Senior Material and Texture Artist

Description

Hi there, we’re Article. 👋 Since 2013, we have been redefining the furniture industry one sofa at a time, it’s not easy — it requires solving challenging, meaningful problems. This is where you come in, as a Senior Material and Texture Artist, you'll create accurate, photorealistic digital textures, materials and shaders that help our products look and feel true to life across Article’s digital experiences.

As we continue to scale our digital asset production, we need strong material and texture expertise to improve quality, consistency, reuse, and efficiency across our CG pipeline.

You’ll translate physical material references, photography, scan data, supplier information, and other source material into production-ready textures, materials, and shaders. You’ll independently solve moderately complex artistic and technical challenges while helping us build a scalable, reliable material library and workflow.

As a Particle (people of Article), you will have a high level of autonomy to solve challenging, meaningful problems the best way you can. That means you’re trusted to explore solutions you believe will work best (you’re the expert, after all). You’ll do all this while growing your skills within a company that is redefining the furniture industry.

The CG Production team works across modeling, visualization, digitization, Creative, Virtual Production, and other teams to create high-quality digital representations of Article products. We also collaborate with vendors, suppliers, and production partners to make sure our assets are visually accurate and technically consistent.

We are a hybrid team - you'll be in the office 3 days per week.

What You’ll Do

Texture, Material & Look Development

• Create high-quality, photorealistic textures, shaders, and materials for furniture, including upholstery, wood, stone, metal, glass, plastics, and other hard and soft surface finishes.
• Accurately reproduce real-world color, material, finish, scale, surface variation, reflectance, roughness, and other physical properties using photography, physical samples, scanned material data, supplier information, and other references.

Material Library & Standards

• Develop tileable and asset-specific textures using procedural, scan-based, and hand-authored techniques, including UV layout, mapping, and texture preparation where required.
• Carry out look development and material validation in 3ds Max and Corona Renderer, troubleshoot material, UV, shading, color, and rendering issues, and resolve differences between physical products, source references, and rendered output.-
• Support the quality, organization, and ongoing development of Article’s centralized digital material and texture library by creating reusable materials, following established standards, and reviewing existing assets for duplication, inconsistency, or technical issues.

Material Capture & Source Data

• Support material capture workflows, including photography, photogrammetry, photoscanning, and other digitization techniques, and identify when additional reference, capture, or physical samples are needed.
• Partner with the Manager, CG Production and modeling, visualization, and digitization teams to improve material and texture workflows, increase reuse, reduce rework, identify opportunities for automation, and support increasing asset production volumes.

Quality Assurance & Production

• Review texture and material work produced internally and by external vendors against Article’s artistic and technical standards, providing clear, actionable feedback when quality or workflow issues arise.
• Document workflows, standards, and best practices, share functional knowledge with the wider CG team, and collaborate with geographically distributed teams, vendors, suppliers, and production partners.
• Manage assigned work and priorities independently, balancing visual quality, production efficiency, asset performance, and delivery requirements while maintaining a consistently high standard of output.
• We use G Suite (Gmail, Sheets, Google Docs, Meet, etc) to work and Slack to collaborate and communicate, with your choice of Mac or PC device.

Who You Are

• You have 5+ years of professional experience in texture artistry, look development, material creation, VFX, animation, product visualization, or a related CGI discipline
• A portfolio showing exceptional photorealistic material creation across a broad range of real-world surfaces.
• You have advanced proficiency with the Adobe Substance 3D suite and strong production experience with 3ds Max and Corona Renderer, or similar digital content creation (DCC) tools.
• You understand how color, scale, surface detail, roughness, reflectance, normal and displacement information affect photorealistic rendering, and you can create accurate materials from photography, physical samples, scan data, and other references.
• You have advanced knowledge of physically based rendering principles, texture authoring, shaders, UV mapping, procedural and scan-based texturing workflows, and real-world material properties.
• You have experience working within a structured CG production pipeline, following technical standards, diagnosing artistic and technical material issues, and taking ownership of complex material challenges.
• You bring strong attention to detail, organization, visual judgment, communication, and collaboration skills. You’re adaptable when priorities or production needs change and can clearly communicate artistic and technical feedback.
• Experience creating CGI for furniture, interiors, architecture, or high-end product visualization, with knowledge of furniture materials and construction, Colour, Material and Finish (CMF) principles, material scanning, photogrammetry, photography, or other physical-to-digital material capture techniques.
• Experience with large production material libraries or digital asset management systems, external CGI vendors, procedural material systems or automation, and modern workflows such as Universal Scene Description (USD) and Physically Based Rendering (PBR) asset standards. Experience supporting real-time experiences, AR, configurators, or other downstream digital product applications is also an asset.
• Experience developing procedural material systems, templates, tools, or workflow automation.
• Legally able to work in Canada.
• Completion of a criminal background check.

