Expert Lighting Artist

Who We Are

Founded in 2023, Small Axe Studios is 2K’s newest stand-alone studio, built to push the boundaries of game development and bring 2K’s next groundbreaking sports franchise to life. Headquartered in Burnaby, we are assembling a world-class team of visionaries, builders, and passionate gamers who thrive on creative collaboration, technical excellence, and bold ideas. At Small Axe Studios, we believe big things start with sharp focus—and we’re crafting an exceptional, player-first experience from the ground up. If you’re ready to tackle unique challenges, leave your mark on a brand-new IP, and help shape the future of interactive sports entertainment, we want you on our team!

What We Need

Can you craft emotion through light? Do you see lighting not just as realism but as a powerful narrative tool? We're looking for an Expert Lighting Artist who brings both strong artistic vision and technical proficiency to our growing team. Reporting to the Lead Lighting Artist, you will be drawn to the challenge of storytelling through color, light, and shadow, and love collaborating across disciplines to bring worlds to life.

What You’ll Do

• Collaborate on Visual Direction: Work closely with the Lead Lighting Artist and Art Director to realize and execute the established lighting direction and visual identity of the project.
• Design and implement real-time lighting using Unreal Engine, balancing high visual fidelity with performance constraints.
• Translate concept art, mood boards, and references into cinematic, atmospheric, and immersive in-game lighting.
• Partner with material, environment, and technical artists to ensure assets respond appealingly and believably to light.
• Build lighting setups that intentionally support gameplay, narrative beats, and player focus; not just physical accuracy.
• Maintain visual clarity and aesthetic consistency across diverse environments, promotional materials, and cinematics.
• Contribute to the evaluation and refinement of lighting pipelines, tools, and documentation to support efficient workflows.
• Collaborate with cinematic teams to light and polish standout key art, marketing assets, and in-game sequences.

 

What Will Make You A Great Fit

• You’ve shipped at least one AAA game or worked on a project with comparable scale and quality.
• Deep knowledge of real-time lighting in Unreal Engine 
• Strong grasp of color theory, light behavior, and emotional tone.
• Deep understanding of real-world lighting principles, including the difference between luminance and illuminance, and how they apply in Unreal.
• Proven knowledge of exposure settings (aperture, ISO, shutter speed) and their impact on physically accurate lighting workflows.
• Skilled in interpreting mood boards, photography, and cinematic references.
• Collaborative attitude - you're used to working closely with rendering engineers, artists, and tech teams.
• Clear communicator and thoughtful feedback-giver.
• A portfolio that showcases your range, quality, and storytelling through light.

The pay range for this position in British Columbia at the start of employment is expected to be between CAD $96,400 and CAD $142,660 per year. However, actual pay offered is based on market location and may vary further depending on individualized factors for job candidates, such as job-related knowledge, skills, experience, and other objective business considerations. If hired, the company reserves the right to modify base pay (as well as any other discretionary payment or compensation or benefit program) at any time, including for reasons related to individual performance, company or individual department/team performance, and market factors.

As an equal opportunity employer, we are committed to ensuring that qualified individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform their essential job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment. Please contact us if you need reasonable accommodation.

Please note that 2K Games and its studios never uses instant messaging apps or personal email accounts to contact prospective employees or conduct interviews and when emailing, only use 2K.com accounts.