VFX Director

🕒 October 9

☕ Washington – Remote

☕ Washington – Remote

💵 $200k - $230k / year

⏰ Full Time

🔴 Lead

👔 Director

👻 Ghost score 0%

What it means: how likely this posting is sitting open without active hiring.How to read it: 60% or higher means we think this is a ghost. Lower scores are less of a worry.How we score it: age, reposts, open roles vs team size, how fast jobs close, and whether pay is listed.Fine print: an estimate from public data, not a judgment of the company. Real jobs can score high, so treat it as a hint, not a fact.

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Studio Wildcard

WebsiteLinkedInAll Job Openings

51 - 200 employees

Founded 2014

🎮 Gaming

Gaming

Studio Wildcard is a gaming company known for developing ARK: Survival Evolved and its sequel, ARK II. The company creates immersive survival games that thrust players into a world of primitive survival against both beast and man. In ARK II, players encounter hyper-realistic dinosaurs, aggressive alien fauna, and exotic environments on an unearthly planet. The games continue a dramatic narrative of humankind's evolution, offering a next-generation sandbox survival experience.

📋 Description

• Establish and maintain the overall VFX artistic vision and quality bar for Studio Wildcard projects • Lead and mentor a team of VFX artists, providing creative direction, feedback, and professional development • Develop VFX style guides, visual standards, workflows, and production best practices • Collaborate with Art, Engineering, Design, Animation, Cinematics, and Production teams to develop cohesive visual experiences • Oversee gameplay VFX including environmental effects, abilities, weapons, creatures, destruction, weather, magic, explosions, and other interactive effects • Ensure VFX assets meet performance, scalability, readability, and platform requirements • Work with Technical Artists and Engineers to improve VFX tools, shaders, materials, particle systems, and pipelines • Establish efficient review and iteration processes for VFX production • Balance visual quality with gameplay readability and technical performance • Participate in creative reviews and provide clear, actionable feedback to artists • Help define staffing, scheduling, task prioritization, and resource requirements for VFX production • Identify emerging VFX technologies and techniques to improve project quality and efficiency • Maintain awareness of current real-time rendering, simulation, procedural, and cinematic VFX techniques • Set a clear creative vision, build a strong artistic culture, mentor artists, champion experimentation, establish quality standards, and advocate for the VFX team during planning and technical development

🎯 Requirements

• 7+ years of professional experience creating VFX for AAA games, film, animation, or comparable real-time entertainment • Previous experience leading or directing a VFX team • Strong understanding of real-time VFX production and Unreal 5+ • Demonstrated ability to establish and maintain a cohesive visual style across a large project • Strong artistic understanding of color, composition, timing, motion, lighting, scale, and visual storytelling • Experience with particle systems, shaders/materials, textures, animation, simulations, and procedural effects • Strong understanding of performance optimization and real-time rendering constraints • Excellent communication, leadership, and collaboration skills • Ability to provide clear artistic feedback while maintaining a positive and creative team environment • Experience working across multiple disciplines in a game-development environment • A strong portfolio demonstrating high-quality VFX work • Preferred: Experience with Unreal Engine and/or other modern real-time engines • Preferred: Experience creating VFX for large open-world or multiplayer games • Preferred: Experience with creature, environmental, elemental, weather, destruction, and combat VFX • Preferred: Experience directing cinematic VFX and trailer work • Preferred: Familiarity with Niagara, Houdini, Substance tools, or comparable procedural/VFX technologies • Preferred: Experience building or improving VFX production pipelines and tools • Preferred: Experience working with technical artists and graphics programmers • Preferred: Passion for dinosaurs, creatures, survival games, science fiction, fantasy, or large-scale worlds • Required application materials: Resume, portfolio, and cover letter • Cover letter should include why you are interested in working for Studio Wildcard and what games you are currently playing • Portfolio or reel demonstrating real-time gameplay VFX, combat or ability effects, environmental effects, creature or character effects, large-scale effects and simulations, shader/material work where applicable, and cinematic VFX where applicable