Principal Technical Artist, Environment - Unpublished R&D Product

On the MMO team, we’re not just building a big game—we’re building a world at scale: layered, living, and player-driven. For that to work, we need tools and pipelines that aren’t just powerful—they need to be flexible, systemic, and futureproof.

As a Principal Environment Technical Artist, you’ll be an architect of our worldbuilding pipeline, defining the core systems that enable environment artists and designers to craft massive, diverse, and immersive spaces. You’ll be a key strategic partner in shaping how the world is built—from high-level tooling philosophy to boots-on-the-ground implementation. This role is central to unlocking scale without compromise, and to making worldbuilding a creative, empowered process for dozens of contributors over many years.

You'll partner deeply with Creative Leads, Engineering, and Production to design workflows that amplify art direction, drive efficient content creation, and support procedural and modular pipelines across biomes, architecture, terrain, and more.

Responsibilities

• Design and own foundational systems for world editing, asset integration, and procedural worldbuilding—including terrain, biomes, modular kits, and urban layouts.
• Build core components of our world editing toolset, including in-editor tooling and custom workflows that support iterative, distributed development at scale.
• Translate high-level art direction into executable workflows and reusable toolchains, partnering closely with the Art Director and Creative Leads to align technical solutions with creative vision.
• Champion procedural content systems (e.g., Houdini-based or in-engine PCG tools) that enable high-volume, high-fidelity content creation while supporting player-driven world dynamics.
• Navigate creatively ambiguous problem spaces—designing for what we know, and building systems that can adapt to what we don’t.
• Guide and mentor other technical artists
• Collaborate with Engineering and Tech Art leadership to evolve the environment pipeline across DCC, source control, build systems, and runtime delivery.
• Establish and enforce performance, scalability, and modularity standards for environment content across the project.
• Help define the long-term vision for content creation systems, from pre-production prototyping to live game sustainability.
• Proactively identify tech debt and pipeline inefficiencies, explore future technology, and drive strategic solutions that prepare us for the long road of live service MMO development.

Required Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience as a Technical Artist, with a strong emphasis on worldbuilding or environment art systems.
• Expert-level knowledge of Houdini or equivalent procedural content tools, with hands-on experience building environment systems at scale.
• Experience designing procedural systems for architectural, city, or open world content, with an eye toward visual fidelity and layout utility.
• Mastery of Unreal Engine 5’s worldbuilding stack, including material systems, world partitioning, landscape tools, instancing, and asset streaming.
• Deep understanding of environment content creation pipelines, with expert-level proficiency in tools such as Maya, Blender, ZBrush, etc.
• Advanced scripting capabilities in Python, Blueprint, and similar languages, used to create, maintain, and document tools used across disciplines.
• Proven experience collaborating across departments, balancing technical, artistic, and design goals in a high-complexity game environment.
• Strong systems thinking, with a track record of designing pipelines that scale across multiple teams, biomes, or content types.

Desired Qualifications

• Experience building MMOs or large-scale multiplayer worlds, especially with persistent or systemic environmental gameplay.
• Familiarity with procedural texture and material generation workflows using tools like Substance Designer, Houdini Copernicus, or similar.
• Experience with performance benchmarking, profiling, and optimization in large open-world maps.
• Proficiency with C++, especially in the context of extending Unreal Engine tools or editor functionality.

Portfolio Requirements

Please include a portfolio, demo, or documentation that showcases:

• Tools or systems you implemented to support large-scale worldbuilding.
• Procedural workflows (terrain, biomes, architectural kits, etc.) built in Houdini or Unreal.
• Examples of systemic thinking—how you approached problems of scale, reuse, and cross-discipline collaboration.

For this role, you'll find success through craft expertise, a collaborative spirit, and decision-making that prioritizes the delight of players. We will be looking at your past studies, experience, and your personal relationship with games. If you embody player empathy and care about players' experiences, this could be your role!

Our Perks:

Riot focuses on work/life balance, shown by our open paid time off policy and other perks such as flexible work schedules. We offer medical, dental, and life insurance, parental leave for you, your spouse/domestic partner, and children, and a 401k with company match. Check out our benefits pages for more information.

At Riot Games, we put players first. That mission drives every decision in our quest to create games and experiences that make it better to be a player. Whether you’re working directly on a new player-facing experience or you’re supporting the company as a whole, everyone at Riot is part of our mission. And just like in our games, we’re better when we work together. Our goal is to create collaborative teams where you are empowered to bring your unique perspective everyday. If that sounds like the kind of place you want to work, we’re looking forward to your application.

It’s our policy to provide equal employment opportunity for all applicants and members of Riot Games, Inc. Riot Games makes reasonable accommodations for handicapped and disabled Rioters and does not unlawfully discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, handicap, veteran status, marital status, criminal history, or any other category protected by applicable federal and state law. We consider for employment all qualified applicants, including those with criminal histories, in a manner consistent with applicable federal, state and local law, including the California Fair Chance Act, the City of Los Angeles Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance, the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers, the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, and the Washington Fair Chance Act.

Per the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance, the following core duties may create a basis for disqualifying candidates with relevant criminal histories:

• Safeguarding confidential and sensitive Company data
• Communication with others, including Rioters and third parties such as vendors, and/or players, including minors
• Accessing Company assets, secure digital systems, and networks
• Ensuring a safe interactive environment for players and other Rioters

These duties are directly related to essential operations, safety, trust, and compliance obligations within our organization. Please note that job duties may evolve based on business needs and additional responsibilities may be assigned as necessary to maintain operational efficiency and security.