3D Technical Artist – Remote in the US or Hybrid in Cary, NC

About the job   

The Games Analytics and Digital Twins team is looking for a 3D Technical Artist to build the environments, characters, models and effects behind our next generation of digital twins. Our team sits between art and engineering, producing optimized, production-ready assets that run in real-time simulation and generate synthetic data for analytics and machine learning.

This is a role for someone who cares equally about how something looks and how fast it runs. One week you may be rigging MetaHumans for a workforce simulation, the next turning a customer's CAD drawings into an accurate factory floor, then chasing down a frame-time regression in Unreal Insights. Few technical art roles let you watch your assets feed an analytics platform and shape decisions customers make about real facilities.

As a 3D Technical Artist, you will:

• Create and modify model assets for simulation environment creation in Unreal Engine, including setting up and troubleshooting basic and custom collision volumes.
• Implement optimized lighting, post-process and camera effects with a focus on balancing visual quality against real-time performance.
• Create, customize and rig MetaHuman characters for real-time applications in Unreal Engine 5, and implement facial and body animation using Control Rig, Sequencer or motion capture data.
• Identify, communicate and resolve visual performance bottlenecks and defects using Unreal Editor and Unreal Insights.
• Collaborate with the engineering team to transform 2D drawings (DXF, DWG, CAD) into accurate 3D spaces.
• Maintain efficient asset organization, naming conventions and version control standards across the content pipeline.
• Ensure all applicable security policies and processes are followed to support the organization's secure software development goals.
• Embrace curiosity, passion, authenticity and accountability. These are our values and influence everything we do.

Required qualifications 

• Bachelor's degree in Game Art, Animation, Computer Graphics or a related field.
• Minimum 5 years of professional experience as a 3D Technical Artist, Character Artist or in a similar role.
• Strong proficiency with Unreal Engine 5, particularly MetaHuman Creator, Control Rig and Animation Blueprints, plus Maya, Blender or a comparable package for modeling, rigging and animation.
• Solid understanding of real-time rendering, performance optimization and PBR material workflows, including character retargeting, facial animation and motion capture cleanup.
• Experience working in a version-controlled content pipeline (Perforce, Plastic SCM or Git).
• Equivalent combination of related education, training and experience may be considered in place of the above qualifications. 

Additional competencies, knowledge and skills 

• Collaborating – Working cooperatively with others to help a team or work group achieve its goals.
• Quality Orientation – Accomplishing tasks by considering all areas involved, no matter how detailed; showing concern for all aspects of the job; accurately checking processes and tasks; being watchful over a period of time.
• Technology Savvy – Leveraging practical knowledge of recent technology tools, solutions and trends to improve work results, solve work problems and take advantage of new business opportunities.
• Experience with Python or Blueprint scripting to automate asset workflows.
• Knowledge of Niagara, subsurface scattering materials, or Groom systems for hair.
• Background in synthetic data generation, computer vision or simulation environments.
• Understanding of technical art pipelines for producing AI and machine learning training datasets.

World-class benefits  

Highlights include...

• Comprehensive medical, prescription, dental and vision plans.
• Medical plan options include:
  • PPO with low annual deductible and copays.
  • HDHP combined with a health savings account with a contribution from SAS (no access to on-site health care center).
• Onsite Health Care Center (HQ) that’s free to employees and family members enrolled in the PPO plan. There's a pharmacy too! Not local to HQ? The pharmacy will ship prescriptions for no additional charge!
• An industry-leading 401k plan.
• Tuition Assistance Program and programs and resources to support your development
• Generous time away including vacation time, a variety of paid holidays, and our much-loved U.S. Winter Wellness Break between December 25 and January 1.
• Volunteer Time Off, parental leave and unlimited paid sick days.
• Generous childcare benefits for all full-time employees.

Let's stay in touch! Join our Talent Community to stay up to date on company news, job updates and more.

#SAS