Senior UE5 Lighting Artist

Job Overview

We are seeking an experienced Senior UE5 Lighting Artist to join our team and contribute to international AAA open-world game projects.

In this role, you will be responsible for the overall lighting design, atmosphere crafting, and visual quality enhancement of massive open-world environments. You will leverage high-quality real-time lighting solutions to build immersive gaming experiences.

This position requires a strong balance of artistic expression and technical optimization capabilities—ensuring top-tier visual fidelity while meeting the rigorous performance standards of an open-world project.

Key Responsibilities

Lighting Design & Production

• Design and implement comprehensive lighting schemes for open-world environments.
• Formulate lighting representations for day/night cycles and dynamic weather systems in alignment with the project's art style.
• Handle interior and exterior scene lighting setup and atmosphere crafting.
• Enhance visual depth, spatial awareness, and narrative expression within game scenes.
• Continuously iterate and optimize visual quality based on feedback from the Art Director.

UE5 Real-Time Lighting Production

• Proficiently utilize the UE5 lighting ecosystem, including:

• Lumen Global Illumination

• Virtual Shadow Maps (VSM)

• Volumetric Fog

• Sky Atmosphere

• Exponential Height Fog

• Post Process Volumes

• Reflection Systems

• HDR Pipeline

• Take ownership of: Lighting Layout, Color Management, Exposure Control, Atmosphere Design, Weather Expression, and Time-of-Day Cycle Representation.

Open-World Project Duties

• Participate in lighting planning for large-scale open-world maps.
• Responsible for unifying the lighting style while creating distinct visual identities across multiple biomes.
• Address and resolve lighting management challenges under the World Partition framework.
• Optimize lighting performance during level streaming states.
• Ensure visual consistency across various times of day and weather conditions.
• Support exploration experiences and visual guidance through strategic lighting design.

Technical Optimization

• Conduct performance profiling and optimization for scene lighting.

• Collaborate with Technical Artists to establish lighting budgets and specifications.

• Optimize the following components to meet target performance milestones without sacrificing visual fidelity:

• Dynamic Lighting

• Shadow Cost

• Reflection Cost

• Volumetric Effects

• Post Process Effects

Requirements

Mandatory Qualifications

• 5+ years of professional experience in the game industry.
• Contributed to at least one shipped AA or AAA project.
• Direct development experience in open-world projects.
• Proficient in Unreal Engine 5.
• Outstanding lighting aesthetics, artistic sensibilities, and color control capabilities.
• Familiar with cinematic photography language and camera lens expressions.
• Exceptional ability to shape environment atmosphere and mood.
• Capable of independently taking ownership of large-scale regional lighting production.

Technical Competencies

Candidates must possess practical, project-proven experience in one or more of the following core technical areas:

• Core UE5 Technologies: Production experience with Lumen, Nanite, Virtual Shadow Maps, World Partition, Data Layers, and Open-World Streaming.
• Performance Optimization: Experience in GPU performance profiling, Render Pass analysis, and utilizing tools like Unreal Insights and ProfileGPU. Console platform optimization experience is highly valued.
• Large Map Experience: Experience with open-world day/night cycles, dynamic weather lighting systems, macro-level map lighting planning, and biome-specific lighting design.

Preferred Qualifications (Pluses)

Priority will be given to candidates with experience in:

• Houdini pipeline integration.
• A Technical Artist background.
• Blueprint development capabilities.
• Shader creation experience.
• Background in photography, cinematography, or film/TV lighting.
• HDR project experience.
• Console platform development experience.
• Multiplayer open-world project experience.
• International AAA project development experience.

Portfolio Requirements

Candidates must provide one or more of the following:

• An up-to-date UE5 lighting portfolio.
• Scene breakdown cases demonstrating "Before / After" comparisons.
• Open-world project case studies.
• Day/night cycle or dynamic weather system demonstrations.
• Video showreels or cinematic flythroughs.
• Priority given to portfolios showcasing: Lumen applications, Open-World scales, AAA-quality projects, Lighting Breakdowns, or Optimization workflows.

Preferred Project Experience

Experience in the following game genres is highly preferred:

• Open-World RPGs
• Open-World Action games
• Survival Crafting games
• MMO Open-World projects
• Console AAA projects

Reference Titles: Cyberpunk 2077, Horizon series, Ghost of Tsushima, Assassin's Creed series, Red Dead Redemption series, Black Myth: Wukong.

What We Are Looking For

• Extreme pursuit of excellence in lighting and visual expression.
• Passion for AAA game development.
• Constant tracking and learning of cutting-edge UE5 rendering technologies.
• Strong communication skills and a collaborative team spirit.
• Ability to work efficiently and adaptively within an internationalized project environment.

Benefits

Base salary, Bonus, Health insurance, EAP Program, Relocation support.

- 5+ years of professional experience in the game industry. - Contributed to at least one shipped AA or AAA project. - Direct development experience in open-world projects. - Proficient in Unreal Engine 5. - Outstanding lighting aesthetics, artistic sensibilities, and color control capabilities. - Familiar with cinematic photography language and camera lens expressions. - Exceptional ability to shape environment atmosphere and mood. - Capable of independently taking ownership of large-scale regional lighting production. - Practical, project-proven experience in Core UE5 Technologies (Lumen, Nanite, VSM, World Partition, Data Layers, Open-World Streaming). - Experience in Performance Optimization (GPU profiling, Render Pass analysis, Unreal Insights, ProfileGPU). - Experience with large map features (day/night cycles, dynamic weather lighting systems, macro-level map lighting planning, biome-specific lighting design).