Senior Lighting Artist

This position is listed on behalf of a partner company, who manages all applications and next steps. Our partner is looking for a Senior Lighting Artist based in Canada.

As a Senior Lighting Artist, you will shape the visual identity and atmosphere of a high-quality multiplayer game through realistic, immersive lighting.

You will design and implement lighting across diverse indoor and outdoor environments, balancing artistic quality with gameplay clarity.

The role combines strong artistic judgment with a solid understanding of real-time rendering, optimization, and technical constraints.

You will collaborate closely with Environment Artists, Level Designers, Technical Artists, VFX Artists, Programmers, and Art Leadership.

Your work will help establish mood, visual storytelling, navigation, player awareness, and immersion across different gameplay scenarios.

You will also contribute to lighting workflows, best practices, documentation, and the continued evolution of the lighting pipeline.

This is an opportunity to make a visible creative and technical impact within an experienced, collaborative game development team.

Accountabilities:

• Create and implement realistic lighting for indoor and outdoor 3D game environments.
• Establish compelling lighting moods and visual storytelling while maintaining a cohesive realistic art direction.
• Build dynamic and/or baked real-time lighting solutions according to technical and gameplay requirements.
• Balance visual fidelity, realism, and performance across target platforms and multiplayer scenarios.
• Ensure lighting supports gameplay readability, navigation, player awareness, and immersion without compromising the intended visual quality.
• Develop lighting setups for different times of day, weather conditions, environments, and gameplay situations.
• Collaborate with Environment and Level Artists to ensure materials, geometry, composition, and lighting work together convincingly.
• Identify and resolve issues involving lighting, shadows, exposure, reflections, visibility, and rendering.
• Optimize lighting and related rendering features while working within performance budgets for multiplayer environments.
• Create lighting setups that remain effective across different player viewpoints and gameplay conditions.
• Partner with Technical Artists and Programmers on lighting technology, shaders, rendering features, and performance optimization.
• Participate in visual reviews and iterate based on feedback from Art Leadership and the wider development team.
• Help establish and maintain lighting workflows, best practices, technical documentation, and production standards.
• Contribute to the continuous improvement of the overall visual quality and lighting pipeline.

Requirements:

• Professional experience working as a Lighting Artist within the game development industry.
• Strong understanding of realistic lighting principles, color theory, composition, exposure, photography, and cinematography.
• Demonstrated experience creating lighting for realistic 3D environments.
• Strong understanding of real-time rendering and the performance implications of different lighting techniques.
• Professional experience with Unreal Engine.
• Good knowledge of physically based rendering (PBR), materials, reflections, shadows, and post-processing.
• Ability to independently troubleshoot lighting, rendering, and visual quality issues.
• Strong artistic eye, attention to detail, and ability to translate creative direction into polished visual results.
• A portfolio demonstrating strong environment lighting skills and realistic visual work.
• Strong communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to work effectively across multidisciplinary teams.

Nice to have:

• Experience lighting multiplayer or large-scale games.
• Experience with post-processing effects and color grading in Unreal Engine.
• Knowledge of Unreal Engine technologies such as Lumen, Virtual Shadow Maps, or other modern real-time global illumination solutions.
• Experience working on real-time games with a cinematic or film-inspired visual direction.
• Experience developing dynamic time-of-day and weather lighting systems.
• Understanding of optimization techniques for large multiplayer maps.
• Experience profiling and debugging GPU and rendering performance.

Benefits:

• CAD $120,000-$150,000 annual salary, depending on experience, skills, industry expertise, and alignment with team needs.
• Potential for higher compensation for candidates demonstrating exceptional mastery and deep industry knowledge.
• 6.5 weeks of paid vacation.
• Eligibility for an Employee Stock Options Plan.
• Flexible schedule and work location, with remote, hybrid, or on-site options.
• Healthcare and benefits coverage for employees and their families.
• 100% parental leave top-up for 16 weeks for eligible Canadian employees.
• Inclusive workplace with accommodations available throughout the recruitment process.