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Material Artist Jobs

Find the latest material artist jobs from game studios. Substance Designer, PBR workflows, Unreal material editor. Curated listings with salary info delivered every morning.

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Types of Material Artist Jobs We Cover

We curate all material artist, shader artist, and look development positions from game and VFX studios.

💎

Material Artist

⭐

Senior Material Artist

👑

Principal Material Artist

🔷

Junior Material Artist

🌟

Lead Material Artist

🛠

Shader Artist

💡

Lookdev Artist

🌎

Remote Material Artist

Studios Hiring Material Artists

Material artist roles appear at AAA studios, AA developers, and VFX houses building high-fidelity real-time content.

Epic Games
Naughty Dog
CD Projekt Red
Guerrilla Games
Insomniac Games
Rockstar Games
Lighthouse Games
Bungie
343 Industries
Crystal Dynamics
Sony Santa Monica
Ubisoft
EA DICE
+ Hundreds More

Material Artist Salary Ranges

What material artist roles pay at game studios.

Junior Material Artist
$52K – $72K
Material Artist
$72K – $100K
Senior Material Artist
$95K – $135K
Lead / Principal Material Artist
$120K – $165K

US market data. Salaries vary by studio size, location, and whether the role is AAA or AA.

Skills Studios Look For

What hiring managers expect from material artist candidates.

🛠 Core Software

  • Substance Designer (procedural materials)
  • Substance Painter (layer-based texturing)
  • Unreal Engine material editor
  • Unity Shader Graph
  • Maya or Blender for asset review

🌟 Technical Skills

  • PBR material creation (metallic/roughness)
  • Procedural material graph workflows
  • HLSL or GLSL for custom shaders
  • UDIM and atlased texture pipelines
  • LOD and performance optimisation

🎓 What Gets You Hired

  • Portfolio showing material range (metal, stone, organic, fabric)
  • Physically accurate surfaces under varied lighting
  • Procedural material breakdowns in Substance Designer
  • Engine-ready material setups with documented node graphs
  • Performance-conscious approach to shader complexity

💡 Soft Skills

  • Communication with lighting and TA departments
  • Working within established art style guides
  • Iteration speed under production deadlines
  • Documentation for material libraries

Material Artist Jobs FAQ

What does a material artist do?
A material artist creates the surface materials and shaders that define how 3D assets look in a game engine. They build PBR-based material graphs controlling albedo, roughness, metallic, and normal map behavior. The goal is to make surfaces like metal, stone, fabric, and skin respond to light in a physically convincing way in real-time.
What software does a material artist need to know?
The core tools are Substance Designer for procedural material creation, Substance Painter for hand-painted and layer-based workflows, and the Unreal Engine material editor or Unity Shader Graph for real-time implementation. Many studios also expect familiarity with HLSL for custom shader development.
What is the difference between a material artist and a texture artist?
Texture artists focus on painting the bitmap maps (albedo, roughness, normal) that define surface detail. Material artists take those textures and build the shader and material logic that controls how they respond to light, blend together, and behave at runtime. Material artists are more technically oriented and often write or modify shader code.
What is the salary for a material artist in games?
In the US: Junior Material Artists earn $52,000–$72,000/year. Mid-level $72,000–$100,000. Senior $95,000–$135,000. Lead and Principal Material Artists earn $120,000–$165,000. Salaries vary by studio size and location.
Is material artist a growing role in the game industry?
Yes. The shift to physically-based rendering across AAA and AA games has made material artists essential at studios building high-fidelity open worlds, cinematic sequences, and next-gen titles. The role is increasingly distinct from generalist texture work, with dedicated material teams at larger studios.

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