Lead Technical Artist - Tools and Pipeline in Brighton

Hangar 13 is an internal 2K development studio that crafts unforgettable AAA gaming experiences across all major platforms. With studios in Brighton (UK), Brno, and Prague (CZ), we work as one team to bring to life narrative‑rich games that keep players immersed. Each of our locations provides the opportunity to work with some of the most talented developers in the industry, on creatively challenging and exciting projects, in a diverse and welcoming environment.

We are seeking a highly skilled Lead Technical Artist to lead the design and development of scalable content pipelines and production tools for our projects. In this role, you will define workflows, create tools to streamline production, and act as the bridge between artists, engineers, and design teams. Your leadership will ensure that art teams can produce high-quality, performant assets efficiently, while maintaining flexibility for rapid iteration. You’ll guide a team of technical artists, support cross‑discipline collaboration, and set the standards for how content is created, managed, and deployed across multiple projects. In addition to leading internal team members, you will also oversee and collaborate with external co‑development partners, ensuring their work aligns with our creative vision, technical standards, and production goals. Please note we do require someone to be onsite at one of our Studios at least 3 days a week.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Architect and maintain scalable pipelines for all content disciplines — including environments, characters, animation, vehicles, materials, VFX, and cinematics.
• Design and implement custom tools, scripts, and workflows to increase efficiency, reduce errors, and standardize asset integration.
• Partner with engineering to extend UE5’s editor functionality and improve asset processing.
• Work with content creators to ensure pipelines are user‑friendly, scalable, and optimized for production needs.
• Establish best practices for asset versioning, content validation, and automated build processes.
• Lead, mentor, and inspire your team, setting quality and productivity benchmarks. Conduct regular reviews, provide feedback, and support professional growth within the team.
• Coordinate with production to manage priorities, schedules, and resourcing for development.
• Collaborate & support outsourcing partners by defining pipeline requirements and ensuring seamless integration of external content.

Essential Skills, Attributes and Experience

• Extensive experience in the games industry, with at least 2 shipped AAA titles.
• Proven track record as a Senior or Lead Technical Artist with pipeline and tools focus.
• Expert knowledge of Unreal Engine 5’s editor, content pipeline, Blueprints, and asset workflows.
• Proficiency in scripting/programming languages (Python, C++, C#, or similar), with a focus on framework design & implementation.
• Strong understanding of version control (Perforce) and build/automation systems (Jenkins, Unreal Build Tools, CI/CD pipelines).
• Excellent problem‑solving, communication, and leadership skills.

Highly Desirable

• Experience with automated content validation and performance profiling tools.
• Familiarity with large‑scale open‑world production pipelines in UE5 (World Partition, data layers, HLODs).
• Experience integrating procedural workflows (Houdini, Substance Designer) into pipelines.
• Knowledge of shader/material pipeline integration and optimization.
• Background in outsourcing/vendor management and pipeline support across distributed teams.

Hangar 13 prides itself on the diversity of its team members, partners, and communities. For this reason, we remain committed to providing equal employment opportunity in all aspects of the employment relationship, from recruitment and hiring through compensation, benefits, discipline and termination. As an equal opportunity employer, we are also committed to ensuring that qualified individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation(s) to participate in the job application and/or interview process, to perform their essential job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment. Please contact us if you need to request reasonable accommodation.