Want to know if this job is worth applying to?
South Africa
Remote only
This position is listed on behalf of a partner company, who manages all applications and next steps. Our partner is looking for a Senior VFX Engineer based in South Africa.
This is a senior individual contributor role focused on the technology and runtime systems that power real-time visual effects in a major Unity3D game project. You will work at the intersection of VFX, Technical Art, Rendering, and Engineering, turning creative concepts into scalable and production-ready solutions. The role combines shader development, particle systems, GPU-driven effects, runtime architecture, tooling, and performance optimization. You will have significant technical ownership, from rapid prototyping and architectural decisions through to production implementation. Working closely with artists and engineers, you will help balance visual ambition with performance, scalability, and maintainability. This is an opportunity to directly shape the technology that enables high-quality real-time effects across a large game.
Develop scalable runtime systems for high-frequency gameplay effects, including pooling, shared emitters, batching, prioritization, and effect budgets.
Design and implement shaders using HLSL, Shader Graph, Amplify, or comparable technologies.
Build and optimize particle-based effects using mesh particles, trails, flipbooks, procedural techniques, and GPU-driven approaches.
Create artist-facing Unity tools, including custom inspectors, validators, asset processors, batch workflows, and reusable production utilities.
Optimize VFX for mobile and other performance-constrained platforms, with a focus on GPU performance, memory usage, overdraw, shader complexity, and runtime efficiency.
Collaborate closely with VFX Artists, Technical Artists, Gameplay Engineers, and Rendering Engineers to translate creative requirements into robust technical solutions.
Prototype new rendering and VFX approaches, validate their technical feasibility, and bring successful solutions through to production.
Establish reusable templates, workflows, documentation, and technical standards that improve the efficiency and consistency of the wider VFX team.
Act as a bridge between artistic and engineering disciplines, making informed technical decisions that balance visual quality, scalability, and performance.
Review and improve existing systems while leaving behind clean, maintainable technology that benefits the broader team.
Strong professional experience with HLSL shader programming and real-time VFX development.
Fluency with node-based shader tools such as Unity Shader Graph, Amplify, or similar technologies.
Strong knowledge of real-time rendering concepts, including blending, transparency, sorting, depth, instancing, and Scriptable or custom render pipelines.
Proven experience shipping particle-based effects in Unity, including Shuriken or equivalent systems.
Hands-on experience with mesh particles, trails, flipbooks, shader-driven effects, and procedural VFX techniques.
Experience designing scalable runtime systems for high-frequency effects, including pooling, batching, prioritization, and performance budgeting.
Strong C# programming skills, ideally within gameplay, engine, or performance-critical systems.
Experience with ECS/DOTS, Jobs, Burst, or equivalent performance-oriented architectures is strongly preferred.
Strong understanding of mobile GPU optimization, including overdraw, half precision, texture and memory budgets, shader variants, and runtime constraints.
Experience creating Unity Editor tooling such as custom inspectors, property drawers, asset processors, and batch tools.
Understanding of Metal, Vulkan, and GLES, including platform-specific graphics limitations and shader or PSO warmup considerations.
Strong communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to work effectively across artistic and engineering disciplines.
Fluent English.
Nice to have:
Strong experience with Unity DOTS/Entities, ECS-based rendering, or instanced material properties.
Experience with compute shaders and GPU-driven effects.
Knowledge of vertex animation techniques, SDFs, procedural noise, and procedural rendering.
Experience with procedural or voxel geometry, dynamic meshes, hull generation, or custom lighting systems.
Experience developing networked gameplay effects, including predicted versus confirmed events.
Background working on multiplayer or large-scale gameplay systems.
A strong artistic eye and an ability to contribute to VFX look development.
Experience building effects for mobile or other highly performance-constrained platforms.
Experience delivering stylized game projects, particularly for mobile platforms.
Meaningful technical ownership over the VFX technology powering a major Unity3D game project.
Direct collaboration with experienced VFX Artists, Technical Artists, Rendering Engineers, and Gameplay Engineers.
The opportunity to solve complex rendering, performance, and scalability challenges.
A role where engineering directly enables creative ambition and visual quality.
A highly collaborative international working environment.
Fully remote work.
Flexible contract options depending on location and circumstances.
Competitive compensation based on experience and contract structure.
Annual team retreats.
Potential for long-term collaboration as the project and team continue to grow.