Blackbird Interactive is a creative-fueled, future-driven, independent game studio where the best talent in the industry can find long-term careers to help grow their abilities while working on a wide range of projects, which encompass world-class IPs as well as our own creations across multiple genres.
Our studio operates as a remote-first workplace, offering flexible work arrangements.
At this time, we are only able to hire candidates who are legally eligible to work in Canada and reside within Canada.
Blackbird Interactive is looking for a passionate and experienced Lookdev-focused Technical Artist to join our team and help define the visual identity of our games. Do you love crafting materials, lighting, and rendering solutions that elevate art direction while working within real-time constraints? Are you excited by the intersection of art, technology, and visual problem-solving?
You will work closely with artists, art directors, and engineers to develop and maintain high-quality look development workflows. This role focuses on real-time rendering, shaders, materials, lighting, and visual consistency, helping teams achieve ambitious visual targets while keeping content performant and production-friendly.
Responsibilities
Partner with artists and art direction to define, prototype, and maintain the visual look of assets and environments in-engine.Develop and support real-time shaders, materials, and material workflows.Support lighting workflows, including setup, iteration, and optimization for real-time environments.Ensure visual consistency across assets, environments, and scenes through shared standards and tooling.Collaborate with engineering to communicate artistic needs and technical constraints related to rendering and lighting.Identify and resolve visual, rendering, or performance issues while maintaining artistic intent.Create and maintain documentation for lookdev standards, shader usage, and lighting workflows.Support artists with troubleshooting, iteration, and best practices for real-time rendering
Requirements
Strong understanding of real-time rendering principles and game art pipelines.Experience developing or authoring shaders and materials for real-time engines.Solid artistic eye for lighting, color, composition, and surface response.Familiarity with physically based rendering (PBR) workflows.Experience working with lighting systems, post-processing, and rendering features in real-time engines.Some scripting or technical experience sufficient to prototype, debug, and support lookdev workflows,Experience working with DCC tools such as Maya and common texturing tools.Strong communication skills and a collaborative, artist-first mindset
Pluses
Experience with shader graph tools and low-level shader languages (eg. HLSL)Experience with Unity, Unreal, or similar real-time engines.Knowledge of performance profiling and optimization related to lighting and materials.Experience supporting stylized or non-photoreal rendering styles.Familiarity with version control systems such as Perforce (P4V)