As a Lead Character Artist, working closely with the Head of Art, you will be responsible for driving the quality, consistency, and believability of our characters. We are looking for someone with an exceptional eye for detail, a strong understanding of character development, and a passion for creating memorable characters that feel authentic within the world of our game.
You will lead and support the Character Art team, setting a clear quality bar while providing regular feedback, mentoring, and artistic direction. You will help create an environment where artists can produce their best work, develop their skills, and collaborate effectively across the wider team.
Collaboration will be central to the role. You will work closely with the Head of Art, Technical Art, Animation, Concept, Engineering, and other disciplines to ensure our characters achieve the highest possible visual quality while remaining performant and technically robust. You will contribute to the development of efficient character pipelines, tools, and workflows, identifying opportunities to improve both quality and productivity.
This is a role that balances hands-on character creation with leadership and direction. You should be comfortable moving between creating and reviewing content yourself, solving production challenges with the team, and providing direction to internal and external artists. You will understand when a challenge requires you to get directly involved and when your greatest impact will come from enabling and directing others.
You will also contribute to character production planning, estimation, prioritisation, and resource requirements, working with Production and Art leadership to ensure the team can deliver consistently against project goals.
Requirements
- Expert knowledge of the complete character art pipeline, from sculpting and modelling through texturing, materials, optimisation, and final in-engine implementation
- Proven experience as a Character Artist within AAA or high-quality game development, including experience in a Lead or equivalent leadership role
- Shipped at least one title with significant responsibility for Character Art
- An exceptional portfolio demonstrating recent, high-quality real-time character work, supported by a strong understanding of anatomy, proportion, form, silhouette, and composition
- Strong proficiency with industry-standard character creation tools such as Maya, 3ds Max, Blender, ZBrush, Substance 3D Painter, and Photoshop
- Proven leadership, mentoring, communication, and collaboration skills, with the ability to balance hands-on production with artistic direction, planning, and cross-discipline problem solving
Desirable
- Strong experience working with Unreal Engine 5 and MetaHuman technologies
- Experience developing or supporting modular, customisable, or digital human character pipelines
- Understanding of advanced character rendering, including skin, hair, eyes, materials, shaders, and character deformation requirements
Benefits
- 25 Days Holiday, plus 1 day for your birthday
- Studio Shutdown between Christmas and New Year
- Discretionary Bonus Scheme
- Private Pension Scheme
- Private Healthcare
- Health and Well-Being Benefits
- Dental Care
- Optical treatments
- Mental Health Support
Skills Required
- Expert knowledge of the complete character art pipeline, including sculpting, modeling, texturing, materials, optimization, and in-engine implementation
- Proven Character Artist experience in AAA or high-quality game development
- Experience in a Lead or equivalent leadership role
- At least one shipped title with significant Character Art responsibility
- Exceptional portfolio demonstrating recent, high-quality real-time character work
- Strong understanding of anatomy, proportion, form, silhouette, and composition
- Strong proficiency with Maya, 3ds Max, Blender, ZBrush, Substance 3D Painter, and Photoshop
- Strong leadership, mentoring, communication, and collaboration skills
- Ability to balance hands-on production with artistic direction, planning, and cross-discipline problem solving
- Strong experience with Unreal Engine 5 and MetaHuman technologies
- Experience developing or supporting modular, customizable, or digital human character pipelines
- Understanding of advanced character rendering, including skin, hair, eyes, materials, shaders, and character deformation
What We Do
Lighthouse is a game development company, and our ambition is to create a studio that embodies what it means to be at the bleeding edge of video game development – a studio that enables developers to create the best work of their career, in an environment that feels truly collaborative. We are a home for ambitious developers who value collaboration and possess a determination to deliver quality. We want talent to flourish in our state-of-the-art studio and welcome experienced developers with a passion for mentoring. Our studio is a great environment for new talent to grow and develop their careers because they will be part of an outstanding studio with a long, bright future, where they can learn from the best. As a growing AAA development studio, we are actively searching for talent and by joining Lighthouse you will work with some of the leading lights in AAA game development, who will support you in creating the best work of your career in an environment which fosters openness and respect.
