Senior Technical Art Manager

WHO WE ARE

Virtex is built on a passion for esports and its biggest moments. Having been a part of it as competitors, organisers and fans, we cherish the unique atmosphere of a live show. We choose the stadium over the stream every time. With Virtex Stadium, we are building a platform that combines the best of both worlds: to create the most exciting experience in esports and bring you much closer to the game.

Just like our favourite teams, we know it takes different types of skills to win and while Virtex Entertainment is headquartered in London, UK, we support fully remote team members all over Europe and the UK so you can work wherever you work best!

We are looking for a Senior Technical Art Manager to join and manage our Tech Art team working on Virtex Stadium. You would be involved in a wide variety of technical tasks related to Art (Character, Exterior, Interior, Props, Weapons, Terrain, Vehicle and Vegetation).

You will oversee tool creation and maintenance and manage and grow a small but skilled Tech art team. Working closely with our team across shaders, animation, modelling, engineers, and designers, you will uncover new ways to improve workflow, support asset creation and implementation, and ensure functionality, consistency, and quality. With a big focus on the pipeline and integrating game projects, you will ensure it adapts correctly to the creative needs of the Virtex Stadium platform while also helping inform our creative direction from an art content production perspective.

You will work across the entire Virtex Stadium platform to build memorable events and moments, and develop features that challenge the status quo of live events.

We are a growing studio, so this requires plenty of hands-on work creating, iterating, and tuning systems/mechanics. You have previous experience guiding and mentoring more junior technical artists and can work well as a team member or as a small team tech art lead. You are comfortable operating in an ambiguous environment where goals and constraints are mostly team-driven and where change, big and small, is a critical part of the process.

Responsibilities:

• Set up assets in Unreal Engine (meshes, animation blueprints, shaders).
• Provide technical support to art and animation in both Blender and Unreal Engine.
• Maintain a sustainable approach for memory/performance. 
• Prototype new art assets and build asset generation pipelines.
• Proactively give and seek feedback, direct next steps, and communicate clear goals and outcomes to your team.
• Be a reference for the team in relation to technical art and find solutions to complex issues that arise.

Prerequisites:

If you don't match all of these requirements but feel like you have something else to offer in this role, we would still love to hear from you.

• 6+ years of professional experience as a Technical Artist in game development.
• Experience guiding and mentoring more junior technical artists.
• Expert knowledge in using the Unreal Engine and Blueprints.
• Ability to develop advanced custom shaders in Unreal and familiar with PBR standards.
• Experienced in optimising and profiling.
• Expert knowledge in Blender.
• Diagnose and improve real-time 3D graphics.
• Comfortable iterating on ideas using rapid prototyping techniques.
• Excellent communication and collaborative problem-solving skills.

Additional Skills:

• Experience with Esports, VR or live events.
• Experience creating add-ons in Blender and Unreal to assist with art asset pipeline.
• Knowledge of procedural generation software (e.g. Houdini).
• Experienced working with animation blueprints, rigging, control rigs and animation retargeting
• Experience creating a range of complex custom shaders using Unreal material editor
• Experience creating audio-reactive content.
• Familiar with Unreal Engine Virtual Production tools and pipeline.
• Experience with Version Control such as Perforce, PlasticSCM, etc.

VISION & MISSION

 

The future of live entertainment is immersive, interactive, and accessible from wherever, whenever. Say goodbye to the limitations of 2D screens. There is a better way.

 

Imagine if you could only ever watch football matches on TV and never experience a real-life stadium. What if the stadium came to you? This is the vision that Virtex Stadium delivers.

 

Our mission is to bring the intense excitement and joy of a live event to every fan around the world. We do it by partnering with publishers, organisers, teams, brands and creators. Together we build previously impossible experiences, with endless creative opportunities.
 
We bring esports fans closer to the shows, games and teams that they love. By bringing the true feeling of a live event into a virtual world, Virtex Stadium aims to be home to the most memorable and unique events in gaming.