Lead Game Artist

SEGA Europe; Royal Leamington Spa; Hybrid; GBP 50,000 - 70,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading company in the gaming industry is seeking a Lead Game Artist to join their Sonic Mobile team. The ideal candidate will engage in art production across popular games, drive artistic quality, inspire the team, and manage pipeline improvements. This role offers hybrid working options and comprehensive benefits, ensuring a dynamic and supportive work environment.

Benefits

Comprehensive benefits including ULEV car salary sacrifice

Life assurance and income protection

Private healthcare & dental insurance

Up to 26 flexible work-from-home days per year

Performance and profit-sharing bonuses

Free SEGA games on Steam

Discounted gym memberships

12 days of training annually

Qualifications

• Strong 2D and 3D art creation skills required.
• Experience with Unity or similar game engines needed.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills essential.

Responsibilities

• Inspire and motivate the art team.
• Create high-quality art for games.
• Maintain visual consistency while enhancing quality.

Skills

2D art creation

3D art creation

Communication

Collaboration

Organizational skills

Attention to detail

Tools

3DS Max

Maya

Blender

Photoshop

Painter

Unity

Job description

Role Overview - Lead Game Artist - Sonic Mobile

We’re seeking a Lead Game Artist to join our Sonic Mobile team, responsible for developing Sonic Forces, Sonic Dash, and Sonic Boom – games with over a billion combined downloads so far! This unique role is ideal for a lead who sees beyond the conventional project lifecycle and understands how to nurture a live service game. Someone excited to see how small improvements can lead to significant gains in player engagement, retention, and community feedback. You care about efficient pipelines and are constantly looking for ways to improve the art support for the game's ambitions. Most art updates for the live Sonic games involve creating fun characters and engaging UI, making this role suitable for someone who enjoys working across various aspects of game art.

Responsibilities

• Inspire and motivate the art team to achieve their highest potential, driving artistic quality by example, promoting teamwork, and providing feedback and direction.
• Help plan and prioritize art production to meet the game's roadmap milestones while adapting to shifting priorities in a live environment.
• Contribute hands-on by creating high-quality art for the games.
• Maintain visual consistency across the games while seeking ways to enhance quality.
• Troubleshoot and resolve art-related technical challenges in collaboration with engineering teams.
• Work with IP holders to approve official artwork.
• Line manage the art team, conduct 1-1s, and support their career development.
• Identify and implement pipeline improvements to boost efficiency and quality.
• Keep documentation for art processes and standards up-to-date.
• Collaborate with stakeholders to deliver improvements, understanding art implementation and resource needs.
• Model our values of determination, compassion, and collaboration.

Essential Skills & Experience

• Strong 2D and 3D art creation skills.
• Experience with Unity or similar game engines, including implementation, asset setup, and optimization.
• Proficiency with industry tools like 3DS Max, Maya, Blender, Photoshop, Painter.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills.
• Strong organizational skills and attention to detail.

Desirable Experience

• A good eye for quality graphic design and animation.
• Experience with basic video editing (Premiere, After Effects).
• A player-focused approach—understanding what makes a game fun.
• An interest in Sonic, SEGA, and stylized art styles.

Why work at HARDlight?

• Comprehensive benefits including ULEV car salary sacrifice, life assurance, income protection, private healthcare & dental insurance, and pension scheme.
• Wellbeing support such as duvet days, volunteer days, health checks, and flu jabs.
• Up to 26 flexible work-from-home days per year.
• Performance and profit-sharing bonuses.
• Free SEGA games on Steam and discounts on home technology.
• Discounted gym memberships and ride-to-work schemes.
• Core hours with flexible start/end times.
• 12 days of training annually to develop skills.

This role is based on-site at our Leamington Spa studio, UK, with hybrid working options allowing work from home on Mondays and Fridays.