Principal Environment Artist - GameSim - Pipeline

[English, French to follow]
GameSim is a game development studio that partners with clients to build games across PC/console and a range of art styles. We care about craftsmanship, collaboration, and shipping work we're proud to put our names on. If you love building environments and believable spaces we'd like to meet you. Our headquarters is based in Orlando, FL!
Talent Pipeline Posting Notice
Please note that this posting is not tied to an immediate vacancy. We are proactively building a pipeline of qualified candidates in anticipation of potential hiring needs over the coming months. Applications will be reviewed and retained for future consideration as opportunities arise.
We are seeking a Principal Environment Artist to help define and elevate the quality, efficiency, and consistency of environment-art production across GameSim projects.
This is a high level senior individual-contributor position for an experienced artist who can operate at both the strategic and hands-on levels. You will create benchmark-quality work, establish practical production standards, solve complex artistic and technical problems, and provide direction to environment teams working across different projects, engines, styles, and partner studios.
You will work closely with Art Directors, project leads, Technical Art, Production, Design, Engineering, clients, and partner studios to translate creative goals into clear and achievable environment-art strategies.
This role requires strong leadership, sound judgment, clear communication, and the ability to influence teams through expertise, example, and collaboration.
What Success Looks Like
Within your first 90 days, you will:
Develop a strong understanding of GameSim's projects, clients, production structure, and environment-art capabilities
Build trust with artists, project leadership, clients, and partner studios through clear communication and reliable decision-making
Create or guide the development of benchmark work that establishes a clear visual and technical quality bar
Identify a meaningful artistic, technical, or workflow challenge and help implement a practical improvement
Provide feedback and mentorship that improves the quality, consistency, and effectiveness of the environment team
Responsibilities
Artistic Leadership and Execution
Create high-quality real-time environments, architecture, modular kits, hero assets, materials, terrain, foliage, and world-building content
Produce benchmark assets and scenes that communicate expectations for composition, scale, visual hierarchy, material quality, environmental storytelling, and final polish
Translate art direction, concept art, reference material, design requirements, and client feedback into clear production goals
Establish environment-art strategies for modular construction, asset reuse, trim sheets, material systems, terrain, foliage, set dressing, and world building
Maintain a strong hands-on contribution when establishing quality bars, validating workflows, solving difficult problems, or supporting critical deliverables
Evaluate environment artwork objectively and provide specific, actionable feedback through reviews, paintovers, blockouts, reference boards, documentation, or in-engine examples
Production and Pipeline Development
Partner with Art Direction, Production, and Technical Art to define environment workflows that balance visual quality, scope, schedule, and technical requirements
Identify artistic, technical, and production risks early and recommend practical solutions
Help teams break down broad or incomplete direction into understandable tasks, milestones, priorities, and acceptance criteria
Improve environment-art pipelines through reusable workflows, templates, documentation, example assets, and production standards
Support planning and estimation by evaluating asset complexity, dependencies, staffing needs, and production risks
Troubleshoot challenging issues related to asset construction, materials, world building, optimization, engine implementation, or content integration
Help ensure environments meet project requirements for performance, memory, streaming, draw calls, shader complexity, collision, LODs, and platform limitations
Team and Project Influence
Guide environment artists across internal teams, partner studios, and external development groups
Mentor senior artists and emerging leads in artistic judgment, communication, planning, review practices, and decision-making
Collaborate with Art Directors to maintain a consistent visual direction across teams and deliverables
Participate in client meetings, milestone reviews, art reviews, and project-planning discussions when senior environment-art representation is needed
Communicate risks, tradeoffs, priorities, and recommendations clearly to artistic and non-artistic stakeholders
Help align teams working across different studios, disciplines, cultures, and time zones
Support prototypes, art tests, project pitches, preproduction efforts, and early pipeline development
Contribute to the continued growth of GameSim's environment-art discipline through mentorship, hiring support, portfolio reviews, documentation, and capability planning
Requirements
Extensive professional experience in game development, real-time production, or a closely related field
Multiple shipped games or comparable professional real-time projects
A portfolio demonstrating exceptional environment-art quality and strong production judgment
Expert understanding of composition, scale, proportion, visual hierarchy, shape language, material definition, lighting response, environmental storytelling, and scene cohesion
Advanced experience creating modular environments, architecture, props, terrain, materials, and reusable asset systems
Strong understanding of modeling, UVs, baking, texel density, trim sheets, tileable materials, decals, vertex blending, and real-time material workflows
Professional experience developing environments in Unreal Engine or another modern real-time engine
Strong understanding of environment optimization, including LODs, memory, streaming, draw calls, collision, shader complexity, and platform constraints
Experience establishing visual benchmarks, environment pipelines, asset standards, or production workflows
Demonstrated ability to solve complex artistic, technical, and production problems with limited supervision
Experience guiding senior artists, leads, distributed teams, external partners, or vendors
Ability to provide clear, constructive, and actionable artistic feedback
Strong understanding of how to balance quality, scope, schedule, technical requirements, and available resources
Strong written, verbal, presentation, and interpersonal communication skills
Experience collaborating with Art Direction, Production, Technical Art, Design, Engineering, Lighting, VFX, and other development disciplines
Ability to adapt to different projects, visual styles, engines, pipelines, and client expectations
Comfort participating in client-facing discussions and representing environment-art decisions professionally
Tools And Technical Experience
Candidates should have advanced experience with a professional environment-art toolset. This may include:
Maya, Blender, 3ds Max, or a comparable 3D content-creation package
ZBrush or an equivalent sculpting application
Substance 3D Painter and Substance 3D Designer
Photoshop or comparable image-editing software
Unreal Engine 5 or another modern real-time engine
Perforce or another production source-control system
Jira, Confluence, Miro, or comparable planning and documentation tools
Expertise with every listed application is not required. We are primarily interested in candidates who demonstrate strong fundamentals, adaptability, and the ability to choose appropriate tools for the production problem.
Preferred Qualifications
Experience working in co-development, outsourcing, consulting, or work-for-hire game production
Experience contributing to AAA PC or console titles
Experience working across both realistic and stylized visual pipelines
Experience supporting multiple projects or teams at a studio or discipline level
Experience owning a level, biome, world region, or major environment feature from early planning through final delivery
Experience with Unreal Engine systems such as World Partition, Nanite, virtual texturing, procedural content generation, landscape tools, material functions, Blueprints, or profiling tools
Houdini experience involving procedural modeling, terrain generation, scattering, modular construction, or artist-facing tools
Experience with foliage workflows, SpeedTree, photogrammetry, procedural generation, or organic-environment production
Experience with lighting and post-processing sufficient to establish visual targets and diagnose presentation issues
Familiarity with Python, editor scripting, automation, or technical-art tool development
Experience contributing to project scoping, staffing recommendations, bidding, hiring, or portfolio evaluation
Portfolio Requirements
Your portfolio

Work arrangement
Yes