Senior Lighting Artist

High Voltage Software; United States; Remote; USD 70,000 - 110,000; Full time

Job summary

An established industry player is seeking a Senior Lighting Artist to enhance the visual storytelling of AAA games. This role involves collaborating with a talented team to deliver stunning lighting experiences that elevate gameplay. The ideal candidate will bring a strong portfolio showcasing their expertise in lighting, color, and composition, along with hands-on experience in Unreal Engine 5. Join a dynamic and creative environment where your contributions will shape the future of gaming. If you're passionate about pushing the boundaries of visual art in games, this is the perfect opportunity for you!

Benefits

Opportunity to work on AAA games

Great work-life balance

Collaborative work environment

Competitive salary

Comprehensive benefits package

401K plan

Qualifications

• Expertise in lighting principles and real-time pipelines for game development.
• Proficiency in Unreal Engine 5 and 3DS Max for lighting workflows.

Responsibilities

• Manage lighting from pre-production to final polish for game environments.
• Troubleshoot lighting production issues and optimize for performance.

Skills

Lighting Principles

Real-time Lighting Pipelines

Unreal Engine 5

3DS Max

Performance Optimization

Color Grading

Photographic Lighting Fundamentals

Communication Skills

Education

5+ years of experience in game development

Tools

Lighting-specific software

Rendering Engines

Job description

High Voltage is actively seeking a Senior Lighting Artist to join our rapidly growing team. This person will work closely with the Lighting Supervisor to help deliver the lighting vision of the game. Here at High Voltage Software, we firmly believe that the best gameplay experiences are the result of collaboration and iteration between gameplay programmers, designers, and artists.

Responsibilities:

• Carry lighting of environment spaces through from pre-production to final polish.
• Help to manage and ensure the integrity of lighting on all assets.
• Capably troubleshoot and solve lighting production issues.
• Strive to maximize art production performance and predictability.
• Stays current on industry trends and techniques, evaluating competitive products, and continually learning new software packages.

Qualifications:

• Minimum of 5 years of professional experience as a Lighting Artist in video game development, with at least one shipped AAA title on current generation hardware.
• A strong portfolio demonstrating expert use of light, color, value, and composition to enhance gameplay, mood, and visual storytelling in real-time environments.
• Deep understanding of lighting principles and how light interacts with surfaces and atmospherics (e.g., fog, volumetrics) in a game engine context.
• Proven proficiency in real-time lighting pipelines, tools, and systems used in modern game development, including performance optimization for high frame rates.
• Hands-on experience with Unreal Engine 5, including lighting workflows, Blueprint systems, and the Time of Day system (e.g., animating curves for dynamic lighting transitions).
• Expertise in tools such as 3DS Max, lighting-specific software, and both real-time and offline rendering engines.
• Familiarity with lighting components, set dressing for atmosphere, and maintaining precomputed lighting systems such as light probes and image-based lighting.
• Strong technical aptitude in areas such as HDR, physically-based rendering (PBR), color grading, post-processing effects, tonemapping workflows, EV values, LUTs, and color spaces (linear vs log2).
• Demonstrated ability to debug lighting issues, optimize content for performance, and maintain organized, efficient workflows and asset structures.
• Solid understanding of photographic lighting fundamentals relevant to real-time rendering (e.g., shutter speed, aperture, exposure).
• Ability to self-manage and take ownership of lighting tasks from concept to final polish with minimal supervision.
• Experience documenting lighting workflows and approaches for team-wide adoption and consistency.
• Capable of identifying and executing on multiple lighting approaches to support a given theme, gameplay goal, or narrative direction.
• Strong communication and collaboration skills to work closely with environment artists, level designers, and technical teams.

Benefits:

• Opportunity to work on some of the biggest AAA games in the industry.
• Great work-life balance.
• Collaborative and casual work environment.
• Competitive salary.
• Comprehensive benefits package including medical, dental and vision.
• 401K plan.

High Voltage Software is an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, age, national origin, disability, veteran status, sexual orientation or any other classification protected by Federal, State or local law.

Role Information: EN
Studio: High Voltage
Location: Americas, United States, Illinois, Louisiana
Area of Work: Game Development
Service: Create
Employment Type: Full Time, Permanent
Working Pattern: Remote