Principal environment artist

Mob Entertainment is a startup multimedia studio that is best known for our hit indie horror game "Poppy Playtime". This franchise is one of the hottest new properties in gaming, and our team is naturally expanding as our ambition expands. To give a taste of our brand's popularity, more than 100 billion YouTube views of Poppy Playtime related content have occurred since the game's launch 4 years ago.

Responsibilities:

• Design and build exceptional, realistic and semi-stylised, atmospheric environments for horror games, with a focus on grounded, immersive interior spaces such as decayed rooms, derelict facilities, and unsettling domestic settings.
• Own and drive key benchmark environments from blockout through final polish, establishing the visual, technical, and quality standards other Environment Artists can build toward.
• Apply an expert understanding of composition, form, lighting, color, shape, and value to guide the player’s eye, establish strong visual hierarchy, and amplify psychological tension.
• Develop and champion modular, trim-based, and reusable environment workflows that enable artists to build flexible, high-quality, performant environments efficiently within Unreal Engine.
• Partner with Narrative and Design leads to translate high-level creative direction into compelling, cohesive environments that support gameplay, worldbuilding, and mood-driven storytelling.
• Collaborate closely with Level Design, Lighting, Materials, and Technical Art to solve complex environment challenges and ensure environments meet both visual quality targets and gameplay requirements.
• Provide project-wide Environment Art reviews across pods, identifying quality gaps and driving solutions that improve visual consistency, asset usage, composition, readability, and overall environment quality.
• Mentor Environment Artists across pods through hands-on collaboration, reviews, and critical feedback, raising the artistic bar while reinforcing alignment with the project’s visual direction.
• Be the subject-matter expert for Environment Art, helping define the project’s artistic standards, workflows, and overall quality bar.
• Identify discipline-wide artistic and production challenges and develop scalable workflows, standards, and solutions that improve both visual quality and team efficiency.

Requirements:

• Exceptional portfolio demonstrating mastery of environment set dressing, modeling, and texturing for realistic and semi-stylised, atmospheric spaces, reflecting shipped AAA-quality work or an equivalent visual bar.
• Expert command of art fundamentals, including composition, lighting, form, color, shape, value, and visual hierarchy, with the ability to clearly articulate and teach these principles to others.
• Expert-level understanding of modular environment construction, trim workflows, and reusable asset systems, with a proven ability to establish scalable workflows across large environments.
• Expert proficiency in industry-standard environment art tools such as Maya, 3ds Max, Blender, ZBrush, Marvelous Designer, Substance Designer/Painter, and Photoshop.
• Extensive experience with Unreal Engine 5, including level building, materials, scene assembly, optimization, and the technical judgment required to influence environment pipeline and architectural decisions.
• Proven ability to translate reference, narrative direction, and gameplay requirements into grounded, immersive worldbuilding, while establishing clear visual direction for other artists to follow.
• Deep understanding of horror visual language and mood construction, with the ability to manipulate space, scale, lighting, composition, and detail to create discomfort, suspense, and psychological tension.
• Demonstrated experience mentoring senior and developing artists, providing high-level artistic feedback, and influencing quality across multiple teams or areas of a project.
• Excellent communication and cross-discipline collaboration skills, with a demonstrated ability to influence artistic and technical decisions beyond the immediate Environment Art team.
• Experience shipping at least one AAA or equivalent high-quality title. Experience shipping horror or atmospheric, tension-driven games is strongly preferred.
• Proven ability to identify systemic environment art challenges and establish scalable standards, workflows, or pipelines that improve quality and production efficiency across a team.

Nice to haves:

• 12+ years of gaming experience with progressive responsibilities and impressive trajectory.
• Shipped several games (preferrably some that are horror).
• Experience developing procedural workflows, material systems, environment tools, or pipeline improvements in partnership with Tech Art.

Salary Range:

The base salary range for this position is listed below. Final compensation within the applicable salary range will be determined based on factors such as the applicant’s experience, qualifications, and work location.

• San Francisco, CA; New York City, NY; Los Angeles, CA; Seattle, WA; Boston, MA; & Seattle, WA DC Metropolitan Areas: $182,000 - $230,000 USD annually
• Austin, TX; Denver, CO; Nashville, TN; Atlanta, GA; Chicago, IL; Dallas, TX; & Miami, FL Metropolitan Areas: $158,000 - $200,000 USD annually
• All Other U.S. Locations: $134,000 - $170,000 USD annually

Benefits:

Mob Entertainment offers the following benefits to all eligible U.S.-based full-time employees: profit sharing; medical, dental, and vision insurance; 401(k) matching; FSA/HSA; paid time off; sick time; holidays; and parental leave.

Fraud Alert:

Beware of job scams: Mob Entertainment does not extend offers via text, social media DM, or without a completed application and interview. Please verify email address which should always originate from @mobentertainment.com.

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Mob Entertainment is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and complies with all federal, state, and local laws prohibiting discrimination in employment. We are committed to providing equal opportunities to applicants and employees without regard to race, color, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender, age, disability, military service, or any other protected class under applicable state or local law. Mob Entertainment also considers all qualified applicants with criminal histories consistent with Fair Chance laws as well as any other applicable state and local laws.