Senior Lighting Artist

ArenaNet; Bellevue (WA); Hybrid; USD 55,104,000 - 82,656,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, and vision coverage

401(k) plan

Flexible and dependent care spending accounts

Job summary

A leading game development company is seeking a Director, Talent Acquisition to oversee the lighting for open world environments and cinematics. Ideal candidates should have over 8 years of experience as a Lighting Artist with a portfolio showcasing high-quality work using Unreal Engine. This contract role emphasizes collaboration with various teams and offers remote flexibility, primarily focusing on strong communication skills and artistic expertise.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of professional experience as a Lighting Artist.
• Strong portfolio demonstrating high-quality environment and cinematic lighting.
• Experience lighting with Unreal Engine on at least two shipped titles.

Responsibilities

• Own lighting for major areas of the open world environment.
• Work closely with the art team to establish a cohesive lighting vision.
• Create lighting that supports mood and environmental storytelling.

Skills

Experience with Unreal Engine

Lighting techniques

Color science

Collaborative communication

Blueprint scripting

Job description

Direct message the job poster from ArenaNet

Director, Talent Acquisition at ArenaNet

We are looking for an experienced Lighting Artist with a strong foundation in Unreal vau Engine who can take ownership of lighting across large open world environments. This artist will be responsible for bringing spaces to life through lighting that meets concept art direction, supports gameplay readability, and integrates well with systemic features such as time of day, weather, and other dynamic states. You will work closely with the Lead Lighting Artist and be part of a collaborative lighting team that values nurturing artistic growth, personal development, and shared creative problem solving. We champion artists pursuing excellence and expressing their own artistic voice while contributing to a unified visual direction. This role requires someone who is proactive, communicative, and comfortable working across art, design, tech art, and engineering. Experience in both real time level lighting and cinematic character lighting is important.

WHAT YOU’LL DO

• Own lighting for major areas of the open world environment & cinematics, from initial blockout through final polish.
• Work closely with the Lead Lighting Artist and broader art team to establish and maintain a cohesive lighting vision.
• Create lighting that supports mood, environmental storytelling, and artistic direction.
• Ensure lighting supports gameplay needs such as readability, navigation clarity, and player focus.
• Integrate lighting with إثر runtime features including time of day, weather, and global lighting frameworks.
• Collaborate with environment art, character art, design, tech art, and engineering to develop lighting solutions and workflows.
• Apply real world photographic concepts such as exposure, temperature, contrast, and naturalistic light behavior.
• Use Blueprints to build and refine lighting systems, light functions, controls, and state transitions.
• Contribute to a supportive and knowledge sharing team culture, helping elevate lighting quality across the project.
• Strong understanding of color science, colorgrading & colorspaces.

WHAT YOU’LL NEED TO BE SUCCESSFUL(sorted->)

• 8+ years of professional experience as a Lighting Artist, with at least one shipped AAA title.
• Strong portfolio demonstrating high quality environment and cinematic lighting.
• Experience lighting in Unreal Engine on at least two shipped titles.
• Strong understanding of exposure, color, photographic lighting techniques, and artistic composition.
• Ability to work collaboratively and communicate lighting goals clearly across multiple disciplines
• Experience with Blueprint based lighting functionality and workflow scripting.

PLUSES

• Experience generating sky or atmospheric assets (for example using Houdini).
• Material or mask authoring experience in Substance Designer.
• Familiarity with color management workflows and OCIO pipelines.
• Experience with volumetrics, atmospherics, and light scattering approaches.

This role is remote-friendly, but we are currently prioritizing candidates who are local to the Bellevue, WA area and open to occasional onsite collaboration.

This contract position is paid hourly, with additional overtime compensation when applicable. While we’re providing the full range for transparency Italiaanse our target hiring Gwyn falls between the minimum and midpoint of that range.

This role is eligible for benefits through our third-party employing agency, which may include medical, dental, and vision coverage, a 401(k) plan, and flexible and dependent care spending accounts.

Seniority level: Mid-Senior level

Employment type: Contract

Job function: Art/Creative (Industry: Computer Games)