VFX Artist

Visual Effects Artist

Salary: $150,000 - $225,000 Base Salary + Competitive Equity

Location: San Francisco, CA (Onsite)

No Relocation

No Visa Sponsorship

About Our Client

Our client operates at the high-growth intersection of gaming, fintech, and digital entertainment. Backed by top-tier venture capital firms ($65M+ raised) and currently growing over 10x year-over-year, they build category-defining real-money gaming and digital collectibles platforms. With a team featuring ex-quant traders, world-champion competitive gamers, and elite artists, they offer an environment with zero red tape, high autonomy, and massive upside.

The Opportunity

As a VFX Artist, you will own the end-to-end visual effects and animation experience for our client's flagship platform's reward and pack-opening mechanics ("rips"). You will be the first dedicated game artist at the company, setting the VFX standards, building out pipelines, and designing high-dopamine anticipation and payoff sequences across 50+ unique themes and seasonal drops.

This role comes with zero design-by-committee creative friction and offers a clear, direct trajectory into a player-coach Lead VFX role, where you will eventually build and manage your own team.

Key Responsibilities

• Own the Experience: Design, author, and animate high-impact "pack-opening" and reward VFX sequences—focusing on anticipation, escalation, and payoff.
• Establish Pipelines: Build the VFX standards, art pipelines, and workflows from the ground up as a founding artist.
• Drive Art Direction: Take complete creative ownership of in-game real-time visual effects without corporate micromanagement.
• Scale the Team: Act as an individual contributor initially, with a clear path to hire, mentor, and lead future VFX artists as the company expands.
• Rapid Execution: Ship initial key animations and establish robust processes within your first 90–180 days.

Candidate Qualifications

• Strong Portfolio: An active portfolio (ArtStation link strongly preferred) showcasing exceptional real-time mobile visual effects, reward reveals, and "game feel."
• Engine Mastery: Deep proficiency in Unity (experience with Cocos Creator is a strong plus).
• VFX Toolchain: Hands-on experience with 3D/VFX creation tools such as Houdini, Blender, and Photoshop.
• Mobile Experience: Strong background in mobile-first game art direction (studio experience at companies like Supercell, Niantic, Gameloft, or similar is highly valued).
• Growth Mindset: Ability to balance elite individual contribution with a desire to step into a leadership role as a player-coach.