Senior Vegetation Artist

the hive; East Midlands; Hybrid; GBP 65,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

Bulkhead is seeking a Senior Vegetation Artist to take ownership of large-scale biomes and environments, crafting immersive worlds using our in-house landscape tooling and UE5. You will drive organic asset creation, shader libraries, and foliage pipelines while mentoring junior artists.

You will collaborate across disciplines, defining biome rules, maintaining performance budgets, and leading visual research to steer creative direction for major environment themes.

Qualifications

• Portfolio demonstrating large-scale natural environments and organic asset work.
• Expert understanding of up-to-date game art processes, limitations and dependencies in UE5.

Responsibilities

• Own and build large-scale biomes and environments, working with the Art, Concept and Level Design teams.
• Define biome rules and ecosystems for vegetation, terrain and props placement.
• Build and maintain landscape master materials, procedural foliage placement and shader libraries in UE5.
• Set and maintain vegetation standards in SpeedTree, ensuring consistency and high quality.
• Own foliage performance, balancing visual fidelity against performance budgets with tech art and engineering.
• Lead visual research, prototyping and previsualisation to drive creative direction for major environment themes.
• Act as main point of contact for landscape and foliage art, tracking milestones and communicating with Production and stakeholders.
• Lead small teams and mentor artists through feedback and knowledge-sharing.

Skills

Vegetation artistry

UE5 expert

Nanite

SpeedTree

ZBrush

World building

Tools

SpeedTree

ZBrush

UE5

Job description

As a Senior Vegetation Artist at BULKHEAD, you will play a key role in crafting visually compelling, immersive environments that define the quality of our worlds’ biomes. You’ll take full ownership of major environment spaces, from organic asset creation to the assembly of large-scale worlds using our in-house landscape tooling, ensuring they meet the artistic vision and technical performance benchmarks of the project.

You will bring strong visual instincts and technical precision, driving scene development from reference gathering through to engine integration. Your work will reflect a deep understanding of form, scale, composition and fidelity, with a proactive approach to problem-solving and innovation.

As a senior team member, you’ll collaborate closely across disciplines, contributing confidently to planning discussions and production alignment. You’ll give and receive constructive feedback, making informed decisions that balance creative and practical needs, and you’ll mentor junior and mid-level artists to uphold and elevate team standards.

This role offers the opportunity to influence visual direction, refine pipelines and contribute meaningfully to the success of both the project and your teammates, while continuing to grow as a creative and technical leader.

What You’ll Do

• Own and build large-scale biomes and environments, working with the Art, Concept and Level Design teams
• Define biome rules and ecosystems that govern how vegetation, terrain and props are placed across the world
• Build and maintain landscape master materials, procedural foliage placement and shader libraries in UE5
• Set and maintain studio-wide vegetation standards in SpeedTree, keeping all organic assets consistent and high quality
• Own foliage performance, balancing visual fidelity against performance budgets with the technical art and engineering teams
• Lead visual research, prototyping and previsualisation to drive creative direction for major environment themes
• Act as the main point of contact for landscape and foliage art, tracking milestones and communicating clearly with Production and stakeholders
• Lead small teams and mentor artists at all levels through feedback, coaching and knowledge-sharing

What We're Looking For

• A portfolio demonstrating large-scale natural environments and organic asset work
• Expert understanding of up-to-date game art processes, limitations and dependencies
• Experience working in UE5 on large-scale environments using Nanite Expert in organic 3D asset creation using industry software packages (including SpeedTree and ZBrush or equivalent)
• Experience with landscape materials, foliage scattering and procedural content creation
• Expertise in world building, with a strong understanding of level design requirements and limitations

Bonus Points for

• Experience with PCG framework
• Experience with photogrammetry