Senior Technical Artist

Senior Technical Artist

Ability to work hybrid from our Santa Monica, CA based studio is required.

For 40 years, Naughty Dog has been crafting best-selling, critically acclaimed games that constantly push the boundaries of interactive storytelling, gameplay, and technology. Naughty Dog recently released The Last of Us Part I and The Last of Us Part II Remastered for the PS5. We're also proud to say that both games are now available for the first time on PC. We're currently busy at the kennel working on Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet and we'd love to find talented individuals to join us. Naughty Dog games have long been lauded for their evocative, character-driven stories and attention to detail. We are committed to innovation within our games and as such have curated some of the top creative and technically innovative minds in the industry. We welcome diverse candidates and believe that a broad range of cultural and life experiences contribute to the overall well-being and success of the studio and the titles we craft together.

At Naughty Dog, Senior Technical Artists are critical in developing visual features and driving the look of the game. Candidates are half-artist and half-programmer. They are proficient in their programming and math skills, architect clean code and have advanced knowledge of artists pipelines within a specific domain. In addition to their technical skill contributions, they are expected to have a developed aesthetic vision and an artist's eye for visual polish.

What you will do:

• Develop the team's shader tech. Implement high-level features (examples: skin, cloth, wetness, and mud packages). Maintain low-level shader code organization and optimization.
• Develop high-level lighting and post-processing features (examples: film grain, health effects, underwater rendering).
• Collaborate closely with graphics programming and our core tech teams on features that keep the game performant and achieve the highest visual standards.
• Write well-architected code that can be built upon for years to come.
• Support the content team in debugging issues with tools, assets, or framerate.
• Spearhead the development of features, toolsets, and pipelines that meet various art department needs (environment, characters, VFX, etc.).
• Facilitate technology sharing between all art departments, ensuring alignment and efficiency.
• Additional responsibilities may be assigned as needed.

What skills you will use:

• 5+ years of experience shipping a major title in a relevant role.
• Expert proficiency in HLSL or GLSL shading languages.
• Proficiency in Python and C++ programming languages, including debugging experience.
• Strong artistic background and content development skills (can be texturing, lighting, VFX, or any other area where you have experience, but a strong artistic eye is a necessity!).
• Motivated and proactive self-starter, capable of growing in a highly dynamic environment.
• Ability to manage tasks and responsibilities independently with little supervision.
• Outstanding problem-solving, observation, and debugging skills, with a passion for discovering solutions even outside your area of expertise.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills.

Bonus Skills:

• Experience in other content creation software, as a user or tools developer (Houdini, Substance Designer, Substance Painter, etc.).
• Understanding of underlying mathematical principles in ML and familiarity with frameworks such as scikit-learn or PyTorch.
• Proven experience with machine learning techniques (knowledge of machine learning techniques and their applications in animation, rigging, and shading is a significant advantage).
• Active contributor to industry publications, events, and educational outreach.

As part of the Naughty Dog application process, candidates should expect to be given a technical interview and may be asked to completean art test.