Principal Tech Artist

About Steel City Interactive

SCI was born out of passion for video games and boxing, with the ambition to create an authentic and exciting boxing game that does justice to the sport we love. What started as a fun prototype has grown into ‘Undisputed’, the first major boxing video game in over a decade.  

SCI is a welcoming place for expression and open communication, where everyone has a voice. We’re a diverse bunch, consisting of people with decades of games industry experience, graduates and talented individuals who come from other industries. We all bring knowledge and learn from each other.

Together we are driven by ambition to bring the world of boxing into a video game like never before.  

The Role

We are looking for an experienced and highly skilled Principal Technical Artist to join Steel City Interactive, providing expert technical leadership across our game development teams.

Operating at the intersection of Art and Engineering, you will play a critical role in delivering high-quality visual experiences through robust, efficient and scalable technical solutions.

Initially, your focus will be on investigating and resolving complex technical art challenges, particularly within Unreal Engine 5, including rendering, visual fidelity, performance optimisation and asset integration. You will work hands-on with our Art and Engineering teams to identify root causes, implement solutions and ensure our visual ambitions are achievable within technical and platform constraints.

As the role evolves, you will help shape the studio's technical art capabilities, establishing frameworks, tools, standards and workflows that improve quality, efficiency and consistency across development teams.

This is a Principal-level Individual Contributor position, requiring deep technical expertise, independent problem-solving and the ability to influence technical direction without formal people management responsibilities.

Responsibilities

Technical Art Leadership & Problem Solving

• Act as a principal technical authority for Unreal Engine 5, providing hands-on expertise to investigate and resolve complex technical art challenges.

• Lead the diagnosis and resolution of rendering, shader, material, visual fidelity and performance issues.

• Collaborate closely with Art Directors, Technical Directors and Engineers to deliver technically robust solutions that support the artistic vision.

• Proactively identify technical risks, production bottlenecks and opportunities to improve visual quality and development efficiency.

Rendering & Performance Optimisation

• Develop and optimise rendering techniques, materials, shaders and visual systems within Unreal Engine 5.

• Establish technical art performance budgets, profiling methodologies and optimisation standards for target platforms.

• Investigate GPU and CPU performance bottlenecks, working with Engineering to implement sustainable improvements.

• Evaluate and implement appropriate Unreal Engine technologies to improve visual quality, performance and production workflows.

Pipeline Architecture, Tools & Systems

• Design and maintain scalable technical art pipelines, tools and frameworks that support efficient content creation and integration.

• Develop reusable solutions and automation to improve artist productivity, asset validation and workflow reliability.

• Establish shared technical art libraries, templates and reference implementations that can be adopted across teams.

• Support technical frameworks for shaders, rigging, animation, VFX and runtime content integration.

• Collaborate with Engineering on engine integrations, technical architecture and research and development initiatives.

Studio Standards & Capability Development

• Define and champion technical art standards, best practices and production guidelines.

• Create clear documentation, technical playbooks and exemplar assets to support consistent implementation.

• Provide expert guidance, mentoring and knowledge sharing to develop technical capabilities across Art and Engineering.

• Drive research and development into emerging technologies, tools and workflows, including collaboration with external technology partners where appropriate.

• Lead technical reviews and contribute to postmortems, ensuring lessons learned translate into sustainable improvements.

• Influence long-term technical art strategy while remaining actively involved in practical implementation.

Knowledge, Skills & Experience

Essential

• Extensive professional experience in Technical Art within the games industry, including significant experience at Senior, Lead or Principal level.

• Expert-level, hands-on experience with Unreal Engine 5, including rendering systems, materials, shaders, asset integration and performance optimisation.

• Proven experience independently diagnosing and resolving complex rendering, visual quality and technical performance challenges in production environments.

• Advanced understanding of real-time rendering, GPU/CPU profiling, shader optimisation, lighting and graphics performance.

• Strong experience using Unreal Engine diagnostic and profiling tools, such as Unreal Insights, GPU Visualizer and RenderDoc.

• Strong proficiency with Unreal Engine Blueprint, Python and technical art scripting, alongside a working understanding of C++.

• Experience designing and implementing scalable technical art pipelines, tools, frameworks and automated workflows.

• Strong understanding of content optimisation, memory management, asset budgets and platform performance constraints.

• Demonstrable experience working collaboratively with Rendering Engineers, Artists and Technical Directors.

• Proven ability to establish technical standards, influence technical decisions and deliver solutions adopted by multiple development teams.

• Excellent analytical, problem-solving and communication skills, with the ability to translate complex technical challenges into practical solutions.

• Experience mentoring and enabling other developers through documentation, guidance and knowledge sharing.
  
  Desirable

• Experience developing and optimising games for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC.

• Experience working with Unreal Engine source code, custom rendering features or engine-level modifications.

• Advanced knowledge of Unreal Engine technologies including Nanite, Lumen, Niagara, Control Rig and procedural content generation.

• Experience with high-fidelity character rendering, skin, hair, cloth and deformation systems.

• Experience with DCC tools such as Maya, Houdini or Blender, including pipeline integration and automation.

• Experience developing automated asset validation, profiling or technical art quality assurance systems.

• Experience collaborating with Epic Games, middleware providers or external technical partners.

• Experience contributing to technical architecture and shared services across multiple projects or development teams.

What we offer

Healthy work-life balance:

• 23 days annual leave (plus bank holidays), that increases 1 day per year of service, up to a maximum of 30 days.

• Christmas shut down

• Holiday exchange programme - buy and sell up to 5 days per year.

• Flexible working hours & pattern (Certain Hybrid models available)

Support for family life:

• Enhanced Maternity and Paternity pay (subject to eligibility requirements)

• Private Healthcare which includes Optical & Dental

Great office environment:

• Friendly studios based in Sheffield and Leamington, with free snacks, fruit and drinks!

• Free parking - At our Sheffield site

Health & wellbeing support:

• Company sick pay

• 2 days Wellbeing Days leave per year

• Access to 24/7 doctors

• Employee Assistance Programme

Learning support:

• Learning days

Additional financial support:

• Technology scheme (salary sacrifice up to £750)

• Relocation benefits (subject to eligibility requirements)

• Life Cover (x3 annual salary)

• Discretionary Bonus

Connection and perks:

• Wrap parties & company paid outings

• Individual entertainment budget to cover team events

Steel City Interactive is an equal opportunity employer. We’re committed to building a diverse team and welcome all applications, considering them without regard to race, religion, belief, age, gender, gender expression, gender identity, gender reassignment, disability, marriage or civil partnership status, pregnancy or maternity, sex or sexual orientation.

If you’re excited about this role and believe you would add value to our team, but don’t meet every single requirement, we would still like to hear from you – please let us know about the value you would bring in your application.