Lead Lighting Artist
2K
| Company | 2K |
| Category | Design |
| Location | Brighton |
| Remote | On-site (inferred) |
| Employment | Not stated |
| Level | Lead |
| Salary | Not stated by the employer |
| Posted | 10 Feb 2026 |
| Last verified | 30 Jul 2026 |
| Source | Employer career page (greenhouse) |
Description
Job Title
Lead Lighting Artist
Department
Art and Animation
Location(s)
Brighton (travel as required)
Reports To
(Franchise) Art Director
Job Type (Permanent, fixed term, internship)
Permanent
Who We Are
Home to the award winning Mafia franchise, our team are united by passion for rich narrative storytelling, cinematic presentation and AAA craft. We're looking for creative minds and driven professionals who share our love of story, style, and adventure. If you're ready to help shape the next generation of narrative driven games, we'd love to hear from you.
Job Summary
We are looking for a Lead Lighting Artist to help shape and deliver world-class real-time lighting across gameplay, cinematics, and key marketing assets.
This role sits at the intersection of creativity and technical expertise, using Unreal Engine 5 to create lighting that enhances atmosphere, storytelling, and player experience while meeting performance goals.
Reporting to the Art Director, the Lead Lighting Artist will work closely with Engineering, and the other Art Disciplines, playing a key role in defining lighting solutions that are both visually ambitious and technically robust.
Duties and Responsibilities
Drive Lighting Quality & Vision
Help define and execute the lighting vision in alignment with the game’s art direction.
Set and maintain lighting standards and best practices to ensure a consistent, high-quality visual bar.
Create lighting that supports mood, composition, readability, and emotional impact across a wide range of content.
Gameplay, Cinematic & Marketing Lighting
Lead lighting for real-time gameplay and in-engine cinematics, ensuring a cohesive visual experience.
Collaborate with a cross-disciplinary team on the creation of high-end marketing and promotional assets, contributing ideas and helping deliver polished, visually striking results.
Adapt lighting solutions to work effectively across gameplay and cinematics.
Unreal Engine 5 Leadership
Act as a go-to expert for UE5 lighting, with hands-on experience using systems such as Lumen, Virtual Shadow Maps, exposure, and post-processing.
Use UE5’s lighting capabilities to push visual quality while maintaining performance and stability.
Partner with Technical Art and Engineering to explore new features and improve lighting workflows.
Technical Collaboration & Performance
Build strong working relationships with Engineering teams to develop and refine lighting solutions.
Take ownership of lighting performance, identifying potential issues early and helping guide effective solutions.
Contribute to the ongoing improvement of lighting pipelines, tools, and debugging processes.
Lead, Support & Mentor
Provide clear artistic and technical guidance to lighting artists through reviews, feedback, and hands-on support.
Help plan and scope lighting work, identify dependencies, and support the team in hitting quality and production goals.
Be an active advocate for lighting quality and consistency throughout development.
Essential Skills, Attributes and Experience
Lighting & Unreal Engine Expertise
A strong portfolio showcasing high-quality real-time lighting in Unreal Engine, including gameplay, cinematics, and marketing assets.
Experience in a Lead Lighting Artist role on shipped titles.
Deep hands-on experience lighting complex scenes using UE5.
Creative & Technical Balance
Excellent understanding of lighting fundamentals such as color, contrast, exposure, composition, and mood.
Strong technical awareness of real-time rendering constraints, profiling, and optimization.
Strong understanding of grading and colour pipelines, from content creation th
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