Lead Lighting Artist

Keywords Studios is currently looking to expand its team in Southeast Asia. We're currently looking for an accomplished, enthusiastic and self-motivated Lead Lighting Artist to join our team working on an exciting, new and unannounced project. 

Keywords Studios is a global leader providing art services to AAA Publishers. Our work can be seen across many of the top-selling titles on console, PC and mobile. You'll get to work alongside seasoned developers bringing expertise from world-class AAA studios.

This position may be offered as either a permanent or fixed-term contract role, depending on the project's requirements, business needs, and the candidate's experience and level.

These opportunities can be located in Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam (Remote), or Singapore (on-site). Sponsorship and relocation are not being offered as part of this package.

A Lead Lighting Artist at Keywords Studios:

• Creates high-quality lighting that supports gameplay, narrative, mood, and artistic direction.
• Helps establish the visual and quality bar for lighting across the project.
• Builds, iterates, and optimises lighting setups for real-time environments and gameplay.
• Works closely with Art Direction, Environment Art, Level Design, and Technical Art to ensure lighting supports composition, atmosphere, and gameplay readability.
• Provides hands-on guidance, feedback, and mentoring to other artists working on lighting.
• Develops and maintains lighting passes, post-processing setups, and related environment settings.
• Troubleshoots lighting issues related to performance, consistency, and technical constraints across platforms.
• Contributes to visual benchmarks and helps establish effective lighting workflows and best practices.
• Supports planning and estimation while remaining actively involved in lighting production.

Requirements

• Proven experience as a Senior or Lead Lighting Artist on a shipped AAA or high-quality game project.
• Strong portfolio demonstrating lighting, composition, mood, and atmosphere.
• Strong understanding of lighting theory, colour, exposure, and real-time rendering.
• Proficiency with modern game engines such as Unreal, Unity, or proprietary engines.
• Good understanding of PBR workflows and how materials respond under different lighting conditions.
• Experience optimising lighting for real-time performance.
• Experience mentoring or providing artistic guidance to other artists.
• Ability to work collaboratively across disciplines and iterate quickly based on feedback.
• Experience with lighting tools, profiling, debugging, or workflow automation is an advantage.

Benefits

Our Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging (DEIB) Commitment: Keywords Studios is an Equal Opportunity Employer and considers applicants for all positions without regard to race, ethnicity, religion or belief, sex, age, national origin, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability or any other characteristic protected by applicable laws. If you require any adjustments during the process please let us know in your application. We are committed to creating a dynamic work environment that values diversity and inclusion, respect and integrity, customer focus, and innovation. We especially welcome applications from candidates of underrepresented groups in the industry.

PERSONAL DATA PROTECTION POLICY

By providing your information in this application, you understand that we will collect and process your information in accordance with our Applicant Privacy Notice. For more information, please see our Applicant Privacy Notice at https://www.keywordsstudios.com/en/applicant-privacy-notice.

Role Information: EN

Studio: Keywords Studios

Location: APAC, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Singapore

Area of Work: Art

Service: Create

Employment Type: Permanent / Contract

Proven experience as a Senior or Lead Lighting Artist on a shipped AAA game project. Strong portfolio demonstrating lighting, composition, mood, and atmosphere. Strong understanding of lighting theory, color, exposure, and real-time rendering. Proficiency with modern game engines such as Unreal or Unity. Good understanding of PBR workflows and how materials respond under different lighting conditions. Experience optimizing lighting for real-time performance. Experience mentoring or providing artistic guidance to other artists. Ability to work collaboratively across disciplines and iterate quickly based on feedback.