Manager, Technical Art - Rendering, Unpublished R&D Product

At Riot, we believe in putting players first. Our Sydney-based team is partnering globally to build next-generation features and technology on an exciting Unpublished R&D Title. The team focuses on supporting the game's visual targets and content production needs - helping our artists to realize a vibrant and rich world for players to be immersed and express themselves in.

As a Manager, Technical Artist, Rendering, you’ll help define and deliver the visual bar for our next generation of worlds. You’ll lead and grow a team of talented technical artists, providing hands-on coaching, clear direction, and thoughtful feedback that elevates both craft and collaboration. By partnering closely with Art Leadership, Environment Art, and Lighting, you’ll help shape content creation efforts and translate creative ambition into clear rendering and lighting requirements that achieve our visual targets.

As a Manager, Technical Artist, you’ll own the artist-facing interfaces to the rendering pipeline, ensuring tools and systems are intuitive, well-documented, and built to scale. You’ll work side-by-side with Engineering to evaluate performance implications, balancing stunning visual fidelity with scalability across hardware constraints. From asset pipeline optimization to evolving visual systems as the project matures, you’ll ensure lighting and rendering workflows integrate seamlessly into content creation. As a strategic cross-disciplinary partner, you’ll communicate constraints, risks, and opportunities with clarity — empowering artists with best practices while guiding leadership toward smart, sustainable technical decisions. 

You will report into the Senior Manager, Technical Art and work closely with the Tech Art Director and other members of the team abroad.

Responsibilities:

• Directly manage a team of technical artists, providing support, coaching, and guidance in how they conduct their work.
• Partner with Art Leadership, Environment Art, and Lighting to define rendering and lighting requirements needed to achieve the desired visual target.
• Own and support the artist-facing interfaces to the rendering pipeline, ensuring systems are intuitive, documented, and scalable.
• Work with Engineering to evaluate performance implications of lighting and rendering features, balancing visual quality with scalability and hardware constraints.
• Partner on asset pipeline development and optimization, ensuring lighting and rendering workflows integrate cleanly with content creation.
• Support the evolution of existing visual systems, adapting tools, workflows, and systems as needed.
• Provide guidance and mentorship to artists around lighting and rendering best practices.
• Build strong cross-disciplinary relationships to understand artist needs and communicate constraints, risks, and opportunities to leadership.

Required Qualifications: 

• 6+ years of professional experience as a Technical Artist in games or a related industry.
• Experience with Unreal Engine lighting, rendering, and scripting systems.
• Proficiency with one or more industry standard content creation tools such as Autodesk Maya, 3DS Max, Adobe Suite, ZBrush, Houdini, Substance Suite, or Blender.
• In-depth understanding of real-time rendering principles, lighting models, and optimization strategies for real-time environments.
• Proven experience partnering closely with engineers to support or drive engine-level changes that meet artistic goals.
• Strong understanding of art production pipelines and the ability to translate artistic requirements into usable, production-ready tools or processes.
• Excellent communication skills and the ability to act as a bridge between art and engineering.
• Proactive, responsible, and comfortable owning ambiguous or evolving problem spaces.

Desired Qualifications:

• Experience working on a large-scale, AAA game with a sizable, cross-disciplinary team.
• Familiarity with modern Unreal Engine rendering features such as Lumen, Nanite, PCG, dynamic lighting systems, and weather-driven lighting.
• Experience contributing to or supporting content creation efforts during early or transitional production phases.
• Experience with scalable systems, tools, or pipeline development for large teams.
• Experience working with performance profiling and optimization in collaboration with engineering.