Role Overview
We are seeking an experienced and visionary Senior Unreal Environment & Lighting Artist to craft breathtaking, immersive worlds and elevate our visual storytelling. In this role, you will bridge the gap between high-level aesthetic direction and technical execution within Unreal Engine 5. You will own full environment pipelines—from blockout to final polish—while mastering light, mood, composition, and engine performance.
Key Responsibilities
Environment & World Building- Set Dressing & Composition: Transform greybox levels into believable, narrative-rich environments using modular kits, custom assets, and procedural tools.
- Atmosphere & Visual Storytelling: Establish tone, depth, and spatial flow through strategic placement of architectural elements, foliage, clutter, and visual cues.
- Material & LookDev: Work with tech artists to refine shaders, vertex painting, blend materials, and decal placement for maximum realism or stylized fidelity.
Lighting & Atmosphere- Master Lighting Setup: Design and implement dynamic and baked lighting setups using Lumen, Ray Tracing, and traditional lightmaps.
- Volumetrics & FX: Author atmospheric fog, god rays, particle integration, and post-processing stacks (color grading, exposure, LUTs) to define the visual mood.
- Cinematics & Gameplay: Collaborate with lighting and narrative teams to ensure lighting seamlessly guides player focus and supports both interactive gameplay and cutscenes.
Technical Execution & Optimization- Performance Budgeting: Optimize assets, materials, and lighting setups to hit target frame rates across target platforms without sacrificing visual fidelity (utilizing Nanite, virtual texturing, profiling tools, etc.).
- Pipeline & Tools: Collaborate with Tech Art and Tools teams to streamline production workflows, establishing best practices for asset integration and scene hierarchy.
Leadership & Collaboration- Art Direction Alignment: Partner closely with the Art Director and Concept Artists to translate 2D artwork and world-building notes into interactive 3D realities.
- Mentorship: Guide and review the work of mid/junior artists, providing constructive feedback on visual composition, technical efficiency, and engine workflows.
Key Qualifications
- Experience: 5+ years of experience in AAA game development, high-end virtual production, or VFX, with at least one shipped title or production in a senior capacity.
- Unreal Engine Expertise: Deep, hands-on mastery of Unreal Engine 5 (Lumen, Nanite, World Partition, Sequencer, Material Editor, Post-Process Volumes).
- Artistic Vision: Exceptional understanding of composition, color theory, light behavior, form, and architectural visual hierarchy.
- Software Proficiency: Strong knowledge of standard DCC software (Maya, Blender, or 3ds Max) and texturing pipelines (Substance 3D Painter/Designer, Quixel Suite).
- Technical Acumen: Proven ability to profile and optimize scenes (Unreal Insights, GPU Visualizer, Stat commands).
Nice-to-Haves
- Experience with Procedural Content Generation (PCG) or Houdini workflows.
- Familiarity with Blueprints for light scripting/interactive elements.
- Background in Virtual Production (LED walls, nDisplay) or linear cinematics.
