Lead Lighting Artist in Oxford

We want you to #JOINTHEREBELLION! For 30 years we’ve been independently developing and publishing incredible video games at our multiple studios founded by Jason & Chris Kingsley. Rebellion is more than just games; we have our own film studio, create board games, publish books, and through 2000AD, publish comics and graphic novels such as the amazing Judge Dredd.

We are on the lookout for a Lead Lighting Artist to join our passionate and growing Art team. This is a centralised role supporting multiple projects simultaneously across the studio, helping to raise the bar for lighting quality and consistency across everything we do. You’ll oversee creating awe-inspiring sunsets, warm glows radiating from cosy fireplaces, lonely lamp posts flickering in the rain, and hypnotic god rays dappled through forests. You’ll be the one designing atmospheres for the various adventures our players go on. Using our own in-house engine, you will work across multiple projects at various stages of development, taking ownership of lighting quality, supporting rendering improvements, and helping artists develop their lighting skills.

This role is based at our riverside headquarters in Oxford, offering a creative and relaxed atmosphere where teamwork drives our success. We can provide a relocation package, including moving assistance, temporary accommodation, and full support to ensure a smooth transition to your new environment.

• Work closely with Art Directors and art teams across multiple projects to define and deliver a high-quality lighting vision using our in-house engine.
• Take ownership of lighting across multiple projects simultaneously, working alongside other disciplines to ensure visual consistency and narrative clarity at each stage of development.
• Contribute to the development of lighting pipelines, tools, and documentation to improve team efficiency and output quality.
• Proactively anticipate and address technical challenges, mentoring lighting artists and training environment artists on lighting best practices to raise quality across the studio.
• Apply expert-level knowledge of lighting workflows, physically-based rendering, and engine-specific technical considerations to establish and maintain consistent best practices across all studio projects.
• Craft compelling, atmospheric lighting that meets both art direction and design requirements, with a strong understanding of how light creates tone, mood, and player guidance.
• Collaborate cross-discipline with environment, VFX, and design teams to support broader game needs, providing hands-on lighting guidance to environment artists and maintaining a cohesive visual standard.
• Be proactive in communications, seeking and addressing feedback, and supporting the lighting team in managing tasks and priorities across concurrent projects.
• Optimise lighting to maximise performance without compromising quality, making informed trade-offs where necessary.

• Expert-level portfolio showcasing both artistic and technical lighting skills, including PBR shading and realistic lighting within a real-time game engine (Unreal, Unity, or similar).
• Expert understanding of lighting fundamentals – colour theory, exposure, contrast, and how they combine to create tone, mood, and atmosphere.
• Significant professional experience developing in-game lighting that enhances gameplay, supports player navigation, and reinforces narrative intent.
• Demonstrated ability to take ownership of lighting across multiple projects or a significant body of work simultaneously, with minimal oversight.
• Strong problem-solving skills and a proactive approach to identifying and resolving technical issues.
• Receptive to feedback and eager to improve, with demonstrated experience giving constructive feedback to peers.
• A collaborative, team-oriented attitude with excellent communication skills and a natural inclination to share knowledge and upskill others.
• Established time management and task prioritisation skills, with experience balancing competing deadlines across multiple concurrent projects.
• Passion for games and a continuous learning mindset.

• Experience in a lead or senior lighting role, including mentoring junior or mid-level artists, ideally within a centralised or service-team model supporting multiple projects.
• Familiarity with HDR authoring workflows and calibration for consistent output across display types.
• Experience working with in-house or proprietary engines.
• Understanding of cinematic lighting techniques and how they translate to real-time environments.
• Knowledge of post-processing pipelines including tone-mapping, bloom, and auto-exposure.

We offer an extensive benefits package to our team including:

• 22 days holidays + Christmas closure (typically 4 days) & Bank holidays (increasing with service at 5 years – one day each year until you reach 31 days)
• Private Medical Insurance, healthcare cash plan, including dental and Vision
• Life Assurance, Income Protection & Critical Illness Cover
• Enhanced Family Leave
• Interest Free, Tax-Free loans
• Enhanced Pension Scheme
• EAP a range of Mental Health and Wellbeing Support
• Plus loads more… including a wide range of discounts, freebies, and social events!

This role is only open to applicants who have the permanent right to work in the UK. We are unable to provide or take over visa sponsorship, either now or in the future. Applicants must therefore be able to demonstrate their ongoing eligibility to work in the UK without the need for employer sponsorship.

Our riverside headquarters in Oxford places you a short walk away from the city centre. Renowned for its rich historical backdrop and esteemed educational institutions, Oxford offers a unique blend of tradition and modernity, with its beautiful architecture and green spaces. Oxford also boasts excellent transport links, making it easy to navigate both the city and the wider country.

The city’s train station, just a short walk from our studio, offers frequent services to London, as well as direct routes to major cities like Birmingham, Manchester, and Reading and we also offer free parking at the studio. Our open-plan office promotes teamwork and innovation, with regular interaction with senior management and other departments, alongside access to free hot drinks, a handy tuck shop onsite and a range of local pubs, cafes and dining options nearby helping make every workday enjoyable!

Whichever team you join at Rebellion we are proud of our open, friendly, and creative atmosphere. We love what we do, and we have fun doing it! As a big indie developer, we have complete creative freedom over our titles which allows us to work on a massive variety of projects across all the major platforms.

Our size, stability, and the variety of in-house expertise across multiple industries, makes Rebellion completely unique! We work in our own way, and we celebrate that as the key to our success. We foster an inclusive culture where you are encouraged to be yourself, to express your creativity and your talent. We are people focused and will support you in every way to can be the best at what you do. We recognise the importance of enjoying what you do and having a healthy work-life balance. We offer a friendly, creative, and relaxed working atmosphere, with sensibly managed projects and a wide variety of benefits and development opportunities for all our teams to ensure you are fully supported with your physical and Mental Well-being.

We are actively recruiting for a diverse team and continue to add to our culture of growth and inclusion. Rebellion encourages innovation in all areas, and we look forward to hearing how you can help us to be better. We encourage all demographics of culture, gender, ethnicity, neurodiversity and beyond, because a representative team makes better products.

If you are interested in working at Rebellion, but this role doesn’t sound quite like you, we’re recruiting for a range of positions across the studio and we’re always happy to receive speculative applications via our website.