Contract Senior Lighting Artist (Unreal Engine)

ArenaNet•Bellevue, WA

5h•Remote

About The Position

At ArenaNet, we’ve always believed that games are art. They have the power to communicate ideas and tell stories. They can change the way we think, reflect our cultures, and move us. As the developer of the award-winning Guild Wars game series, we’re proud to share our passion for the online worlds we’ve created with over 21 million players worldwide ArenaNet develops and publishes games for every kind of person, which means our games need to be built by every kind of person. We believe the best experiences come from working together, celebrating differences, and helping each of our team members shine. We are looking for an experienced Lighting Artist with a strong foundation in Unreal 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.

Requirements

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.

Nice To Haves

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.

Responsibilities

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 systemic 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.