Lead Lighting Artist Vic/SA/Qld

Keywords Studios Australia; Melbourne; Hybrid; AUD 90,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

Keywords Studios is seeking a seasoned Lighting Artist with leadership experience to manage and guide a team of lighting specialists. You will craft high-quality lighting for game environments and cinematics, mentor artists, and ensure visuals align with the project’s artistic direction while meeting performance targets in real-time engines.

This hybrid, full-time role is based in Australia. You will collaborate with art directors and cross-functional teams to uphold artistic consistency across

Qualifications

• Experience leading art teams and projects.
• Exceptional leadership and communication skills, with the ability to inspire and guide a team towards achieving project goals.
• A keen eye for detail and strong observation skills.
• Extensive experience as a Lighting Artist within the video game industry, with a strong portfolio showcasing high-quality real-time game assets.
• Strong understanding of lighting, composition, colour theory, and visual storytelling.
• Extensive experience creating optimized assets for modern real-time game engines such as Unreal Engine or Unity.
• Strong understanding of lighting tools (Lumen, light baking and post-processing), performance optimization, and technical limitations across multiple gaming platforms.
• Extensive knowledge of game development pipelines and the ability to adapt artistic styles to suit various game genres and target platforms.

Responsibilities

• Lead and mentor a diverse team of lighting artists across geographies and studios.
• Create high-quality lighting for environments and cinematics aligned with artistic direction.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to maintain art direction and quality.
• Ensure lighting meets performance and platform requirements across multiple engines.
• Stay current with industry trends and contribute to pipeline improvements.

Skills

Leadership

Lighting artist

Team mentorship

Attention to detail

Artistic storytelling

Real-time game lighting

Lumen knowledge

Post-processing

Pipeline collaboration

Tools

Unreal Engine

Unity

Job description

Leadership & Team Management

• Managing dedicated art teams across geographies or studios, emphasizing overall quality, productivity, and continuous team development.

• Lead and mentor a diverse team of lighting artists, fostering their professional growth and artistic development.

• Conduct regular performance evaluations, providing constructive feedback and facilitating skill-building opportunities.

• Identify skill gaps within the team and implement training programs to enhance capabilities and artistic techniques.

Lighting Creation

• Create high-quality, visually compelling lighting for environments and cinematics.

• Produce lighting that aligns with the project’s artistic direction and storytelling, through mood, tone and atmosphere.

• Develop lighting optimized for real-time game engines.

Collaboration and Production

• Work closely with the Art Director to maintain the overall art direction.

• Collaborate with cross-functional teams throughout the production pipeline to ensure artistic consistency and quality.

• Participate in reviews, feedback sessions, and iterative development processes.

Technical Art & Optimisation

• Ensure lighting meets performance, memory, and platform-specific requirements across a variety of platforms.

• Collaborate closely with environment, VFX and technical art teams to integrate lighting with assets and pipelines

• Apply strong understanding of lighting for real-time performance.

• Maintain consistency in quality while adhering to technical constraints and engine limitations.

• Troubleshoot and resolve creative and technical lighting challenges.

Innovation & Continuous Improvement

• Stay current with industry trends, emerging technologies, tools, and workflows.

• Contribute ideas and improvements to pipelines and production processes.

• Continuously push the visual quality and innovation of game art production.

Required Skills and experience

• Experience leading art teams and projects.

• Exceptional leadership and communication skills, with the ability to inspire and guide a team towards achieving project goals.

• A keen eye for detail and strong observation skills.

• Extensive experience as a Lighting Artist within the video game industry, with a strong portfolio showcasing high-quality real-time game assets.

• Strong understanding of lighting, composition, colour theory, and visual storytelling.

• Extensive experience creating optimized assets for modern real-time game engines such as Unreal Engine or Unity.

• Strong understanding of lighting tools (Lumen, light baking and post‑processing), performance optimization, and technical limitations across multiple gaming platforms.

• Extensive knowledge of game development pipelines and the ability to adapt artistic styles to suit various game genres and target platforms.

Desirable skills and experience

• Passion for gaming and a strong understanding of market trends, player expectations, and gaming cultures across PC, Console, and Nintendo platforms.

• Experience successfully guiding and communicating with other art teams to ensure artistic vision and asset quality are maintained from concept through to final in-game implementation.

If you'd like to know more about Keywords Studios we recommend visiting our corporate site HERE

PERSONAL DATA PROTECTION POLICY

Keywords Studios is strongly committed to protecting your personal information. By sending your CV/Resume, you are agreeing to our terms and conditions and consent to your data being managed and retained in accordance with our data privacy and retention policy https://www.keywordsstudios.com/en/applicant-privacy-notice/

Role Information: EN

Studio: Keywords Studios

Location: Asia Pacific, Australia

Area of Work: Art Services

Service: Create

Employment Type: Full Time, Permanent

Working Pattern: Hybrid

PERSONAL DATA PROTECTION POLICY

Keywords Studios is strongly committed to protecting your personal information. By sending your CV/Resume, you are agreeing to our terms and conditions and consent to your data being managed and retained in accordance with our data privacy and retention policy https://www.keywordsstudios.com/en/applicant-privacy-notice/