Layout Artist Jobs in Austin, TX (NOW HIRING)

GameSim is a game development studio that partners with clients to build games across PC/console and a range of art styles. We care about craftsmanship, collaboration, and shipping work we're proud to put our names on. If you love building environments and believable spaces we'd like to meet you. Our headquarters is based in Orlando, FL!

Talent Pipeline Posting Notice
Please note that this posting is not tied to an immediate vacancy. We are proactively building a pipeline of qualified candidates in anticipation of potential hiring needs over the coming months. Applications will be reviewed and retained for future consideration as opportunities arise.

We are looking for an Environment Artist / Generalist with strong hands-on art skills, solid technical judgment, and the potential to grow into broader lead responsibilities over time.

This role is ideal for someone who enjoys both creating high-quality 3D art and helping teams work more clearly, consistently, and efficiently. Depending on the project, this person may contribute directly to asset creation, world building, scene assembly, feedback, task breakdowns, workflow documentation, quality reviews, and cross-studio collaboration.

Because our projects can vary widely in style, scope, platform, and client needs, we are looking for an adaptable artist with a strong art eye, a practical production mindset, and the ability to help translate creative direction into actionable work for other artists.

This is a hands-on production role with opportunities to support team alignment, mentor other artists, improve workflows, and grow toward lead-level responsibilities.

This role offers flexible work options, including remote, hybrid or in-office arrangements.

• Create high-quality 3D environment art, props, modular assets, materials, set dressing, and world-building content across a variety of visual styles.
• Work from concept art, reference, style guides, blockouts, client direction, or incomplete/vague creative briefs to produce clear and polished results.
• Build, assemble, and integrate assets and environments in Unreal Engine, with attention to composition, readability, performance, and technical requirements.
• Support the full environment art pipeline, including modeling, UVs, baking, texturing, material creation, optimization, engine integration, and final polish.
• Review artwork from internal teammates, partner studios, or external vendors and provide clear, constructive, actionable feedback.
• Help translate broad client or project feedback into specific tasks, priorities, notes, and acceptance criteria that artists can execute against.
• Assist with maintaining visual consistency across assets, scenes, and artists by helping define quality bars, style expectations, and review standards.
• Collaborate with art directors, leads, producers, technical artists, designers, engineers, and artists across multiple studios and time zones.
• Help identify production risks early, including unclear direction, workflow gaps, quality issues, technical constraints, or schedule concerns.
• Contribute to workflow and pipeline improvements that help the team work more efficiently and consistently.
• Document processes, best practices, feedback, and workflow guidance when needed using tools such as Confluence, Miro, or Jira.
• Balance visual quality, production efficiency, and performance requirements while supporting the needs of each project.

Requirements

• 5+ years of professional experience as a 3D Environment Artist, Generalist, World Artist, or similar role in games or real-time production.
• At least one shipped game or comparable real-time interactive project.
• Strong portfolio demonstrating high-quality environment art, world building, prop creation, materials, and/or scene assembly.
• Strong artistic eye for form, composition, lighting, material definition, scale, visual hierarchy, and style consistency.
• Ability to work across different visual styles, from realistic to stylized, depending on project needs.
• Experience creating both individual assets and assembled environments/scenes.
• Solid understanding of the full environment art pipeline, including modeling, UV layout, baking, texturing, materials, optimization, and engine implementation.
• Professional experience with Unreal Engine.
• Proficiency with common production tools such as Maya, Blender, ZBrush, Substance Painter, Substance Designer, Photoshop.
• Practical understanding of real-time performance considerations, including LODs, draw calls, texel density, texture memory, collision, lightmaps, shaders/material complexity, scene organization, and asset budgets.
• Strong communication skills, especially when giving feedback, clarifying direction, documenting decisions, or breaking down complex problems.
• Ability to take vague or high-level direction and turn it into clear, actionable work.
• Comfortable collaborating with artists, leads, producers, and cross-discipline partners.
• Able to give and receive feedback professionally, clearly, and constructively.
• Strong ownership, follow-through, and problem-solving ability.
• Interest in growing into broader leadership responsibilities over time.

