Blackbird Interactive is seeking an exceptionally talented, visually precise, and technically accomplished Lighting Artist to join our development team for a targeted 7-month contract. This specialized role is dedicated to the ongoing production of an unannounced, high-profile AAA Sci-Fi action title.
Operating under the direct guidance of the Art Director and Lead Environment Artist, you will serve as a critical creative force transforming game environments into breathtaking, cinematic spaces. Your primary mission is to craft real-time lighting setups that establish mood, enhance environmental storytelling, guide player navigation, and support core gameplay loops.
This position requires an elegant balance of high-level artistic composition and strict technical optimization. You will turn complex physical rendering systems into evocative, atmospheric world-building while keeping the game highly performant and production-friendly.
Job Overview : Lighting Artist
The foundational administrative, geographic, financial, and structural parameters of this temporary position are organized below for clear reference.
| Parameter | Specifications & Details |
| Company Name | Blackbird Interactive (BBI) |
| Position Title | Lighting Artist |
| Project Assignment | Unannounced AAA Sci-Fi Action Title |
| Job Type / Tenure | Temporary Full-Time (7-Month Contract) |
| Work Model | Remote-First (With highly flexible daily work arrangements) |
| Geographic Restriction | Canada Only (Candidates must currently reside in and be legally eligible to work in Canada) |
| Primary Studio Hub | Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada |
| Annual Salary Range | $75,000 – $90,000 CAD per year (Pro-rated over the 7-month contract duration) |
| Key Software Stack | AAA Real-Time Engines (Unreal, Unity, or specialized proprietary tools) |
| Core Workflow Focus | Real-Time Lighting, PBR Workflows, Post-Processing, Performance Profiling |
About Blackbird Interactive ::
Blackbird Interactive (BBI) is a creative-fueled, future-driven independent game studio founded by industry veterans. We pride ourselves on creating an environment where the best talent in interactive entertainment can build long-term, rewarding careers. Our studio is dedicated to growing our team members’ unique abilities while working on a diverse slate of projects, encompassing world-class licensed IPs as well as our own original creations across multiple genres. We are celebrated for our deep roots in immersive, grounded sci-fi worldbuilding and tactical depth.
BBI operates as a modern, remote-first workplace. We understand that creative excellence thrives when employees have the flexibility to design their ideal work-life balance. Because of this, our infrastructure is built from the ground up to support seamless, highly collaborative remote workflows. However, please note that due to legal, tax, and payroll compliance frameworks, we can only consider applicants who currently reside in Canada and possess valid, upfront legal authorization to work in Canada.
Core Responsibilities: What You’ll Do
As a contract Lighting Artist, you will hit the ground running within an active production pipeline. Your day-to-day responsibilities span artistic direction alignment, cross-disciplinary technical implementation, and asset optimization.
1. Artistic Alignment & Visual Execution
- Establish Mood & Continuity: Work under the close direction of Art Leadership to implement and maintain visual consistency, ensuring all real-time lighting schemes adhere to the established sci-fi IP’s rigorous aesthetic guidelines.
- Cinematic Implementation: Use built-in and proprietary engine lighting tools to produce stunning, cinematic lighting schemes across a wide variety of indoor, outdoor, and alien environments.
- Cross-Craft Communication: Proactively communicate with the Art Directors, Lead Environment Artists, and Level Designers to align lighting placement with level navigation, readability requirements, and artistic direction.
2. Technical Implementation & Troubleshooting
- Post-Processing & Volumetrics: Configure and fine-tune post-processing volumes, exposure curves, color grading matrices, atmospheric fog, and real-time volumetric effects to achieve the target visual quality.
- Pipeline Troubleshooting: Actively identify, debug, and resolve real-time rendering errors, light leakage, shadow map artifacts, and visual clarity bugs while preserving the core artistic intent.
- Workflow Documentation: Create, update, and maintain internal technical documentation regarding lighting standards, optimization guidelines, and engine-specific best practices to assist the wider art department.
3. Optimization & Performance Governance
- Maintain Framerate Budgets: Optimize complex real-time lighting setups, dynamic/baked shadow parameters, and reflection probes to meet strict hardware performance and runtime target constraints.
- Balance Art & Gameplay: Elegantly balance pure aesthetic quality against technical performance budgets and gameplay design constraints, ensuring environments remain beautifully lit without compromising mechanical readability or frame rates.
Candidate Profile: Who You Are
Required Technical Qualifications
- Real-Time Engine Experience: Proven professional experience lighting complete environments and cinematic scenes within modern real-time game engines (such as Unreal Engine, Unity, or comparable proprietary AAA engines).
- Lighting Theory Foundations: A masterful understanding of lighting theory, color spaces (such as ACES), real-world exposure values, and physically based natural lighting behavior.
- Cinematography & Dramaturgy: A deep insight into the principles of cinematography, scene blocking, lens properties, and dramatic lighting principles used to evoke specific emotional responses and control viewer focus.
- PBR Workflow Literacy: A solid understanding of real-time rendering principles, light transport, and Physically Based Rendering (PBR) material-light interactions.
- Post-Processing Expertise: Practical experience configuring color grading pipelines, global illumination parameters, lookup tables (LUTs), and advanced atmospheric scattering systems.
- Collaborative Mindset: Exceptional communication and interpersonal skills, with a proven ability to collaborate effectively across multidisciplinary teams (art, design, tech) in a remote environment.
Desirable Attributes & Pluses
- Sci-Fi Appreciation: A profound personal passion for grounded, gritty, and deeply immersive science fiction aesthetics.
- Proprietary Engine Familiarity: Prior experience navigating, testing, and adapting to custom, proprietary studio engines and tools.
- Performance Profiling: Hands-on knowledge of hardware performance profiling, render doc analysis, and runtime frame-budget optimization related specifically to lighting, shadows, and vertex shading.
- Cinematic Pedigree: Prior experience working specifically in cinematic lighting roles within the games, animation, or VFX industry.
Compensation, Benefits, & Remote Work Context
Salary and Term Logistics ::
The baseline salary for this position is $75,000 to $90,000 CAD per year, which will be pro-rated to reflect the exact 7-month duration of the contract term. Final financial offers are calculated individually based on a comprehensive assessment of portfolio quality, real-time technical proficiency, and relevant AAA game development experience.
Remote Infrastructure Support ::
As a temporary remote employee at Blackbird Interactive, you will be fully integrated into our remote studio ecosystem. BBI provides the necessary digital communication pipelines, shared documentation bases, and collaborative software suites required to perform your tasks effectively from your Canadian home office. You will benefit from core studio core hours designed to maintain strong team cohesion while allowing for high personal flexibility.
Application & Selection Process
To apply for this 7-month contract position, please submit your detailed Curriculum Vitae (CV) in English along with a link to your digital portfolio or lighting breakdown reel. Your portfolio should clearly demonstrate your proficiency with real-time lighting setups, highlighting your eye for composition, color theory, and environment storytelling inside a game engine.
Blackbird Interactive reviews applications continuously. The position will close as soon as the ideal candidate is identified. Selected applicants moving forward into advanced technical discussions will be required to sign a standard non-disclosure agreement (NDA) before deep-diving into specific project aesthetics, engine particulars, or proprietary toolsets.
