Senior Lighting Artist (Gamedev)

TL;DR

Senior Lighting Artist (Gamedev): Finishing client-approved lighting blockouts into final, game-ready lighting at AAA shipping quality. Focus on owning look, readability, and performance in Unreal using Lumen/RT or baked pipelines, reflection systems, light channels, and Post Process Volumes. Focus on validating skin/eyes/hair under production lighting and profile and optimize performance.

Location: Fully Remote

Company

AAA Game development studio specializing in real-time content creation.

What you will do

• Turn blockouts into shippable lighting using Unreal’s Lumen/RT or baked pipelines, reflection systems, light channels, and Post Process Volumes.
• Ensure clear player guidance, focus, and silhouette; lock exposure, contrast, and color for both exploration and combat.
• Validate skin/eyes/hair under production lighting; set up simple turntables and presentation rigs for approvals.
• Profile and optimize (GPU cost, shadow map memory, screen cost, light counts); define scalable settings and fallback paths.
• Maintain LUTs/grade, exposure curves, PPV presets, IES/Light Functions libraries; propose validators with Tech Art.
• Sync with Environment/Character art, VFX (overdraw/brightness balance), Design (telegraphy), and Audio (beats) to keep the picture cohesive.

Requirements

• 5+ years lighting real-time games; 1+ shipped AA/AAA title or equivalent live product.
• Strong Unreal Engine lighting: dynamic/baked workflows, Lumen/RT familiarity, PPV, reflection captures/SSR, light channels, volumetrics/fog, shadows.
• Confident with color grading, exposure, tone mapping, and LUT authoring; solid photography/cinematic fundamentals.
• Performance-minded: comfortable profiling and hitting budgets while preserving intent.
• Clear communicator; reliable in a remote, multi-time-zone setup.

Nice to have

• Sequencer experience (brief shots, camera moves, shot continuity).
• HDR calibration, platform-specific grading, and accessibility/readability considerations.
• Basic shader/material literacy to partner on fixes; scripting for utilities (Blueprint/Python).
• ShotGrid/Jira hygiene; outsource/vendor collaboration.

Culture & Benefits

• Fully Remote
• Bank holidays Full Annual leave entitlement