Lead Environment Artist (Game Development)

TL;DR

Lead Environment Artist (Game Development): Crafting visually stunning and thematically coherent environments that push the boundaries of design and technology with an accent on composition, perspective, and spatial awareness. Focus on designing levels with Unreal Engine, creating modular assets, and developing complex materials and shaders.

Location: This role is primarily on-site at our Tokyo office (7F NTF Takebashi Building, 3-15 Kanda Nishiki-cho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo). Visa sponsorship available.

Company

hirify.global is a game development company collaborating with industry veterans like Kenichi Iwao, Yusuke Kozaki, and Takuya Suzuki.

What you will do

• Conceptualize, create, and refine game environments that support gameplay and storytelling.
• Populate and decorate game levels with props, foliage, lighting, and other assets.
• Design and implement modular assets for scalability and reuse.
• Craft mood-enhancing lighting setups and atmospheric effects.
• Use Unreal Engine tools for level design, asset integration, and performance profiling.
• Develop complex materials and shaders to achieve desired surface details and effects.

Requirements

• Proven experience in creating visually stunning environments with a strong understanding of composition, perspective, and spatial awareness.
• Extensive experience with Unreal Engine, including level design, asset integration, and performance optimization.
• Expertise in industry-standard asset creation tools (e.g., Maya, Blender, Substance Suite, ZBrush).
• Strong portfolio showcasing a range of environments, gameplay spaces, optimized levels, and high-quality props.
• Bachelor’s Degree or equivalent, or 10 years working in the games industry (required for Japanese VISA).

Nice to have

• Familiarity with modular design and optimization techniques such as LOD creation and texture atlasing.
• Experience with modern game development pipelines and version control systems.
• Pre-existing Japanese language skills or a willingness to learn.

Culture & Benefits

• Collaborate with talented industry professionals in a small, tight-knit team.
• Enjoy Saturdays, Sundays, national holidays, year-end/New Year, summer, paid, marriage, bereavement, maternity, childcare, and nursing care leaves.
• Receive reimbursement for transportation expenses and medical checkups.
• Benefit from congratulatory/condolence payments, retirement allowance, and employee discounts.
• Participate in Beer Day lectures, movie viewing allowance, and company support for museums, lectures, seminars, and certification acquisition.
• Access Japanese lessons for non-Japanese employees.