• Previous experience mentoring artists, reviewing work, or informally supporting lead-level responsibilities.
• Experience working with outsourcing, co-development, partner studios, or external vendors.
• Experience collaborating with teams across different countries, cultures, and time zones.
• Experience providing feedback through written notes, paintovers, drawovers, video reviews, live calls, or structured review documents.
• Proficiency with common production tools such as Perforce, Jira, Miro, and Confluence.
• Experience helping define style guides, quality bars, workflow documentation, or art review standards.
• Experience breaking down client feedback into Jira tasks, art notes, production plans, or acceptance criteria.
• Experience with procedural workflows, Houdini, Blueprint, Python, scripting, or tool-assisted content creation.
• Experience with optimization passes, performance profiling, memory budgets, or platform-specific art constraints.
• Experience with both realistic and stylized production art.
• Experience in multiple engines or real-time pipelines.
• Experience working directly with clients or helping support client-facing reviews.

Please include a portfolio that clearly demonstrates your environment art and/or generalist capabilities.

Strong portfolios should include:

• Finished 3D environments, scenes, props, or world-building examples.
• Examples rendered or captured in a real-time engine, preferably Unreal Engine.
• Breakdowns showing your process, including blockout, modeling, UVs, baking, texturing, materials, set dressing, lighting, and final integration where applicable.
• Examples that show your ability to work across different visual styles.
• Examples of modular kits, reusable asset systems, material workflows, or production-friendly environment pipelines.
• Any examples that show technical problem solving, optimization, performance-aware decisions, or efficient workflows.
• If showing team-created work, please clearly explain what you personally contributed.
• Nice to have: examples of feedback, mentorship, documentation, workflow improvements, style matching, or before/after improvements you helped guide.
• Nice to have: written context explaining the goal of the work, constraints, tools used, your role, and any production challenges you helped solve.

The ideal candidate is not just a strong artist, but someone who naturally thinks about how the whole team succeeds.

You may be a great fit if you:

• Care about making great-looking art and making the process better for the team.
• Enjoy solving production problems, not just completing assigned assets.
• Can look at a scene or asset and identify what is working, what is not, and how to improve it.
• Communicate feedback in a way that is clear, respectful, and useful.
• Can help artists understand not just what to change, but why it matters.
• Are comfortable adapting to different clients, art styles, pipelines, and project needs.
• Have the judgment to balance quality, speed, technical constraints, and team bandwidth.
• Are interested in growing toward lead responsibilities while remaining hands-on in production.

• Resume + portfolio link required.
• An art test may be required as part of the process.

his position is currently open to candidates residing in the following U.S. states only:

Arizona (AZ), Connecticut (CT), Florida (FL), lowa (IA), Illinois (IL), Massachusetts (MA), Maine (ME), Michigan (MI), Minnesota (MN), New Hampshire (NH), Nevada (NV), Ohio (OH), Oregon (OR), South Carolina (SC), Tennessee (TN), Texas (TX), Virginia (VA), Wisconsin (WI), Montana (MT), Alabama (AL), Georgia (GA), Indiana (IN), Louisiana (LA), North Carolina (NC), New Jersey (NJ), Oklahoma (OK), and Utah (UT).

While applicants from all listed states will be considered, the ideal candidate will be located in Orlando (FL) Austin (TX) or New Orleans (LA). Applicants must be legally authorized to work in the United States and reside in one of the eligible states listed above.

Salary Range: $70,000 USD to $75,000 USD

Benefits

• Opportunity to work on different projects
• 3 weeks of accrued paid time off
• Benefits package including medical, dental and vision
• Sick Leave
• Disability Coverage
• Corporate holidays
• 401(k) Retirement Plan with company matching
• Professional Development
• Snacks, drinks, ping pong, and more!

GameSim is an equal opportunity employer. We welcome applicants of all backgrounds and identities and evaluate candidates based on skills, experience, and alignment with the role.

Keywords Studios is dedicated to following a well-established Equal Opportunities Policy. We endeavor to create a workplace which provides for equal opportunities for all employees and potential employees.

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By providing your information in this application, you understand that we will collect and process your information in accordance with our Applicant Privacy Notice. For more information, please see our Applicant Privacy Notice athttps://www.keywordsstudios.com/en/applicant-privacy-notice. 

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