Senior Technical Artist — Unity HDRP Skin & Character Lookdev

Senior Technical Artist — Unity HDRP Skin & Character Lookdev We're a stealth-stage company looking for a senior technical artist for a focused engagement to improve real-time skin rendering quality in Unity HDRP. The work: We have a character system built in Unity HDRP. Skin currently uses HDRP's Lit shader with subsurface scattering and single-lobe specular. We're looking to close specific quality gaps to bring our output closer to production-grade digital human standards. Some of the focus areas for the engagement will be: Implementing dual-lobe specular response for skin Calibrating SSS diffusion profiles across the full range of human skin tones Improving specular intensity and roughness map authoring across face regions Refining eye micro-detail (wet meniscus, iris parallax, eye-white tone variation) Side-by-side benchmarking against industry-standard real-time character output The expected output is a measurable improvement in blind comparison testing against a leading real-time character system, with documented technical work that our internal team can maintain after the engagement ends. Who we're looking for: Proven Unity HDRP experience with shipped photorealistic character work (portfolio required) Deep familiarity with PBR skin rendering, SSS implementations, and the underlying research (Jimenez, Burley, etc.) Comfortable writing or modifying HLSL shaders, not just Shader Graph Demonstrated experience rendering diverse skin tones convincingly — not just lighter-skinned characters Ability to do lookdev work end-to-end: parameter calibration, reference comparison, texture authoring guidance, integration Self-directed; comfortable owning a focused engagement with regular check-ins rather than constant supervision Engagement details: Full-time or close to it (35-40 hours/week) Remote, async-friendly with scheduled syncs as needed Senior contractor rates, commensurate with experience Possibility of follow-on work depending on outcomes. Portfolio link. Direct link to portfolio with Unity HDRP and photorealistic character work clearly visible. Please flag the 2-3 pieces most relevant to skin shading, character lookdev, or shader work. Brief experience note (3-5 sentences). Your specific experience with skin shading or digital human lookdev, particularly any work involving diverse skin tones. Tell us what you've actually built, not general claims. Approach question response. In a few paragraphs, answer: "How would you spend the first week of an engagement focused on improving Unity HDRP skin quality, given a starting point of HDRP's Lit shader with single-lobe specular and a single shared SSS profile across skin tones?" We're looking for the shape of your thinking, not a detailed plan. Rate. Your hourly or weekly rate for senior contract work. Availability. When you could start and your weekly hour availability. Applications without portfolio examples of relevant character or technical art work will not be reviewed. Responses to all complete applications within 5 business days.