Technical Artist (5-month Contract)

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 seeking a passionate **Technical Artist** to join our team on an upcoming *Third Person Action Shooter*. Do you want to build stylish and compelling interactive experiences? Do you love collaborating with designers, artists, and programmers to create ambitious in-game content that is both beautiful and performant in **Unreal Engine 5**? If so, we’d love to hear from you! At BBI, we’re a creative-fueled, future-driven, independent game studio where top talent can grow their careers while working on both world-class IPs and original creations across multiple genres. You’ll join a fast-moving team developing a **Third Person Action Shooter**. We support remote and hybrid working arrangements across Canada (Vancouver, BC). At BBI, you’ll find a flexible, forward-thinking environment where creative voices are valued and nurtured. ### Responsibilities - Act as a bridge between Art, Engineering, and the game engine, helping teams communicate effectively and solve cross-disciplinary problems - Support artists with art-to-engine integration, including setup, debugging, and optimization of assets and systems, as well as housekeeping and naming conventions - Design, build, and maintain tools, scripts, and workflows that improve artist productivity and content quality - Collaborate with artists on animation, modeling, texturing, shaders, FX, Destruction and other real-time content disciplines - Help identify visual or performance issues and devise high-quality solutions within technical constraints - Contribute to the development and maintenance of art pipelines and production processes - Generate clear, concise documentation for tools, workflows, and pipelines - Take ownership of technical challenges, work with minimal supervision, and proactively propose improvements ### Requirements - At least 2 years of experience with Unreal Engine as a TA - Strong understanding of real-time content development and game art pipelines - Technical proficiency across one or more art disciplines (eg. animation, modeling, texturing, FX) with a solid grasp of how they interact in-engine - Experience supporting or developing production tools and workflows - Some programming or scripting experience (eg. C++, C#, Python, or similar) - Understanding of asset management and version control practices - Familiarity with animation rigs and game animation systems - Experience working with DCC tools such as Maya - Strong problem-solving skills, curiosity, and a collaborative mindset ### Pluses - Understanding of shader development and material systems - Experience with particle systems and real-time visual effects - Knowledge of performance profiling and optimization for real-time content - Experience with real-time destruction systems like Unreal Chaos - Experience with Perforce (P4V)