Epic Games jobs is searching for an experienced, highly structured Environment Outsource Lead to support, supervise, and scale asset production for several major initiatives under our historic, high-profile collaboration with Disney. Based out of our global headquarters in Cary, North Carolina, this pivotal role operates at the critical intersection of high-level creative vision and external global execution.
As an Environment Outsource Lead, you will act as the primary structural and artistic bridge between Epic’s internal art leadership and our external vendor partners. You will be responsible for overseeing the creation of premium prop and architectural content, providing frontline creative feedback, and ensuring that every externally produced asset meets Epic’s stringent aesthetic and technical benchmarks.
While this position is primarily supervisory, it demands an elite, veteran artist with a deeply rooted hands-on background in Environment Art and AAA studio pipelines. If you possess a rare blend of exceptional communication skills, meticulous organizational habits, and a passion for managing complex creative workflows at a massive global scale, we want you on the team. Epic Games jobs.
Epic Games jobs Overview : 3D Environment Outsource Lead
For a quick, comprehensive reference regarding the operational parameters of this vacancy, please review the core metrics outlined below:
| Key Metric | Specification & Details |
| Hiring Company | Epic Games |
| Project Focus | Ecosystem initiatives under the Epic Games x Disney Collaboration |
| Job Title | Environment Outsource Lead |
| Location | Cary, North Carolina, United States (On-site / Hybrid) |
| Core Department | Art & Animation |
| Primary Focus | Prop assets, modular kit pieces, and architectural content |
| Core Workflow | Vendor package creation, feedback loop management, internal ingestion |
| Primary Engine | Unreal Engine 5 (Advanced, production-level proficiency required) |
| Core Toolsets | Substance Painter, Marmoset Toolbag, Perforce, major 3D DCC packages |
| Key Relationships | Reports to Art Directors/Leads; collaborates with Level Design & Production |
Role Overview & Strategic Impact
In a production environment as massive as Epic Games, outsourcing is not merely a supplementary pipeline—it is a core engine of content delivery. The Environment Outsource Lead has a profound strategic impact on the production ecosystem. You are the ultimate gatekeeper of quality and optimization for hundreds of assets that will define the look and feel of our collaborations with Disney. Epic Games jobs
Your day-to-day value lies in your ability to de-risk production before an external artist ever touches a file. You will translate abstract design metrics into concrete, unambiguous vendor packages. This involves collecting exhaustive photo references, building accurate graybox asset blockouts, establishing technical benchmarks, and writing clear pipeline documentation.
When assets are submitted for review, you will utilize your deep artistic expertise to provide clear, actionable feedback via paint-overs and written critiques. Furthermore, you will act as a technical problem-solver—ingesting external deliveries into Unreal Engine 5, managing source control via Perforce, and making the final technical polishes needed to guarantee every prop is completely game-ready and performance-optimized.
Key Responsibilities as Environment Outsource Lead
Your role as an Environment Outsource Lead blends artistic mentorship, technical pipeline execution, and rigorous cross-discipline organization. Epic Games jobs.
1. External Vendor Supervisions & Art Direction
- Visual Direction Alignment: Partner closely with internal Lead and Director-level stakeholders to clearly establish, define, and codify the visual direction intended for external outsourcing vendors.
- Frontline Creative Feedback: Act as the first line of defense for all external asset submissions. Critique, mentor, and elevate external art quality through clear, highly constructive written feedback loops, structural block-out paint-overs, and video calls.
- Escalation & Risk Management: Monitor vendor performance against milestones. Proactively inform internal art and production leadership the moment external quality, delivery speed, or communication alignment deviates from studio benchmarks.
2. Vendor Package Generation & Pipeline Documentation
- Comprehensive Briefing Packages: Build and package meticulous, airtight asset delivery kits for external partners. This includes gathering high-quality photo references, establishing clear technical constraints, and defining explicit delivery targets.
- Technical Prototyping: Generate clean prototype meshes exhibiting highly accurate scale, asset orientation, and pivot placement to act as structural guides for external teams.
