About Steel City Interactive
SCI was born out of passion for video games and boxing, with the ambition to create an authentic and exciting boxing game that does justice to the sport we love. What started as a fun prototype has grown into ‘Undisputed’, the first major boxing video game in over a decade.
SCI is a welcoming place for expression and open communication, where everyone has a voice. We’re a diverse bunch, consisting of people with decades of games industry experience, graduates and talented individuals who come from other industries. We all bring knowledge and learn from each other.
Together we are driven by ambition to bring the world of boxing into a video game like never before.
The Role
We are looking for an experienced and highly skilled Principal Technical Artist to join Steel City Interactive, providing expert technical leadership across our game development teams.
Operating at the intersection of Art and Engineering, you will play a critical role in delivering high-quality visual experiences through robust, efficient and scalable technical solutions.
Initially, your focus will be on investigating and resolving complex technical art challenges, particularly within Unreal Engine 5, including rendering, visual fidelity, performance optimisation and asset integration. You will work hands-on with our Art and Engineering teams to identify root causes, implement solutions and ensure our visual ambitions are achievable within technical and platform constraints.
As the role evolves, you will help shape the studio's technical art capabilities, establishing frameworks, tools, standards and workflows that improve quality, efficiency and consistency across development teams.
This is a Principal-level Individual Contributor position, requiring deep technical expertise, independent problem-solving and the ability to influence technical direction without formal people management responsibilities.
Responsibilities
Technical Art Leadership & Problem Solving
Act as a principal technical authority for Unreal Engine 5, providing hands-on expertise to investigate and resolve complex technical art challenges.
Lead the diagnosis and resolution of rendering, shader, material, visual fidelity and performance issues.
Collaborate closely with Art Directors, Technical Directors and Engineers to deliver technically robust solutions that support the artistic vision.
Proactively identify technical risks, production bottlenecks and opportunities to improve visual quality and development efficiency.
Rendering & Performance Optimisation
Develop and optimise rendering techniques, materials, shaders and visual systems within Unreal Engine 5.
Establish technical art performance budgets, profiling methodologies and optimisation standards for target platforms.
Investigate GPU and CPU performance bottlenecks, working with Engineering to implement sustainable improvements.
Evaluate and implement appropriate Unreal Engine technologies to improve visual quality, performance and production workflows.
Pipeline Architecture, Tools & Systems
Design and maintain scalable technical art pipelines, tools and frameworks that support efficient content creation and integration.
Develop reusable solutions and automation to improve artist productivity, asset validation and workflow reliability.
Establish shared technical art libraries, templates and reference implementations that can be adopted across teams.
Support technical frameworks for shaders, rigging, animation, VFX and runtime content integration.
Collaborate with Engineering on engine integrations, technical architecture and research and development initiatives.
Studio Standards & Capability Development
Define and champion technical art standards, best practices and production guidelines.
Create clear documentation, technical playbooks and exemplar assets to support consistent implementation.
Provide expert guidance, mentoring and knowledge sharing to develop technical capabilities across Art and…