# Senior UE5 Lighting Artist

> Keywords Studios · Shanghai, China · Full-time · Posted 2026-06-10

**Workplace:** on_site

## Description

### 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.

## Apply

[Apply at Keywords Studios](https://apply.workable.com/keywords-intl1/j/1505384528/apply)

---
Powered by [Workable](https://www.workable.com)