Technical Artist

A technical artist makes the art work in the engine. That covers shaders and material setups, rigging and skinning, animation systems, support for lighting and VFX, and performance budgets measured in draw calls and frame time rather than in opinions.

The other half of the job is pipeline: import scripts, naming and validation rules, exporters between a DCC package such as Blender or Maya and the engine, and small tools that save a department a day a week. Unreal Engine with Blueprints and C++ shows up in most postings, next to shader programming and character work.

A 3D artist owns the asset and a graphics programmer owns the renderer. The technical artist owns the path between them, including the moment when a beautiful asset has to become a cheap one.