Lead Technical Artist - Shaders at 2K.

About the role

We are seeking a highly skilled Lead Shader/Material Artist to join Hangar 13, a studio under 2K. In this pivotal role, you will be responsible for establishing and maintaining the highest standards for material workflows and shader development across our projects. You will drive innovation in visual development by researching and implementing advanced rendering techniques, ensuring that our visuals meet both artistic and technical excellence. Collaboration with various teams - including art, lighting, rendering, and external partners - is essential to deliver high-quality, performant visuals that align with the creative vision and technical requirements of AAA titles. This position offers an exciting opportunity to influence the visual fidelity of high-profile games while leading a team of talented shader and material artists.

Key facts

Location: Brighton, England, United Kingdom

Engagement: Permanent

What you'll do

- Establish, develop, and uphold the visual and technical standards for shaders and materials across the project, ensuring consistency and quality.
- Create and refine an efficient shader and material pipeline that balances high visual fidelity with real-time performance across multiple platforms, including consoles and PC.
- Lead research efforts into cutting-edge rendering features available in Unreal Engine 5, such as Lumen for global illumination and Nanite for virtualized geometry, to enhance material systems and visual quality.
- Collaborate closely with the Art Director and other creative leads to ensure that materials and shaders support and enhance the overall artistic vision of the game.
- Develop a comprehensive library of reusable, optimized shaders and materials that can be leveraged across different assets and teams, promoting efficiency and consistency.
- Design and implement complex materials for a variety of game elements, including characters, environments, props, and cinematic sequences, ensuring seamless integration with other systems.
- Work alongside lighting and rendering teams to achieve realistic surface qualities and materials under dynamic lighting conditions, ensuring that materials respond correctly to light and shadow.




- Optimize shader and material assets for memory footprint, draw calls, and rendering performance, ensuring that visuals meet platform-specific constraints without sacrificing quality.
- Mentor, guide, and review work from a team of shader and material artists and technical artists, fostering a collaborative environment focused on continuous improvement and high standards.
- Conduct regular reviews of team outputs, provide constructive feedback, and ensure that all work aligns with project requirements and quality benchmarks.
- Coordinate with external partners, outsourcing teams, and vendors to ensure that all materials meet AAA quality standards and technical specifications.
- Stay informed about industry trends, emerging technologies, and best practices in real-time rendering and shader development, integrating relevant innovations into the workflow.
- Participate in cross-disciplinary meetings to troubleshoot technical issues related to shaders and materials, and propose solutions that improve overall rendering performance.
- Contribute to documentation and knowledge sharing within the team to promote best practices and technical excellence.

Requirements

- A minimum of 7 years of experience working in the gaming industry, with a proven track record on large-scale AAA projects.
- Demonstrable experience as a Senior or Lead Shader/Material Artist, with at least 2 AAA titles shipped in a leadership or senior role.
- Deep expertise in Unreal Engine 5, including its material editor, shader graph, and rendering pipeline.
- Strong understanding of physically-based rendering (PBR) workflows and physically-based shading models, with practical experience applying these principles to real-world projects.
- Hands-on experience with Unreal Engine 5 features such as Lumen for global illumination, Nanite for virtualized geometry,



and virtual texturing techniques.
- Ability to develop shaders that deliver high visual quality while maintaining optimal performance across different hardware platforms.
- Excellent leadership skills, with the ability to mentor and guide a team of artists and technical staff effectively.
- Strong collaboration and communication skills, capable of working closely with art directors, lighting artists, programmers, and external partners.
- Proven problem-solving skills, with the ability to troubleshoot complex shader and rendering issues efficiently.
- A portfolio demonstrating high-quality shader and material work in AAA titles or equivalent projects.

Nice to have

- Experience with procedural material workflows, including tools like Substance Designer or Houdini, to create dynamic and flexible materials.
- Knowledge of shader programming languages such as HLSL for custom shader development and advanced effects.
- Familiarity with real-time ray tracing techniques and cinematic rendering workflows within Unreal Engine 5.
- Experience working on multiplayer games or open-world environments with complex material systems and large asset libraries.
- An interest in exploring emerging rendering techniques and staying current with industry innovations to continually improve visual fidelity.
- Understanding of performance profiling tools and techniques to identify and resolve rendering bottlenecks.

Skills & tools

- Unreal Engine 5
- Shader Graph
- Lumen
- Nanite
- PBR workflows
- HLSL

Practical notes

This position requires onsite presence at our studio in Brighton, United Kingdom.

Employees are expected to work at least three days a week on-site, with the remaining days flexible as per project needs.

We are committed to fostering an inclusive workplace and providing equal employment opportunities.

Reasonable accommodations are available for individuals with disabilities throughout the hiring process and employment.

The role involves collaborating closely with internal teams and external partners to ensure that all shader and material assets meet the high standards of AAA game development.

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📌 Lead Technical Artist - Shaders (Brighton)
🏢 2K
📍 Brighton