- Exhaustive Documentation: Author, maintain, and update clear, video-supported documentation outlining asset production procedures, engine constraints, poly-count management limits, and material setups.
3. Cross-Discipline Integration & Asset Ingestion
- Cross-Functional Communication: Collaborate actively across internal disciplines—including Environment Artists, Level Designers, Game Designers, Technical Artists, and Production staff—to fully understand the gameplay needs, performance metrics, and narrative goals of required props.
- Technical Asset Polishing: Take direct, hands-on custody of completed external assets upon delivery. Execute final technical fixes, clean up naming conventions, adjust LODs, fix collision parameters, and handle material wire-ups to guarantee assets are fully game-ready.
- Source Control Management: Seamlessly integrate validated assets into the master branch utilizing Unreal Engine 5 and Perforce, maintaining clean, organized scene hierarchies.
Required Skills, Knowledge, and Expertise
Professional Qualifications
- AAA Shipped Track Record: Proven professional experience shipping highly rated AAA video game titles across multiple platforms (PC, Console, and/or Mobile environments).
- Production-Proven Environment Background: A rich, practical background as an active production artist, specifically focused on environment art, asset modeling, modular kit building, and texturing.
- Engine & Pipeline Mastery: Deep, production-level comfort navigating Unreal Engine 5 pipelines and source control software (Perforce).
- Modern Toolset Fluidity: Complete mastery of advanced game art creation tools, including Substance Painter, Marmoset Toolbag, and major 3D modeling applications (such as Autodesk Maya, 3ds Max, or Blender).
- Technical Constraint Literacy: A deep understanding of modern real-time performance limitations, including vertex count budget allocation, draw-call management, draw distances, and PBR material/texture setup configurations.
Soft Skills & Communication Excellence
- Constructive Critique Skills: Exceptional communication skills with a proven, empathetic ability to critique and level-up external artists remotely through written documentation and paint-overs.
- Organizational Mastery: Highly self-driven, hyper-organized, and customer-focused, with an innate ability to manage multiple overlapping asset pipelines smoothly in a high-pressure, fast-paced production environment.
Epic Games Jobs + Epic Benefits = Epic Life
Epic Games jobs – Our philosophy at Epic Games is straightforward: we look after our people completely so they can focus on setting global standards for interactive media. We pay 100% of the insurance premiums for both you and your dependents, creating an unparalleled safety net:
- Comprehensive Health Coverage: 100% studio-paid medical, dental, and a premium Vision Health Reimbursement Arrangement (HRA).
- Financial Protection: Full long-term disability protection, generous life insurance coverage, and a robust 401(k) plan with a highly competitive company match.
- Holistic Well-Being: Full corporate integration with Modern Health, providing complimentary, confidential therapy sessions, clinical coaching, and mental health resources for you and your dependents.
- Uncapped Recharging: Benefit from true work-life balance with our unlimited PTO and sick leave structures, complemented by regular, company-wide paid breaks and community-building celebrations throughout the calendar year.
- 7-Year Sabbatical: We reward long-term dedication. Upon reaching your seventh year of continuous employment with Epic, you will unlock an extended, fully paid milestone sabbatical.
About Epic Games
Epic Games spans across 25 countries with 46 world-class studios and more than 4,500 employees globally. For over 25 years, we have been crafting award-winning games and game engine technology that empowers creators to bring 3D environments to life like never before.
Our award-winning Unreal Engine technology does not just give game developers the capability to build high-fidelity interactive experiences across PC, console, mobile, and virtual reality; it is also a vital tool being embraced by forward-thinking content creators across a massive array of industries—including media, film, television entertainment, automotive design, and high-end architectural visualization.
As we continue to advance our core engine technology and build remarkable new digital game experiences, we strive to construct diverse, inclusive teams of world-class global talent. Come be a part of something Epic!
Note to Recruitment Agencies: Epic Games does not accept any unsolicited resumes or casual approaches from unauthorized third-party placement or recruitment agencies with whom we do not hold a validly executed, negotiated agreement. Epic will not pay any fees to unauthorized third parties. Epic Games jobs
