Pokémon GO is the global gaming sensation that has been downloaded over 1 billion times and named "Best Mobile Game" by the Game Developers Choice Awards and "Best App of the Year" by TechCrunch. Pokémon GO follows Niantic's mission of encouraging outdoor exploration, exercise, and significant social interactions, and has grossed over $6B in revenue since its debut in 2016. In order to delight our millions of players across the globe, the Pokémon GO team requires motivated and skilled individuals to develop new features and look for creative ways to optimize a continually growing game.

Niantic seeks a Senior Technical Artist, Pokémon GO to develop and maintain best practices, drive new techniques, and support growing technology in a live game environment. You have a strong understanding of the technical aspects for game development and use that knowledge to mentor other team members. While you do not shy away from direct individual contributor work, you are at your best when you empower others through your experience and guidance to scale the team and the project.

Responsibilities

• Develop, document, and maintain best practices across the entire Tech Art organization.
• Collaborate with engineering and product teams to develop features and creative solutions to challenging problems.
• Collaborate with engineering to evaluate and maintain project and game health.
• Build prototypes of experimental features using Unity 3D or other mobile platform tools.
• Develop systems, tools, and workflows for efficient content production.
• Facilitate communication and asset pipeline between engineering and art teams.
• Conduct performance evaluations and provide optimization recommendations.
• Collaborate with cross-functional team members and stakeholders to cultivate strong working relationships with project team members, including regular and reliable attendance and participation in meetings.

Qualifications

• Advanced experience and knowledge with Unity Game Engine.
• Advanced-level C# scripting within the Unity environment.
• Strong foundation across a few areas of Tech Art such as animation, graphics, pipelines and tooling, scripting gameplay, etc.
• Experience optimizing real-time 3D-graphics pipeline for mobile platforms.
• Ability to work in a fast-paced hybrid environment and handle stress appropriately and/or ability to solve practical problems and be sufficiently adaptable to handle dynamic situations with little advance notice.
• Experience working on cross-functional teams with ability to communicate effectively through written and verbal communications, including synchronous interactions with others.

Plus If...

• BS or MS degree in design, games-related or technical field.
• Solid artistic skills (color, shape, light, motion).
• Experience collaborating within a multi-person game studio.
• Experience writing shaders in HLSL or GLSL.
• Experience developing Unity Editor tools.
• Experience with Unity's Canvas UI System.
• Experience with Unity's Animation System and state machine setups.
• Experience with asset pipelines from content creation setup to implementation.

The total compensation package for this position includes a new hire offer base salary range of $149,000 - $192,150 + bonus + equity + benefits.

Individual pay within this salary range is determined by work location and additional factors, including assessed job-related skills, experience, and relevant education or training. Your recruiter can answer any questions about new hire total compensation during the hiring process. An overview of benefit offerings for your location can be found on the careers page.

Join the Niantic team!

Niantic is the world's leading AR technology company, sparking creative and engaging journeys in the real world. Our products inspire outdoor exploration, exercise, and meaningful social interaction.

Originally formed at Google in 2011, we became an independent company in 2015 with a strong group of investors including Nintendo, The Pokémon Company, and Alsop Louie Partners. Our current consumer titles include pioneering global-control game Ingress, record-breaking AR game Pokémon GO, and Pikmin Bloom. In November 2021, we launched our developer platform, Lightship, enabling creators to build immersive AR experiences around the globe. Niantic is an Equal Opportunity employer.

We believe that cultivating a workplace where our people are supported and included is essential to creating great products our community will love. Our mission emphasizes seeking and hiring diverse voices, including those who are traditionally underrepresented in the technology industry, and we consider this to be one of the most important values we hold close.

Niantic is a hybrid first company. We believe that in person interaction and collaboration is good for Niantic's culture, and critical to our future success as a company. We support flexibility and know new ways of working are here to stay.

We're a hard-working, fun, and exciting group who value intellectual curiosity and a passion for problem-solving! We have growing offices located in San Francisco, Sunnyvale, Bellevue, Los Angeles, New York, London, Tokyo, Hamburg, and Zurich. #LI-HYBRID