Senior Technical Artist (Unity)

Welcome to the world of land-based gaming. At Light & Wonder, it's all about the games, and our Gaming team builds cutting-edge technology, products, and content for the most iconic casinos and operators across the globe.

We are seeking a Senior Technical Artist who is passionate about bringing game designers' ideas to life, crafting high-quality in-engine visuals, and pushing the boundaries of what's possible in Unity. With 5+ years of professional Unity experience, you thrive at the intersection of artistic vision and technical execution.

As a key creative and technical contributor, you bring a strong background in both 2D and 3D development, balancing visual fidelity with performance. This role plays a critical part in optimizing art pipelines, building efficient asset workflows, and developing technical solutions that elevate visual quality across multiple platforms. You will collaborate closely with artists, designers, and engineers to deliver seamless, high-quality Unity experiences.

Key Responsibilities

2D & 3D Art Pipeline Development

* Develop, optimize, and maintain art pipelines for both 2D and 3D assets in Unity.

* Implement custom Unity Editor tools to streamline asset workflows.

* Work closely with artists to ensure smooth import/export of 2D assets (PNG, PSD, SVG, Spine, etc.) and 3D assets (FBX, OBJ, USD, etc.) from tools such as Photoshop, Illustrator, Blender, and Maya.

Creative Vision & Visual Realization

* Collaborate closely with game designers and art directors to interpret and realize creative vision through technical artistry.

* Prototype and implement dynamic visual effects that enhance gameplay, mood, and storytelling.

* Act as a visual problem-solver, finding elegant technical solutions to artistic challenges.

* Design and implement real-time VFX using Unity's Visual Effect Graph, Particle System, and Shader Graph.

Optimization & Performance

* Optimize 2D assets and 3D assets for real-time performance.

* Work with engineers to profile and debug rendering, memory, and performance issues using tools like Unity Profiler, and GPU analyzers.

* Implement sprite packing, compression, and texture streaming techniques for efficient rendering.

* Balance visual quality and performance, ensuring the best experience across various hardware specifications.

Animation

* Strong familiarity with Unity's built in 2D and 3D animation systems.

* Work with animators to integrate various animation tools into the pipeline.

* Provide support for IK/FK rigging, blend shapes, procedural animations, and character animation for both 2D and 3D characters.

* Assist in optimizing sprite-based animations, skeletal rigs, and runtime animation blending.

Collaboration & Technical Support

* Act as a technical bridge between art, design, and engineering teams to align creative vision with technical feasibility.

* Troubleshoot shader, lighting, and rendering issues in both 2D and 3D environments.

* Provide technical guidance to artists and designers on best practices for sprite management, UI rendering, and 3D asset optimization.

* Stay updated on new Unity features and industry trends to enhance team workflows and improve project efficiency.

This is an on-site role, 5 days a week in office based at our studio in Reno, Nevada. Relocation is provided for out of state candidates.

Required Qualifications

* 5-7 years of experience as a Technical Artist working in Unity shipping at least 1 product developed in unity.

* Strong experience in both 2D and 3D asset pipelines.

* Proven ability to translate creative vision into technical execution.

* Expert-level proficiency in Unity, including VFX Graph, Shader Graph, Animator and custom tooling.

* Strong experience with shader development, particle systems, and real-time effects.

* Proficiency in C# scripting for creating Unity Editor tools and automating workflows.

* Experience with Unity's rendering pipeline (URP, Built-in) for both 2D and 3D rendering.

* Strong understanding of 2D sprite rendering, texture compression, sprite atlases, and UI optimization.

* Experience with shader development for 2D and 3D graphics.

* Proficiency in DCC tools.

* Experience in profiling and optimizing GPU, CPU, and memory performance for real-time applications.

* Ability to collaborate with cross-functional teams and communicate technical concepts to non-technical members.

Preferred Qualifications

* Experience working in the casino industry with shipped products.

Education

* A degree in Art, Animation, Game Development, Interactive Media, or a related field.

* Equivalent experience in lieu of a degree may be considered.

Physical Requirements

* The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to sit, stand, walk, bend, use hands, operate a computer, and have specific vision abilities to include close and distance vision, and ability to adjust focus working with computer and business equipment.

Work Conditions

* The work conditions are representative and typical of similar jobs in comparable organizations.

Light & Wonder and its affiliates (collectively, L&W) are engaged in highly regulated gaming businesses.As a result, certain L&W employees may, among other things, be required to obtain a gaming or other license(s), undergo background investigations or security checks, or meet certain standards dictated by law, regulation or contracts. In order to ensure L&W complies with its regulatory and contractual commitments, as a condition to hiring and continuing to employ its employees, L&W requires all of its employees to meet those requirements that are necessary to fulfill their individual roles. As a prerequisite to employment with L&W (to the extent permitted by law), you shall be asked to consent to L&W conducting a due diligence/background investigation on you.

This job description should not be interpreted as all-inclusive; it is intended to identify major responsibilities and requirements of the job. The employee in this position may be requested to perform other job-related tasks and responsibilities than those stated above.

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Light & Wonder is an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not discriminate against applicants due to race, color, sex, age, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, status as a veteran, and basis of disability or any other federal, state or local protected class. If you'd like more information about your equal employment opportunity rights as an applicant under the law, please click here for EEOC Poster.