Senior rendering engineer

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 200 billion YouTube views of Poppy Playtime related content have occurred since the game's launch 6 years ago.

About the Role:

Atmosphere and visual fidelity are core to what makes our games work — and as we move into our most ambitious chapter yet, we're looking for a Rendering Engineer to help push the visual bar on Unreal Engine 5. As a Rendering Engineer, you'll work within Core Engineering to build, optimize, and maintain the rendering systems and visual pipelines that define the look and performance of our games. You'll partner with the Lead Engineer, technical artists, and lighting/environment artists to solve rendering problems specific to a dark, atmospheric horror title — from lighting strategy and World Partition workflows to shader work and platform performance targets. This role suits an engineer who's deeply comfortable in Unreal's rendering internals, enjoys the intersection of engineering and art, and wants ownership over how the game actually looks and runs.

What You'll Do:

• Develop, extend, and optimize rendering features and shaders in Unreal Engine 5 (materials, post-process, lighting, custom rendering passes)
• Own lighting strategy decisions in partnership with environment art and lead engineering — including World Partition, GPU Lightmass, and Lumen/baked lighting tradeoffs
• Profile and optimize GPU/CPU rendering performance against defined platform targets and fidelity standards
• Diagnose and resolve rendering bugs, visual artifacts, and platform-specific rendering issues across target hardware
• Build and maintain internal tooling to support artists and engineers working with rendering systems (profiling visualizers, lighting validation tools, etc.)
• Collaborate closely with technical artists on shader authoring standards, material complexity budgets, and visual fidelity guardrails
• Contribute to and help enforce the studio's performance/fidelity standards documentation
• Work within our Perforce/UGS/Horde pipeline, following team branching and Definition of Done standards
• Stay current on Unreal Engine rendering roadmap changes (Lumen, Nanite, Substrate, etc.) and evaluate their fit for our production needs

What We're Looking For:

• 7+ years of professional experience as a rendering/graphics engineer, with at least one shipped title using Unreal Engine
• Strong C++ skills and solid understanding of Unreal's rendering pipeline (RDG, shader compilation, material system, deferred rendering)
• Experience with HLSL/shader authoring and debugging rendering issues using tools like RenderDoc or Unreal Insights
• Practical experience with UE5 lighting systems — World Partition, GPU Lightmass, Lumen, and the tradeoffs between them
• Strong performance-profiling instincts and experience hitting platform-specific frame budgets
• Comfort working in a structured, multi-team pipeline (Perforce or similar) with defined branching and review processes
• Ability to communicate rendering constraints and tradeoffs clearly to artists and designers

Nice to Have:

• Experience with Nanite, Substrate, or other newer UE5 rendering features in a production setting
• Horror/atmospheric-genre experience, particularly with stylized or high-contrast lighting environments
• Experience building custom rendering tools or editor extensions
• Console platform rendering/certification experience
• Technical art background or close collaboration history with technical artists

What We Offer:

Direct influence over the visual identity of a flagship, high-visibility franchise. Close collaboration with engineering leadership and art direction on rendering strategy. A collaborative, low-ego engineering culture with strong senior/lead support. Competitive salary, benefits, and [PTO/health/etc. — fill in with studio specifics]

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: $152,000- $184,000 USD annually
• Austin, TX; Denver, CO; Nashville, TN; Atlanta, GA; Chicago, IL; Dallas, TX; & Miami, FL Metropolitan Areas: $132,000- $160,000 USD annually
• All Other U.S. Locations: $113,000 - $136,000 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.