Lighting Artist / Technical Director (GameDev)

TL;DR

Lighting Artist / Technical Director (Real-time Rendering): Designing and implementing lighting setups for immersive VR, AR, and location-based experiences with an accent on real-time rendering, lightmap baking, and PBR pipelines. Focus on achieving high-fidelity aesthetics and performance optimization within Unreal Engine and Unity.

Location: San Francisco, California, United States (Onsite)

Salary: $103,812 – $132,930 per year

Company

The leading global visual effects facility specializing in immersive cinema, VR, AR, and high-end VFX for film and interactive media.

What you will do

• Design lighting setups for environments, characters, and interactive assets based on art direction and concept artwork.
• Implement real-time rendering techniques including lightmap baking, dynamic lighting, and HDR IBL workflows.
• Collaborate with environment and VFX artists to optimize material shaders and geometry for aesthetic and performance targets.
• Partner with level designers to create dynamic lighting transitions using level blueprints or sequencers.
• Triage and resolve lighting-related bugs in coordination with the engineering team.
• Polish final projects to ensure high quality and optimal performance.

Requirements

• 5+ years of experience as a Lighting TD/Artist in AAA game development or animation/VFX/film.
• Strong mastery of real-time lighting tools, color theory, and PBR pipelines.
• Proficiency in Unreal Engine or Unity, including baked/dynamic lighting and basic blueprint scripting.
• Deep knowledge of real-time shader implementations and limitations specifically for VR.
• Experience with Windows, JIRA, and Perforce for data and workload management.
• Must be based in or able to work in San Francisco, CA.

Nice to have

• Background in traditional art, photography, or film studies.
• Experience with profiling tools for lighting performance diagnosis.
• Proficiency in Maya, Substance Designer/Painter, Houdini, Zbrush, or Nuke.
• Interest and capacity to work with proprietary toolsets.

Culture & Benefits

• Comprehensive medical, financial, and other corporate benefits.
• Opportunity to work on award-winning immersive projects and push the boundaries of entertainment.
• Collaborative environment blending best-in-class visuals, sound, and narrative.
• Potential for bonuses and long-term incentive units.