Principal Environment Artist

This is a fully remote position, open to applicants in United States.

📋 Description

• Conceptualize and create realistic and semi-stylized atmospheric environments tailored for horror games, with an emphasis on immersive interior spaces.

• Take ownership of significant benchmark environments from initial blockout to final polish.

• Utilize composition, form, lighting, color, shape, and value to direct the player’s attention and enhance psychological tension.

• Create modular, trim-based, and reusable environment workflows within Unreal Engine.

• Collaborate with Narrative and Design leads to interpret creative direction into environments that enhance gameplay, worldbuilding, and mood-driven storytelling.

• Work alongside Level Design, Lighting, Materials, and Technical Art teams to address environmental challenges while fulfilling visual and gameplay standards.

• Conduct project-wide Environment Art reviews and implement solutions that improve consistency, asset utilization, composition, readability, and overall quality.

• Guide Environment Artists through collaboration, constructive reviews, and feedback.

• Serve as the subject-matter expert in Environment Art, establishing artistic standards, workflows, and quality expectations.

• Recognize discipline-wide challenges and create scalable solutions that enhance visual quality and team efficiency.

⛳️ Requirements

• Outstanding portfolio that showcases expertise in environment set dressing, modeling, and texturing for realistic and semi-stylized atmospheric spaces, reflecting shipped AAA-quality work or an equivalent visual standard.

• Mastery of art fundamentals such as composition, lighting, form, color, shape, value, and visual hierarchy, with the capability to clearly communicate and teach these principles to others.

• Advanced understanding of modular environment construction, trim workflows, and reusable asset systems, with a proven track record of establishing scalable workflows across large environments.

• High proficiency in industry-standard environment art tools, including Maya, 3ds Max, Blender, ZBrush, Marvelous Designer, Substance Designer/Painter, and Photoshop.

• Extensive experience with Unreal Engine 5, encompassing level building, materials, scene assembly, optimization, and technical judgment affecting environment pipeline and architectural decisions.

• Proven ability to translate references, narrative direction, and gameplay requirements into grounded, immersive worldbuilding and clear visual direction.

• Profound understanding of horror visual language and mood construction.

• Demonstrated experience mentoring senior and developing artists, positively influencing quality across multiple teams or project areas.

• Strong communication skills and ability to collaborate across disciplines.

• Experience in shipping at least one AAA or equivalent high-quality title.

• Proven ability to identify systemic challenges in environment art and establish scalable standards, workflows, or pipelines.

• 12+ years of gaming experience with increasing responsibilities and a notable career trajectory (nice to have).

• Experience shipping multiple games, preferably within the horror genre (nice to have).

• Familiarity with developing procedural workflows, material systems, environment tools, or pipeline enhancements in collaboration with Technical Art (nice to have).

🏝️ Benefits

• Profit sharing

• Medical insurance

• Dental insurance

• Vision insurance

• 401(k) matching

• FSA/HSA

• Paid time off

• Sick time

• Holidays

• Parental leave