Lead Lighting Artist (Call of Duty)

Location: Middleton, Wisconsin, United States; hybrid schedule with four onsite days per week in the Middleton office

Salary: $99,200–$183,520 annual base pay, plus potential incentive compensation.

Company

hirify.global and Raven Software develop and publish major interactive entertainment franchises, including Call of Duty, with Raven contributing to Call of Duty: Warzone and Black Ops campaigns.

What you will do

• Lead a team creating and implementing real-time lighting for gameplay and cinematics.
• Partner with the Art Director, artists, designers, programmers, and Production to deliver visual and technical quality for a AAA franchise.
• Direct volumetrics, color grading, post-processing, and image effects to support visual and narrative goals.
• Prototype lighting approaches, improve workflows, and spearhead lighting research and development.
• Guide day-to-day execution, iteration, feedback, milestone planning, and resource forecasting.
• Mentor Lighting Artists and foster communication, accountability, quality, and professional growth.

Requirements

• 8+ years of Lighting experience, including 2+ years in a Lead role, in real-time game development or equivalent film/television experience.
• Expert experience with game engines and lighting tools such as Unreal, Unity, or equivalent proprietary engines.
• Strong experience with baked and dynamic lighting, light probes, reflection probes, post-processing, color grading, and image adjustment tools.
• Strong understanding of PBR workflows, physically correct lighting, color theory, post-processing techniques, and current lighting trends.
• Excellent communication, collaboration, and problem-solving skills, with the ability to adapt to proprietary tools and fast-moving workflows.
• An inspiring reel demonstrating realistic lighting, modern workflows, and creative solutions to development challenges.

Nice to have

• Experience with Call of Duty tools or other proprietary engines.
• Secondary experience in environments, animation, or VFX.
• Basic scripting, procedural workflows, compositing, or console and PC performance optimization experience.
• Strong traditional art foundation and passion for the Call of Duty franchise.

Culture & Benefits

• Respectful, collaborative, direct, and ego-free working culture.
• Medical, dental, vision, health spending, life, disability, and related insurance programs.
• 401(k) with company match, tuition reimbursement, and charitable donation matching.
• Paid holidays and vacation, sick time, floating holidays, parental leave, and bereavement leave.
• Mental health, wellbeing, fitness, legal service, and employee game discount programs.
• Relocation assistance may be available if the company requires a geographic move for the role.