Lead Lighting Artist

About the role

As a Lead Lighting Artist at Cloud Chamber, you will join our talented development team to help shape our visual narrative and atmosphere. In this role, you'll collaborate with a passionate group of game developers to craft visually stunning, dynamic lighting that supports world-class real-time environments and cinematics-bringing the richly imagined world of BioShock to life.

What You'll Do

As a Lead Lighting Artist, you are a primary driver of your direct reports' success. You will set clear expectations, provide coaching, and manage the health, career growth, and output of a high-performing art team while establishing best practices across lighting pipelines.

• Lead a team of lighting artists and provide guidance, feedback, and mentorship to ensure high-quality results.
• Establish best practices and standards within the team to drive productivity, quality, and excellence.
• Foster a positive, proactive, and agile work environment that encourages innovation and collaboration.
• Collaborate closely with the Art Director and other leads, to understand and uphold the visual style and direction for lighting.
• Develop and maintain a consistent and efficient lighting pipeline and workflows, acting as the primary point of contact for issues, proactively resolving problems and addressing roadblocks.
• Research and implement new techniques and technologies related to lighting with the goal of continuous development and improvement.
• Collaborate with:
• Our Core Tech Team to ensure adherence to technical specifications and optimization requirements for real-time rendering engines.
• Production and scheduling teams to define realistic timelines and manage project priorities.
• Other groups within the art department to achieve cohesive and visually stunning results.
• Continuously monitor project progress with an eye for improvement and optimization, providing updates to cross-functional stakeholders, and adjusting priorities as needed.
• Receive and apply constructive feedback as part of our iterative process effectively while maintaining a positive attitude.

What We'll Do Together

• At Cloud Chamber, we are champions of high standards, pushing for progress and embracing change.
• We will work closely and constructively across design, art, engineering, animation, and audio teams to realize our creative ambitions.
• Together, we will stay current on technological advancements and identify solutions to overcome developmental obstacles to deliver a world-class AAA experience.

Skills & Experiences

• 7+ years of experience in real-time lighting and final rendering, with a proven track record as an Art Lead on at least one shipped AAA title.
• Deep understanding of Physically Based Rendering (PBR), runtime optimization, lighting for in-game cinematics, and practical expertise with Unreal Engine 5 (specifically Lumen Lighting and Sequencer).
• Demonstrated history of successfully recruiting, developing, mentoring, and retaining top artistic talent while managing workload output and team well-being.
• Proven experience collaborating directly with Core Tech and Production teams to establish and optimize real-time pipelines under runtime constraints.

Who You Are

• A reliable, positive force multiplier, actively seeking opportunities to integrate work across disciplines and contribute to a healthy, supportive team environment.
• A solid communicator with excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to articulate complex ideas clearly, package information for diverse audiences, and deliver difficult feedback with empathy and professionalism.
• Experienced in working in cross-disciplinary teams with strong communication skills.
• Persistent and self-motivated with a proactive mindset.
• Able to maintain effectiveness and quality under pressure, ambiguity, and fast-changing priorities.
• An active listener able to build and maintain trust-based relationships across all levels of the organization, understand differing perspectives, and navigate organizational complexity with tact and emotional intelligence.
• Highly open to feedback and direction, possessing a desire to learn new skills, and capable of producing quick, quality revisions based on new insights or constraints.
• A strong ownership of tasks, striving to drive work forward autonomously while maintaining a critical eye for detail and organization, ensuring high standards of quality.
• Dedicated to upholding Cloud Chamber's core values, contributing to a positive and respectful company culture while striving for excellence in all endeavors.