Technical Artist

TECHNICAL ARTIST (UE5) – LIGHTING & PERFORMANCE

Project employment with the possibility of permanent employment | Skövde / Örebro / Stockholm / Remote

Do you want to be the link between art direction and a stable framerate? We're looking for a Technical Artist to help us make an AAA Unreal Engine 5 production both look great—and run above target FPS (minimum 30 FPS on the target platform) without losing the feel.

ABOUT PIKTIV

Piktiv is an engineer-driven partner studio in game development, helping studios with everything from co-dev to optimization and porting. We believe in small, self-driven teams that take ownership of delivery and collaborate closely with our clients' development teams.

ABOUT THE ROLE

In this role, you'll be our quality/performance bridge between art and code. You'll work hands-on in Unreal Engine 5 with lighting, rendering cost, and content optimization. The focus is on finding the smart compromises: removing/replacing/decimating what's expensive—while preserving the overall impression.

This is initially a project-based position, intended to transition into a permanent role.

YOUR MAIN RESPONSIBILITIES

Lighting in UE5: create, tweak, and quality-check lighting and post-process to achieve the right mood and readability.

Performance profiling: identify bottlenecks (GPU/CPU), analyze rendering cost, and drive actions that deliver measurable results.

Optimize overdraw/fillrate: reduce unnecessary pixel cost (e.g., through material choices, transparency/foliage strategies, shader complexity, and scene structure).

Asset and scene optimization: LOD/HLOD strategy, Nanite/instancing where appropriate, culling mindset, and "asset decimation" (removing/replacing objects and details that don't meaningfully support the experience).

Set guidelines: propose and establish content guidelines (budgets, best practices) so the team can work faster and more consistently.

Collaboration: work closely with artists and programmers to land the right trade-offs and push improvements through the pipeline and content.

WHO WE THINK YOU ARE (ESSENTIAL)

You have experience as a Technical Artist (or a closely related role) in real-time graphics—preferably games—and you're used to working hands-on in Unreal Engine (UE4/UE5).

You can read profiling data and translate it into concrete changes in content/scene/materials/settings.

You have a strong sense of the whole: when it's worth cutting cost—and when you risk compromising art direction.

You're communicative and enjoy working at the intersection of art and code: you can explain trade-offs and bring the team along.

You can show a portfolio/cases (preferably before/after) where you improved real-time performance and/or lighting.

NICE TO HAVE (BONUS)

You're a "coding" Technical Artist: Blueprints, C++ and/or Python/tools scripting for editor/pipeline.

Experience optimizing for specific target platforms (e.g., console, Switch, mobile, VR) and working with clear budgets.

Experience with shaders/materials, UE5 rendering features (e.g., Lumen, VSM), and debugging with relevant tools.

WHAT WE OFFER

A home for experts: skilled colleagues, a learning culture, and room to grow.

Self-organizing teams with strong ownership—we prefer solving hard problems the right way, not "just fast."

The chance to influence visual quality and performance in real production projects.

PRACTICAL INFO

Scope: Full-time (40 hours/week)

Location: Skövde, Örebro or Stockholm (depending on team/project)

Employment type: Project employment with the ambition to transition into permanent employment

Start date: As agreed

Selection process: Ongoing

APPLY

Send CV + portfolio (and preferably a short description of a concrete optimization case you led: what was the problem, how did you measure it, what did you change, and what results did you achieve?).