Senior / Staff Technical Artist (Procedural Materials and FX)

TL;DR

Senior / Staff Technical Artist (Procedural Materials and FX): Developing physically based material and FX pipelines for autonomous vehicle simulation with an accent on procedural shaders and realistic environmental effects. Focus on designing scalable material libraries and creating city-scale weather and water FX for sensor and ML model training.

Location: San Francisco, California or Sunnyvale, California. GM does not provide immigration-related sponsorship for this role.

Salary: $153,200 – $234,100

Company

hirify.global is building advanced software and simulation technology to power autonomous vehicles for a safer and more accessible transportation future.

What you will do

• Own the PBR material pipeline for simulation engines using MDL, MaterialX, or shader graphs.
• Design procedural material systems for generating families of road, terrain, vehicle, and prop materials.
• Create large-scale environmental FX including weather, water interaction (puddles, splashes), and debris.
• Collaborate with Simulation, ML, and Perception teams to align visuals with sensor models and metrics.
• Profile and optimize shaders and FX for performance in large, complex virtual scenes.
• Mentor artists and technical artists on PBR and FX workflows.

Requirements

• 5+ years (Senior) or 8+ years (Staff) of experience as a Technical Artist or FX TD in games, VFX, or simulation.
• Deep understanding of PBR, BRDFs, and photorealistic texture workflows.
• Proven experience owning a material/shader pipeline in real-time engines like Unreal or Unity.
• Strong skills in procedural material authoring (e.g., Substance Designer, MaterialX, MDL).
• Proficiency in Python for pipeline tools and DCC integrations.
• Must not require immigration sponsorship now or in the future.

Nice to have

• C++ experience for extending engines or implementing high-performance procedural systems.
• Experience with USD and/or MDL in production pipelines.
• Background in generating synthetic data or calibrating content to real-world cameras and sensors.
• Familiarity with ray-traced or path-traced real-time rendering in large environments.

Culture & Benefits

• Comprehensive health, dental, and vision insurance programs.
• Health Savings Account (HSA) and Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA).
• Retirement savings plan and life insurance.
• Paid vacation, holidays, and tuition assistance programs.
• GM vehicle discounts.