Deck Nine Games is looking to hire a talented full-time, remote Senior Technical Artist – Shaders to help define and deliver the look of an unannounced AAA single-player adventure game.

Located near Boulder, Colorado, Deck Nine Games is a BAFTA and VGA nominated developer of narrative adventure games. Always innovating, we're growing and are seeking highly qualified programmers to join our amazing team.

Our technical team members are in creative positions that collaborate closely across disciplines with some of the most passionate developers in the world. We value ownership of the art & tech you create. You will grow together with other experienced developers in our Tech Art team and in the feature teams outside of it. There is space to share your passion - to give feedback, educate and inspire others.

Responsibilities

• Writing shaders for materials, effects, cutscene-specific animations.
• Creating tools to improve our daily workflow.
• Optimizing the features to fit hardware performance constraints.
• Keeping documentation of your work easy to follow for art and code teams.
• Implement shaders and material pipelines to cover the needs of the content teams.

• Be able to assisting in profiling, optimization and support for content creators.
• Setting up and maintaining production pipelines and workflows
• Maintain and optimize the shader library
• Develop or find the best possible tools and methods in order to improve and assist the Art Team in their work with a focus on the material pipeline
• Test tools before deployment and make sure they function correctly throughout production
• Work with Art Leads, Technical Directors and QA to ensure that all the assets conform to technical requirements
• Mentorship and coaching of other Technical Artists
• PC/Console profiling and optimization

• Knowledge of game art pipelines
• Familiarity with any of the following: Substance Painter, Substance Designer, Blender, Maya, Houdini.
• Understanding & being able to optimize for games performance limitations.

• Experience with Shaders, Lighting, and Rendering systems.
• Experience with shader architecture and material libraries for products and the supporting workflows and pipelines.
• Understanding of real-time game content and the requirements for these to be efficient and high quality.
• Proficient in shader authoring and languages such as HLSL or graph-based editing.
• Direct experience with one or more of: creating or polishing surfacing assets, implementing or tuning lighting or prototyping and implementing rendering features.
• Some experience in sculpting, modeling, rigging and animation and understanding of the related workflows is also valuable.
• Knowledge and interest in multiple areas of game development: Modelling & Texturing, Shaders, Lighting, Rendering and Post Processes, Scripting, Physics Simulation and Destruction, FX, Procedural
• Experience with game editors and engines
• Current Generation console development experience (Xbox One, PS4)
• 5+ Years Experience as a Technical Artist working on Image Quality, Shaders & Materials, Lighting, Post FX, Rendering, Performance, and Pipelines.

Bonus Skills

• Programming skills (any relevant language: HLSL / GLSL, C++, Python).
• Working experience in Unreal Engine or Unity.
• Code quality skills: data structures, optimization.
• Experience in 3D art or tech (rendering) background in games.
• Experience in profiling (RenderDoc, PIX).
• Linear Algebra a plus

Benefits

• Competitive salary depending on experience
• Generous vacation time and paid parental leave
• Health insurance for you and your family at a low cost to you
• Dental and Vision insurance for you and your family at NO cost to you
• Life and Disability benefits at NO cost to you
• Optional Flexible Spending Account (including Healthcare and Limited Purpose), Dependent Care Account, and Health Savings Account available
• Optional Supplemental Health and Life Insurance
• 401(k) Plan with an Employer Match
• Growth opportunities for your career

Salary Range:   DOE

About Deck Nine

Here at Deck Nine Games our passion is storytelling games. We are an independent game developer dedicated to crafting AAA interactive story games that inspire, transform, and entertain players. In 2021 we released Life is Strange True Colors, which went on to win multiple awards for storytelling and visuals, including best storytelling for 2021 and a VGA for Games for Impact. Recently we announced that we are developing a game for the hit sci-fi Amazon series, The Expanse. Our prior titles have won multiple awards, including Game of the Year and nominations for VGA and BAFTA awards. The studio is 100+ amazing people both located in our headquarters in sunny Westminster, Colorado and spread throughout the world permanently remote.

As the crafters of stories that encompass the full breadth of life’s experiences, Deck Nine is committed to building a diverse, inclusive, and multicultural team in which people from all walks of life feel inspired to do their best work. We are proud to be an equal opportunity employer and believe deeply in the creativity and strength built from diversity of race, religion, disability, gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, nationality, and the many other qualities that make us different.

If this sounds appealing to you, please apply now!