Principal VFX Artist | Artiste Principal.e VFX

Job Position(s): Principal VFX Artist | Artiste Principal.e VFX

NBCUniversal is hiring a Principal VFX Artist based in Montreal, Quebec, to join a senior-level team working on a large-scale interactive project. This role sits within the VFX department and focuses on building and delivering high-quality real-time effects while helping define the technical and artistic standards that hold the visual experience together across the full production pipeline. It suits a seasoned VFX professional who is equally comfortable creating complex effects and shaping the systems and workflows that other artists build on.

About the Role

The Principal VFX Artist reports to the Lead VFX Artist and works across Art Direction, Technical Art, and Engineering to solve problems that sit at the intersection of artistic quality and technical performance. The project is ambitious in scope, requiring someone who understands how real-time VFX pipeline decisions affect production at scale. Day to day, this means creating effects, reviewing work, and helping establish the visual benchmarks and asset standards the broader team follows.

Key Responsibilities

• Design and author high-quality real-time visual effects that meet both artistic direction and technical performance targets within the production pipeline.
• Define VFX standards, style guides, and workflow documentation that bring consistency across a large team working on a complex, multi-discipline project.
• Partner with Technical Art and Engineering to identify and resolve issues related to real-time rendering, shader compatibility, and effect optimization.
• Act as a discipline expert and senior point of reference for VFX artists, providing feedback and guidance on work quality and production approaches.
• Contribute to tool and system development by identifying gaps in the VFX pipeline and working with technical partners to close them.
• Collaborate with Art Direction to ensure effects work supports and reinforces the overall visual language of the project.

What You Bring

• Seven or more years of professional VFX experience, with credits on large-scale interactive, film, or television productions.
• Deep proficiency in real-time VFX tools such as Niagara, Houdini, or comparable particle and simulation systems used in production environments.
• Demonstrated experience building and documenting VFX pipelines, standards, or asset systems for multi-artist teams.
• Strong working knowledge of real-time rendering constraints and how they shape effect design decisions.
• Experience working within structured production pipelines alongside Technical Art and Engineering departments.

Why This Role

NBCUniversal sits behind some of the most recognized film and television studios in the industry, including Universal Pictures and DreamWorks Animation, and this role connects directly to that production infrastructure at the interactive level. Montreal is an established hub for VFX production talent, and this position is set within that community. For a senior artist looking to shape a project from a foundational level rather than execute within someone else’s framework, the scope here is genuine.

Apply now for the Principal VFX Artist position at NBCUniversal and bring your real-time VFX expertise to a project built at scale.