Great-looking games don't happen because someone drew something beautiful. They happen because someone figured out how to get that beautiful thing running at a stable framerate, on a phone, in a build the whole team can iterate on twenty times a day. That someone is you.
We're looking for a Technical Artist to own the space between art and engineering on one of our new projects in the Shanghai studio. You'll be the person artists come to when the thing in Substance doesn't look like the thing in the engine, and the person programmers come to when the frame budget is blown and nobody's sure whose fault it is. You'll shape the visual identity of the game as much as any artist does — just through shaders, tooling, and pipelines rather than pixels.
This is a small team with a lot of ownership. Nobody will hand you a spec.
If that sounds like your kind of problem, we'd love to hear from you！
What You'll Be DoingOwn the shader and material library. Author the shaders that give the game its look, design a master-material architecture artists can actually work with, and keep permutation counts and shader complexity from quietly eating the frame
Build the tools artists live in. DCC scripts, engine editor extensions, one-click export, automated asset validation — every hour you save someone in Maya or the material editor goes back into the game, so treat tooling as a first-class deliverable, not a side project
Raise the visual bar alongside the art team. Sit in look-dev with the art director, build the lighting and post-process templates that make the style reproducible, and close the gap between the concept on the wall and the thing running on device
Keep art content within budget. Profile real builds on real phones, work out why the device is getting hot, and design the LOD and quality-tier systems that let the game scale from flagship to low-end without losing its identity
Prototype the risky visual ideas. Before anyone commits to them, and be honest about which ones won't survive contact with the frame budget
Be the interface to the engine team. Translate what artists want into renderer features programmers can scope, and translate what the renderer does into constraints artists can work with
Set and hold the standards. Define how art content should be built, document it, onboard people onto the pipeline, and be the person who notices when things start slipping
What You Have8+ years in games, a meaningful chunk of it on the technical side of art
Real shader authoring skill — HLSL, Unreal's material graph, or both — and enough scripting (Python, Blueprint, or C++) to build your own tools rather than request them
A working mental model of how a frame gets rendered, and of where Unreal's content pipeline hides its costs
Fluency across the DCC stack (Maya, Blender, Houdini, Substance, or your equivalents) and strong opinions about how they should connect to the engine
The instinct to profile before optimizing, and the patience to chase a regression to its actual cause
Comfort being the translation layer between two disciplines that don't always speak the same language — and the diplomacy that takes
A self-starter approach to use AI: you've found ways to use it in your day-to-day work, you experiment, figure things out and bring the same energy to every new challenge
Being a great teammate — we believe making games is a team sport
Would Be Nice if You Also HaveAt least one shipped mobile title, and the scars to prove it — thermal throttling, bandwidth ceilings, memory budgets, the whole set
A history of extending the Unreal editor when the existing workflow wasn't good enough
Hands-on experience with AI agents and AI-assisted workflows, especially pointed at content or tooling problems
Experience across the full arc of a project, from grey-box prototype to live service, and a sense of what matters at each stage
Where You'll BeThis role is based in our Shanghai office. If you are not local, our relocation team would be excited to help you with your move to Shanghai,China. We provide comprehensive support not only for you, but also for your family!
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That's it about the role! Below, we've gathered some things we feel are important for you to know. Totally optional, but a highly recommended read.
Once you're ready to apply, just send us your application through the form on the bottom of the page.
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About Supercell
Supercell is a games company from Helsinki, Finland, with offices also in San Francisco, Seoul, Shanghai, and London. You might know us as the makers of Hay Day, Clash of Clans, Boom Beach, Clash Royale, Brawl Stars, and Squad Busters. Our mission is to create great games that as many people as possible play for years and that are remembered forever.
So, how do we make great games? By putting together the best teams and giving them the freedom and independence to succeed. And by taking risks, failing, sharing learnings, and killing lots of projects.
The Shanghai studio
As Supercell’s first international game development studio, the Shanghai studio is one of the most exciting things happening in Supercell and a unique opportunity to join at a relatively early stage to help shape our path. Our vision is to be a world-class international studio, making new global hit games while leveraging the unique advantages of the game development scene in China and broader Asia.
Hey, you Might Love It Here!
Independent cells and trust are at the core of our culture. But it takes more than that to make great games. We take good care of our people, providing them with the compensation, work environment, and resources they need to succeed while having fun along the way.
You Are Not Your Job Title ™
Here, you won’t need to focus on chasing titles or climbing ladders. Internally, our job titles don’t include prefixes like Senior, Junior, Principal, or Director. Recognition isn’t tied to your title, as it doesn't define the impact you can have around here.
Benefits and Compensation
Luring you in with glitter, glamour, and gems isn't what we're about. We want you to enjoy your time here fully, so we structure our compensation and benefits with that in mind. It starts with perceiving you as a human being, not a resource.
Relocation? Yes!
No matter where you’re moving from, our dedicated mobility team and partners will support you throughout your move. We’ll ensure the process is as smooth as possible for you and anyone joining you – whether they’re family members of the human or animal kind!
Not sure if you should apply?
Many candidates with great skills and experience second-guess themselves. The bar is high, but if this role excites you, apply! We’re here to help you succeed. Also, we're happy to learn about any specific accommodations you may need to fully engage in our recruitment process.
Wishing you all the best,
The Supercell Recruitment team
P.S. Here's a video about what we do. (Best enjoyed with salmiakki and rye bread)