Perks & Benefits

Wealth:

• The salary range is $120,000 to $140,000
  • Starting salary is determined by your transferable skills, knowledge, work experience, and the hiring team’s budget, which is based on business needs, market compensation data, and internal equity
• We believe in Winning Together. When Article hits its annual financial goals, eligible employees will receive a cash bonus
• 4% RRSP matched contributions through Wealthsimple

Life:

• 15 days of vacation*
• 1 extra day off (Inclusion and Diversity Day)
• 6 well-being (sick) days
• Hybrid work: 3 days a week in the office
• Work remotely (anywhere in the world) for up to 3 weeks

Total Health:

• Excellent extended health, dental and vision benefits
• $1000 health/lifestyle spending account* for your total physical and mental well-being
• TELUS Health App
  • Mental Health Assistance/Counseling
  • Virtual medical appointments

Office Space:

• The Article HQ is a converted warehouse, with an open accessible layout and no offices (even for our founders)
• Work from your desk, an Article sofa, collaboration spaces, or a private meeting room
  • Standup desks can be requested too
• Our kitchens are stocked with salty, sweet and healthy snacks, & all the premium coffees and teas to keep you buzzing
• Onsite fitness equipment with showers and towel service
• Pickleball, badminton, and table tennis matches happen, from very competitive to very casual
• A dog-friendly office - well-socialized pups are welcome

Getting here:

• Free street parking (first come, first serve; no reserved spots for senior leaders)
• Indoor secure bike storage with change rooms and showers
• 20-minute walk to either Main Street- Science World or VCC Clark Skytrain stations

Extra:

• 45% discount on our entire product range (15% for friends and family)

*Prorated

#INDARTICLE

Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Hiring:

At Article, we value authenticity and transparency in our hiring process. We want to get to know the real you, not an AI-generated version. Here are some guidelines around Artificial Intelligence in Hiring and what we expect from you.

From us, you can expect that humans make hiring decisions.

Criminal Background Checks:

Having a criminal record does not restrict your employment at Article. Criminal background checks are only conducted with your permission and after a conditional employment offer has been accepted.

The decision if a criminal record will restrict your employment will be made on a case-by-case basis, where we conduct an "individualized assessment"—a reasoned, evidence-based determination as to whether the applicant's past conviction has a direct and adverse relationship with the specific job duties of the position.

Work Authorization:

Unless otherwise stated, all open roles require legal authorization to work in the location where the job is based, without requiring VISA sponsorship.

For US-based roles, Article participates in E-Verify

Be Aware of Scam Jobs/ Recruitment Fraud:

Click here for more information on Scam Jobs. If you receive a suspicious message or job offer claiming to be from Article, please do not engage. Forward the message to careers@article.com so we can investigate.

Equal Opportunity Statement:

At Article, we value and respect individuals for their different talents, skills, abilities, and unique contributions. Employment decisions are based on merit and business needs, and not on race, ethnic origin, color, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital status, family status, disability, genetic characteristics, personal beliefs, or any other classification protected by federal, state, provincial, and local laws and ordinances.

Accommodations:

Reasonable accommodations are related to a disability or another protected characteristic. Applicants can also request accommodation at any stage of the recruitment process by notifying the hiring team or emailing ta.accommodation@article.com. This email is dedicated to accommodation requests only—non-related messages will not receive a response.

Hi there, we’re Article. 👋
Since 2013, we’ve been redefining the furniture industry one sofa at a time.

Where we’re based:

• HQ: Vancouver, BC
• Asia HQ: Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
• Fulfillment centres: Calgary, Jacksonville, Richmond, & Patterson
• Retail Stores: Vancouver (open), San Francisco, Bellevue & Toronto (opening soon), with more locations opening in 2027.