Job Overview
Location
Vancouver, BC, Canada
Job Type
Full-time
Category
Other
Date Posted
May 23, 2026
Full Job Description
đź“‹ Description
- • Create and implement real-time lighting for a AAA sci-fi action game, ensuring visual fidelity and performance optimization within engine constraints.
- • Collaborate with the Art Director and Lead Environment Artist to align lighting direction with the overall artistic vision and narrative tone of the project.
- • Work closely with environment artists, level designers, and technical teams to integrate lighting assets that enhance gameplay clarity, immersion, and environmental storytelling.
- • Design cinematic lighting setups that establish mood, atmosphere, and emotional impact while maintaining real-time frame rate targets.
- • Ensure visual consistency across all environments by adhering to established lighting pipelines, color grading standards, and asset optimization guidelines.
- • Optimize lighting setups for performance, reducing draw calls, lightmap sizes, and shader complexity without sacrificing aesthetic quality.
- • Iterate on lighting feedback from internal teams and external stakeholders, incorporating notes to refine composition, contrast, and visual hierarchy.
- • Document lighting setups and techniques for team reference, ensuring reproducibility and scalability across levels and future content.
- • Participate in regular art reviews and production meetings to present lighting work, receive critique, and align with project milestones.
- • Maintain awareness of industry best practices in real-time lighting and apply relevant advancements to improve studio workflows and output quality.
- • Adapt lighting solutions to accommodate varying environmental conditions, time-of-day cycles, and dynamic gameplay scenarios.
- • Troubleshoot lighting-related bugs or rendering issues in collaboration with the technical art and engineering teams.
- • Manage multiple lighting tasks concurrently while meeting deadlines in an agile development environment.
- • Contribute to the creation of lighting reference materials, mood boards, and technical documentation to support team-wide consistency.
- • Uphold studio standards for asset quality, file organization, and version control within the project’s pipeline.
🎯 Requirements
- • Proven experience as a Lighting Artist on AAA video games or equivalent high-end real-time projects.
- • Expertise in real-time lighting engines such as Unreal Engine 5 or Unity, with deep understanding of Lumen, Lightmass, or equivalent systems.
- • Strong portfolio demonstrating cinematic lighting, environmental storytelling, and performance-optimized lighting setups.
- • Ability to work collaboratively with art, design, and technical teams in a remote-first environment.
- • Deep understanding of color theory, composition, and visual storytelling principles.
- • Experience working within strict performance budgets for consoles and high-end PCs.
🏖️ Benefits
- • Flexible remote-first work arrangements with the ability to work from anywhere within Canada.
- • Opportunity to contribute to a AAA sci-fi action title with a world-class IP.
- • Collaborative, creative studio culture focused on long-term career growth and artistic development.
- • Contract position offering focused project engagement with potential for future opportunities.
Skills & Technologies
About Blackbird Interactive, Inc.
Blackbird Interactive is a Canadian independent game development studio founded in 2010 by former Relic Entertainment veterans. It specializes in real-time strategy, immersive simulation, and interactive media projects, serving as co-developer for major publishers and producing original IP. The studio is best known for titles such as *Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak*, *Hardspace: Shipbreaker*, and the upcoming *Homeworld 3*. With over 300 employees in Vancouver, Blackbird combines AAA production values with agile, creator-led culture, leveraging proprietary technology and cross-disciplinary collaboration to push narrative depth, systemic gameplay, and player agency in both commercial and educational experiences.
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