid knowledge of current and next-gen art techniques, and fundamental art principles.
• Solid experience with physically based rendering.
• Extensive previous game engine experience (Unity)
• Self-motivated, structured, proactive, and detail oriented.
• Relentless drive to find solutions.
• Ideally based locally in the Sacramento area. We are open to Hybrid and Remote candidates with the expectation of coming to the office based on needs. Cadence will be agreed upon with the Hiring Manager.

Pluses:

• Knowledge and experience with common scripting languages like Python and C#.
• Experience with Unreal Blueprints or similar visual scripting tool
• Experience writing shaders in HLSL and Unity's Shader Graph
• Experience with procedural content creation software like Houdini and Substance Suite

The perks of working at Azra:

• Competitive salary & equity 
• Platinum healthcare plan for you and your family paid for by Azra Games. Including health, vision, and dental!
• Parental leave
• Unlimited paid time off
• Work that fits your lifestyle – Work from our studio office in Sacramento, CA, hybrid, or fully remote.
• Occasional catered lunches and dinners
• Office social events including happy hours, parties, and community service projects.
• A generous technology budget to provide the best gear you need to be your most productive and happy self.
• A packed snack room and loaded fridge
• Dedicated Game Room for "Market Research"
• An authentic office environment where you get to be YOU

Azra Games is an equal opportunity employer and considers qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, or other applicable legally protected characteristics. Azra Games is an inclusive workplace where everyone is welcome and employee differences are celebrated.

Base Salary Range: $127,000 - $190,500 USD. The final salary offered for this position may take into account a number of factors including, but not limited to, location, skills, education, and experience.