Creature Artist Jobs (NOW HIRING)

Studio Wildcard, creators of the smash indie hit ARK: Survival Evolved, was founded in 2014. ARK has become one of the most successful cross-platform indie titles ever and continues to break industry records. We are looking for a Senior Graphics Programmer with an obsessive focus on performance and visual fidelity to push Unreal Engine 5 to its absolute limits.

Reporting directly to the Chief Technical Officer, you will be responsible for wrestling with core rendering systems, GPU performance, and cutting-edge visual tech. This role sits at the bleeding edge of game development, wrestling with core rendering systems, massive hardware budgets, and cutting-edge tech to ensure our wildest, most ambitious environments look stunning while maintaining a respectable frame rate.

Responsibilities can include:

• Dive into the Unreal Engine C++ source code to implement complex refactors and engine upgrades that support massive open-world gameplay.
• Profile GPU performance and resolve severe rendering bottlenecks related to draw calls, level of detail (LOD) transitions, and overdraw
• Dive deep into the specific hardware profiles of modern consoles (PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S), pushing the limits of their architecture while strictly adhering to their unique VRAM constraints, memory bandwidths, and certification standards
• Enhance and optimize Unreal Engine 5's rendering ecosystem, working intimately with features like Lumen, Nanite, and hardware ray tracing.
• Collaborate directly with the Technical Art and VFX teams to build and optimize custom rendering systems for dynamic in-world elements. You will provide deep technical support for materials and shader pipelines to bring complex environmental reactions to life, such as dense interactive foliage and physical weather systems.
• Partner with the Creature Art and Tech Animation teams to pioneer new rendering techniques, including advanced fur, skin shaders, and deformation. You will support their creative vision while aggressively optimizing draw calls and rendering costs for scenes densely packed with massive numbers of creatures.
• Define scalability scenarios across different GPU tiers to manage VRAM budgets and hit strict performance targets.
• Integrate, tweak, and optimize modern upscaling and frame generation technologies (such as DLSS, FSR, PSSR, and TSR).
• Co-define engine-level technical artist tooling and create documentation or best practices to raise the rendering capability floor for artists across the studio.
• Vigorously investigate, debug, and solve complex low-level graphics crashes and rendering anomalies across PC and modern console platforms.
• Perform periodic memory tracking, deep performance analysis, load time analysis, and critical race condition/deadlock fixes.
• Develop internal tools and extend engine features to improve iteration times and support the development pipelines for massive survival ecosystems.
• Manage and optimize large-scale asset pipelines, packaging, and streaming architectures to handle the massive data footprint of a dense open-world survival game.

Requirements:

• 5+ years of professional C/C++ experience focusing entirely on real-time rendering and low-level GPU systems.
• Deep expertise in shaping rendering architecture using modern graphics APIs, specifically DirectX 12 (DX12).
• Hands-on experience profiling, debugging, and identifying frame time optimizations using tools like PIX.
• Strong proficiency in authoring HLSL shaders, compute shaders, and PBR materials.
• Deep, hands-on experience modifying and extending the Unreal Engine 4/5 source code.
• Deep experience working with version control platforms, specifically Perforce.
• Ability to work core hours of 10:00 AM PST to 4:00 PM PST.
• Willingness to be on-call for live issue firefighting and to crunch around critical shipping periods to support major content launches.

Pluses:

• Shipped titles credited as a Senior Graphics Programmer, Senior Rendering Engineer, Principal Graphics Engineer or similar technical role

• Familiarity with the ARK franchise (Survival Evolved / Survival Ascended).

Required Application Materials:

• Resume
• Cover Letter including:
  • Why you are interested in this role
  • Why are you interested in working for Studio Wildcard
  • What other games are you currently playing

About The Studio

Studio Wildcard was founded in 2014 by industry veterans Jeremy Stieglitz and Jesse Rapczak, with the mission of bringing AAA quality to ambitious indie productions designed for core gamers. With countless years of combined industry experience across multiple independent and studio-backed titles, Wildcard's core team continues to grow, with offices in Redmond, WA and Gainesville, FL including distributed team members across multiple continents.

Equal Opportunity Employer
Wildcard is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, color, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, marital status, medical condition, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran status, race, religion, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, or any other characteristics protected by applicable laws, regulations or ordinances. If you need assistance and/or reasonable accommodations due to disability during the application or the recruiting process, please let us know.

Pay Transparency Information
The expected annual base pay range(s) for this position vary based on a variety of factors, which include: (but aren't limited to) skills, competencies, qualifications, knowledge, and experience. Each pay range is only relevant to those residing in WA state and can vary based on geographical location.

Wildcard Benefits
We pay 100% of all premiums for the employee and discounted rates for dependent premiums. Our coverage includes Medical (3 different plans to choose from), Dental, Vision, Short Term and Long Term Disability, Life Insurance, 401(k) option, 100% covered Parental Leave, PTO, Paid Holidays, Unlimited Sick Time, and FSA/ HSA options