Lead Artist (Environment Art)

Location: Chatham, England, United Kingdom; remote, hybrid, or onsite options available for UK-based candidates only.

Company

Develops Train Sim World titles and provides the opportunity to work on established simulation games.

What you will do

• Set the artistic and technical quality bar for environment art and benchmark tools and workflows.
• Create assets and build realistic, game-ready environments while solving visual and technical problems.
• Plan environment art delivery, break down tasks, manage priorities, dependencies, estimates, and schedules.
• Review work, maintain quality and consistency, document workflows, and provide clear feedback across art, design, engineering, IT, and technology teams.
• Manage and mentor the environment art team, remove blockers, establish expectations, and build a healthy feedback culture.
• Identify delivery risks and propose solutions while owning long-term art strategy and outsource briefs.

Requirements

• Excellent professional knowledge of Unreal Engine 4 and 5.
• Experience managing and mentoring a team of artists.
• Strong environment art fundamentals and a portfolio demonstrating quality in a realistic style.
• Ability to take work from a vague brief through to a finished, game-ready environment, with strong visual judgement and the ability to explain artistic decisions.
• Extremely organised, with the ability to manage priorities, estimates, and schedules.
• Comfortable giving feedback and collaborating across disciplines and departments, including art, engineering, IT, and technology.
• Motivated to create art directly, not only oversee other artists' work.
• Open World experience in a leadership or senior position, experience on multiple shipped titles, and deep expertise across the environment art pipeline.
• Experience independently owning long-term art strategy and managing or briefing outsourced work.

Nice to have

• Cross-discipline skills such as VFX or character art.
• Houdini or PCG expertise for open-world development.
• Strong technical art skills in UE5.
• Production background, stylization experience, or previous simulation experience.
• Interest in or hobby related to trains.

Culture & Benefits

• Choose remote, hybrid, or office-based work while remaining UK-based.
• 37.5-hour working week with flexible working.
• Collaborative and supportive team environment with access to current tools and technology.
• Company-funded away days and team-building activities.
• Opportunities to grow while working on established titles, with salary and benefits provided.

Hiring process

• Applications are submitted through the company application system; duplicate submissions are not accepted when an application is already on file.