Dneg Jobs Overview : Lighting artist (Supervisor)
| Category | Specification / Detail |
| Company Name | DNEG |
| Job Title | Lighting Supervisor |
| Location | Sydney, New South Wales, Australia |
| Department | Shot Finishing (Environment Generalist, Lighting, & Compositing) |
| Position Level | Supervisor / Senior Leadership |
| Job Type | Full-Time / Permanent |
| Work Arrangement | In-Studio / Hybrid (To be finalized during interview process) |
| Salary Range | Competitive / Commensurate with high-end feature film supervisor experience (Disclosed upon application) |
| Core Software Stack | Houdini, Clarisse, Katana, and Nuke |
| Core Render Engines | RenderMan (19+), Clarisse, Arnold, V-Ray, or modern equivalents |
| Experience Requirement | Minimum 6+ years of high-end feature film VFX experience |
| Leadership Experience | Proven history of team supervision and artistic mentorship |
About DNEG Jobs
DNEG is an Academy Award-winning global leader in visual effects and animation. With a legacy built on creative excellence and cutting-edge technology, we employ more than 9,000 brilliant creators worldwide. Our footprint spans major creative hubs across the globe, including North America (Los Angeles, Montréal, Toronto, Vancouver), Europe (London), Asia (Bangalore, Mohali, Chennai, Mumbai), and our state-of-the-art studio in Australia (Sydney).
At DNEG, we fundamentally believe that embracing our differences is a vital component of our collective success. We are deeply committed to creating an equitable, diverse, and inclusive work environment for our global teams—a place where everyone feels they matter, are respected, and genuinely belong. We celebrate unique backgrounds and perspectives, knowing they fuel the innovation required to reframe the boundaries of entertainment.
Position Summary & Core Objectives
The Lighting Artist for Supervisor role at DNEG is a balancing act between creative artistry, technical architecture, and team leadership. You are not just responsible for the visual fidelity of the final pixels; you are the architect of the pipeline that gets those pixels to the screen. You will design the technical approach to complex sequences, troubleshoot breaking pipeline issues, and manage render efficiencies across massive computational environments.
Collaboration is the absolute center of our success. You will lead, inspire, and mentor a talented team of lighting and generalist artists. You will ensure that communication flows seamlessly throughout your department, providing clear technical instruction, constructive creative feedback, and empathetic support. Furthermore, you will act as the principal point of contact for the production management team, mapping out schedules, assigning tasks based on individual artist strengths, and ensuring milestones are met without compromising quality.
Detailed Responsibilities as Lighting Artist
1. Creative & Technical Leadership
- Visual Direction Alignment: Translate the director’s concept art, plates, and reference materials into production-ready lighting setups that establish tone, mood, and seamless integration.
- Methodology Standardization: Establish unified, standardized lighting templates and workflows for the show, ensuring all artists produce consistent, easily transferable work.
- Sequence Design: Architect the creative and technical approach for entire sequences, setting the high-quality visual benchmark for the rest of the team to follow.
2. Team Management, Communication & Mentorship
- Artist Mentorship: Lead, guide, and upskill artists within the Shot Finishing team, holding regular reviews and providing actionable, constructive feedback.
- Cross-Departmental Collaboration: Partner with Environment, Asset, Look Development, and Compositing Supervisors to maximize render efficiencies, streamline scene assembly, and guarantee smooth data handoffs.
- Production Partnership: Act as the technical and artistic point of contact for the VFX production management team. Help evaluate complex bids, flag resource constraints, and assign shots to the appropriate artists.
3. Technical Optimization & Pipeline Development
- Scene Assembly & Management: Handle and assemble highly complex, data-heavy 3D environments and assets smoothly, ensuring scenes remain optimized and stable.
- Render Efficiency: Enforce strict render optimization practices within the team to lower compute footprints and decrease frame turnaround times.
- Pipeline Evolution: Collaborate directly with our Head of CG and Pipeline Engineers to develop, test, and implement new tools, scripts, and processes that improve the operational efficiency of the entire Lighting department.
Dneg Jobs : Required Skills & Experience
- VFX Industry Track Record: A minimum of six (6) or more years of professional experience creating high-end visual effects specifically for major feature films.
- Supervisory Experience: A proven history of leading, supervising, and managing teams of artists on complex, fast-paced productions.
- Physically Based Rendering (PBR): A profound, comprehensive understanding of physical-based shading models, lighting principles, and light transport behaviors.
- DCC & Compositing Software: Extensive production experience using industry-standard 3D software—ideally Houdini, Clarisse, or Katana—alongside a strong working knowledge of Nuke for compositing integrations.
- Modern Path Tracers: Deep technical proficiency utilizing modern path-tracing render engines, such as PRMan (v19+), Clarisse, Arnold, or V-Ray.
- Artistic Eye: Exceptional artistic sensibilities with an advanced understanding of color theory, image analysis, exposure, composition, and cinematic lighting design.
- Troubleshooting & Resolution: A robust, demonstratable skill set in diagnosing, troubleshooting, and correcting complex technical pipeline and rendering issues under tight deadlines.
- Communication: Elite interpersonal, listening, and verbal/written communication skills, enabling you to deliver clear instructions to artists and concise updates to executives.
Desired Pluses (Bonus Qualifications)
- Modern Toolsets: Practical production experience utilizing side-by-side workflows with Houdini Solaris, OpenUSD (Universal Scene Description), and Hydra delegates.
- Look Development: Proven professional experience executing look development tasks, crafting complex shader networks, or matching digital assets to real-world look-dev plates.
- Onset Data Capture: Experience gathering or supervising onset data collection, including shooting HDRIs, gray/chrome ball references, and photogrammetry.
- Cross-Site Collaboration: Prior experience working with distributed pipelines, collaborating remotely with satellite studios, teams, and supervisors across multiple global time zones.
About You
To thrive in this senior role at DNEG, you should be:
- Deeply passionate about the cinematic art form, digital lighting methodologies, and visual storytelling.
- Highly organized, proactive, and a self-starter who looks for solutions before problems manifest.
- An approachable, personable, and empathetic team leader who values psychological safety and open communication.
- Technically adept, curious, and possessed of a lifelong willingness to master new software, techniques, and evolving industry standards.
- Immensely calm under pressure, preserving a positive, “can-do” attitude when guiding teams through challenging production crunches and tight delivery deadlines.
Application & Accommodation Process
If you are ready to lead a world-class team on some of the largest projects in cinema, we welcome your application! Please submit your updated CV, a link to your current portfolio or supervisor breakdown reel, and any relevant technical case studies.
DNEG welcomes and encourages applications from all individuals, regardless of background, identity, experience level, or disability. If you require any specific physical adjustments, technical support, or bespoke accommodations during our recruitment or interview process, please let our talent acquisition team know so we can customize the experience for your needs. We look forward to meeting you!
