Unreal Engine Technical Artist / 3D Artist

James Cook Media, Inc. is looking for an Unreal Engine Technical Artist or 3D Artist with strong UE5 skills to compose photorealistic outdoor environments for an internal R&D simulation platform. You will own the visual quality of the project end to end: world building with geospatial terrain streaming and high-fidelity asset libraries, lighting and atmosphere design, asset modeling for in-scene actors, VFX, and the asset pipeline that ties it all together.

This is hands-on production work with strict performance constraints. Photorealism is the goal, but it has to ship within frame budget on consumer hardware. If you enjoy the craft of making real-world locations feel believable while staying disciplined about poly count and draw calls, this role is a good fit.

Engagement

• Type: Project-based contract or part-time
• Location: Remote, Ukraine-based
• Duration: ~3 months with possibility of extension
• Start date: May 15
• Compensation: Competitive, discussed during screening call

What you'll do

• Build photorealistic outdoor environments combining real-world terrain streaming with high-quality close-range asset libraries
• Author multiple lighting and weather presets per scene (clear, overcast, dusk, night) with full control over atmospheric and sky systems
• Model and material a small number of in-scene actors with proper LOD strategy, damage states, and material variants
• Author VFX for environmental effects and in-scene events
• Own the asset pipeline: import workflow, naming conventions, folder structure, LOD policy, texture compression, performance budgets
• Profile and optimize to hit interactive frame rates on consumer-class hardware at 1440p
• Collaborate closely with the engine programmer on integration, the engineering lead on requirements, and tooling team on in-editor authoring helpers

Required skills

• 5+ years of production 3D work in real-time engines, with at least 2 years in Unreal Engine (UE5 specifically preferred)
• Experience in geospatial streaming workflow (Google 3D Tiles, Cesium ion, georeference origin handling) or willingness to ramp up quickly with strong UE5 fundamentals
• Strong UE5 environment art skills - terrain blending, foliage placement, material variants, ground integration of imported assets
• Lighting and atmosphere mastery - dynamic and baked GI, sky and atmosphere systems, post-process, color grading, time-of-day systems
• Good understanding of performance trade-offs - draw calls, overdraw, shader complexity, LOD strategy, virtualized geometry
• VFX authoring at production quality
• Performance profiling with engine tools; ability to diagnose draw call, overdraw, and shader complexity issues
• Asset pipeline discipline: clean folder structure, naming conventions, version control hygiene
• Strong sense of composition and craft - the difference between dropped assets and an intentional scene

Nice to have

• Cesium for Unreal hands-on experience
• Quixel Megascans proficiency including Bridge integration
• Niagara for VFX authoring
• Lumen and Nanite production experience
• TSR and DLSS configuration experience
• Sky Atmosphere, Volumetric Clouds, Exponential Height Fog tuning
• Material authoring beyond defaults (custom shader graphs, layered materials)
• World Position Offset / Pivot Painter for foliage wind effects
• Previous work on simulation, training, or visualization projects (not just games)
• Familiarity with photogrammetry workflows
• Comfort with Blueprint scripting for editor utilities
• Git or Perforce experience

If parts of this stack are new to you but UE5 fundamentals are solid, that is fine - we have a structured ramp-up window in the first phase of the project.

Application process

1. Send us:
   • Your CV
   • Either a portfolio (link or PDF) demonstrating relevant UE5 outdoor environment work with photorealistic terrain and lighting, or be ready to complete a short test task (~4-8 hours)
   • A short note (5-10 sentences) on your favorite scene you've worked on and why
   • Availability and earliest start date
2. Initial screening call (30 minutes) - mutual fit, scope discussion, compensation, technical baseline questions
3. Portfolio review or test task (if no relevant portfolio piece) - a small, focused UE5 scene demonstrating a photoreal outdoor prototype. Detailed brief provided.
4. Final discussion (60 minutes) - we walk through your work together, discuss decisions, and finalize terms

We aim to make decisions within 2 weeks of receiving an application. Honest feedback at every stage.