Principal VFX Artist

Job Description

As part of the Real-Time VFX team, you'll design and help implement the sleek, dynamic and dramatic special effects that add atmosphere and depth to gameplay. With your experience, you'll create aesthetically astounding visual effects that communicate essential game information. You'll use your artistic and technical skills to breathe life into undead spells, channel primal emotions and capture the essence of hundreds of champions.
As a Principal VFX Artist on the Riot MMO team, you will be responsible for driving the architecture of our real-time VFX systems and pipelines. This role focuses on strategic technical problem solving-building scalable, modular systems that will support our open world, procedural content, and combat gameplay for years to come. VFX in our game is foundational. It's not just a layer of polish-it shapes gameplay clarity, combat feedback, and the identity of the world itself. You'll partner across Design, Animation, and Engineering to prototype abilities, define visual language hierarchies, and create reusable systems that support thousands of effects across characters, environments, and interactions.

Responsibilities:
• Drive the architecture of scalable, modular VFX systems and pipelines that support both rapid prototyping and long-term production
• Collaborate with Design and Creative Leads to ensure VFX enhances gameplay clarity, combat readability, and visual hierarchy-especially in large-scale MMO encounters.
• Define and implement performance benchmarks and optimization strategies in partnership with Tech Art and Engineering.
• Author real-time VFX that balances gameplay needs and visual quality, with a strong focus on reuse, scalability, and systemic implementation.
• Establish visual language frameworks, initial style guides, and tool workflows to ensure consistency across characters, abilities, and environments.
• Act as a key partner and technical voice in cross-discipline collaboration, helping unblock gameplay development and shape pipeline evolution.
• Represent the VFX team in strategic conversations, especially in areas involving tech architecture, optimization, or resourcing.
• Strong problem-solving skills-able to break down VFX into components that can be used across millions of players and NPCs.
• Experience working across disciplines, partnering with Design, Animation, and Engineering to ensure seamless implementation.
Required Qualifications:
• 8+ years of experience creating real-time VFX for AAA games.
• Expert-level Unreal Engine skills such as Niagara, Blueprint, Niagara Scratchpad, and Material Graphs.
• Strong understanding of visual hierarchy, readability, and prioritization in complex gameplay spaces.
• Experience with modular and systemic VFX development, creating reusable effects that scale across large environments.
• Familiarity with performance optimization for large-scale battles and high-density environments.
• Experience shipping at least one AAA game title.
Desired Qualifications:
• Experience working on MMOs or large-scale multiplayer games, with a focus on combat readability and system scalability
• Experience with Houdini, Blender, Substance Designer, Adobe Animate, After Effects, Photoshop, Maya, or 3DS Max.
• Familiarity with Python or other programming languages such as C++, C#, Python, Houdini's VEX, HLSL, etc
• Familiarity with procedural world-building workflows (Houdini, Geometry Nodes, or in-engine PCG systems)
• Experience with performance benchmarking, streaming budgets, and optimization in large-scale maps
• Familiarity with the League of Legends IP or Runeterra's world and aesthetics.
When submitting your application, please provide a portfolio of high-quality real-time VFX work, including examples of systematic thinking, stylized effects, technical implementation, and gameplay-focused VFX.
For this role, you'll find success through craft expertise and a collaborative spirit that prioritizes the delight of players. We will look at your past studies and experience, but for this role, we also look for dedicated people with a personal relationship with games. If you embody player empathy and care about players' experiences, this is the role for you!
Our Perks:
Riot focuses on work/life balance, shown by our open paid time off policy and other perks such as flexible work schedules. We offer medical, dental, and life insurance, parental leave for you, your spouse/domestic partner, and children, and a 401k with company match. Check out our benefits pages for more information.
At Riot Games, we put players first. That mission drives every decision in our quest to create games and experiences that make it better to be a player. Whether you're working directly on a new player-facing experience or you're supporting the company as a whole, everyone at Riot is part of our mission. And just like in our games, we're better when we work together. Our goal is to create collaborative teams where you are empowered to bring your unique perspective everyday. If that sounds like the kind of place you want to work, we're looking forward to your application.

(Redwood City Only) Base salary range between $178,900 USD - $ 250,000 USD + incentive compensation + equity + 401K with company match + medical, dental, vision, and life insurance + short and long-term disability + open PTO.
• (Los Angeles Only) Base salary range between $166,600.00 - $232,800.00 USD + incentive compensation + equity + 401K with company match + medical, dental, vision, and life insurance + short and long-term disability + open PTO.
• (Mercer Island only) Base salary range between $166,600.00 - $232,800.00 USD + incentive compensation + equity + 401K with company match + medical, dental, vision, and life insurance + short and long-term disability + open PTO.

Jobcode: Reference SBJ-j66pz1-216-73-216-71-42 in your application.