Electronic Arts

Cliffhanger Games is a newly formed Seattle Studio focusing on blockbuster action-adventure games and pioneering next-generation emergent storytelling beginning with Marvel’s Black Panther. Join us to pursue your passion to build unique groundbreaking, and inclusive games that empower players to create incredible stories of heroic adventure. Become a foundational part of an ambitious, respectful, and diverse team as we are looking for a Senior Lighting Artist to join our team.

Reporting to the Senior Lighting Director, you will help craft lighting schemes for our worlds, enhancing mood, directing focus, and adding realism with a bit of fantastical elements to our game environments. You have a strong artistic vision, an understanding of lighting principles, and the technical proficiency to bring our game worlds to life. As a Senior Lighting Artist, you will work with the Principal Art Director, Senior Lighting Director, Environment Artists, Presentation Artists, Technical Artists, Designers and Graphic/Gameplay Engineers to create visually stunning and immersive lighting that enhances the player experience.

Responsibilities

• Develop and implement high-quality lighting solutions that align with the artistic direction of the game.
• Collaborate with the Principal Art Director, Senior Lighting Director and other team members to establish the mood, atmosphere, and visual storytelling through lighting.
• Create and optimize lighting setups for environments, characters, and objects within the game engine.
• Use advanced lighting techniques, including dynamic and baked lighting, to achieve realistic and stylized effects
• Create skies and atmosphere procedurally within a game engine combined with external tools or through HDRI/skybox backdrops.
• Troubleshoot and resolve lighting-related technical issues, ensuring optimal performance across different platforms.
• Mentor and provide guidance to junior lighting artists, helping to elevate the overall quality of the team's work.
• Stay up to date with industry trends and advancements in lighting technology, improving your skills.
• Participate in regular reviews and provide constructive feedback to peers, encouraging a collaborative and creative work environment.
• Collaborate with art, technical art, and engineering team members to ensure our lighting pipeline and set ups are efficient and performant.
• Document and promote lighting pipelines to ensure team clarity on best practices.
• Partner with the Senior Lighting Director, Development Directors, and art leadership on maintaining scope and priorities through the phases of development.

Qualifications

• 6+ years' experience as a lighting artist in the video game industry.
• Knowledge of industry-standard software and tools, such as Unreal Engine, Unity, Maya, 3ds Max, or similar.

We encourage you to apply, even if you don't match every qualification listed above. Let us know why this role appeals to you, why you will be great, what unique perspectives you will bring, and which requirements will challenge you to grow.

Ceci ne s’applique pas au Québec. 

COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS

The ranges listed below are what EA in good faith expects to pay applicants for this role in these locations at the time of this posting. If you reside in a different location, a recruiter will advise on the applicable range and benefits. Pay offered will be determined based on a number of relevant business and candidate factors (e.g. education, qualifications, certifications, experience, skills, geographic location, or business needs). 

PAY RANGES

• British Columbia (depending on location e.g. Vancouver vs. Victoria)
  • $107,600 - $147,100 CAD

• California (depending on location e.g. Los Angeles vs. Sacramento)
  • $122,400 - $176,300 USD

• Colorado (depending on location e.g. Denver vs. Colorado Springs)
  • $131,000 - $174,800 USD

• Jersey City, NJ
  • $142,000 - $176,300 USD

• New York (depending on location e.g. Manhattan vs. Buffalo)
  • $115,700 - $176,300 USD

• Washington (depending on location e.g. Seattle vs. Spokane)
  • $115,700 - $163,100 USD

Base salary is just one part of the overall compensation at EA. In the US, we offer a package of benefits including paid time off (3 weeks per year to start), 80 hours per year of sick time, 16 paid company holidays per year, 10 weeks paid time off to bond with baby, medical/dental/vision insurance, life insurance, disability insurance, and 401(k) to regular full-time employees. Certain roles may also be eligible for bonus and equity. For British Columbia, we offer a package of benefits including vacation (3 weeks per year to start), 10 days per year of sick time, paid top-up to EI/QPIP benefits up to 100% of base salary when you welcome a new child (12 weeks for maternity, and 4 weeks for parental/adoption leave), extended health/dental/vision coverage, life insurance, disability insurance, retirement plan to regular full-time employees. Certain roles may also be eligible for bonus and equity.