Senior Level Artist - UE5 | Indie | Lighting & Optimization Focus

We're Litio Games, a small remote studio building PARAXIMA - asymmetric co-op investigative horror for PC, in Unreal Engine 5. Recently evacuated public service locations. A reactive Entity. Dark, restrained atmosphere built to run on low to modest hardware. We're heading toward Early Access and we need a Senior Level Artist to own lighting and environment composition on the project.
One person, one discipline, real ownership. This is not an asset creation role.

About the work
The spine of this role is lighting and optimization on a baked, deferred, non-Nanite, non-Lumen pipeline in UE5.5.1. You compose and dress levels from existing assets so they read well and hold their mood. You set the lightmap, draw-call, and environment-VRAM budgets - and you answer for them.
You'll work from Art Direction and Concept Art, in close coordination with Asset Creation (who make the assets), Tech Art (engine and material tech), and Level Design (gameplay).
While modeling, sculpting, texture baking, kit authoring, and master material work are not the primary focus of this role, the core responsibility is lighting, optimization, and environment composition.

What you own

• Lighting every level on a baked pipeline, for mood and gameplay readability
• The level-art optimization standards - lightmap, draw-call, and environment-VRAM budgets, in coordination with Tech Art
• Composition and assembly of levels from existing assets: placement, layout readability, player guidance

You should have

• Strong baked and precomputed lighting on dark, restrained palettes - Static and Stationary lights, lightmap budget and quality balance
• Expert Unreal 5.x on a non-Nanite, non-Lumen baked pipeline; comfortable with deferred rendering
• Proven optimization for low-end hardware - 4GB VRAM / 8GB RAM floor; strategic trade-offs, not just defaults
• Ability to set and enforce budgets - draw calls, lightmaps, environment VRAM
• Experience composing and dressing levels for mood, readability, and player guidance
• Fluent English (it's our team language)

Ideal portfolio: lighting-led work, shipped or near-shipped baked-lighting levels (not Lumen or ray-traced), horror or atmospheric environments with restrained dark lighting, optimization work targeting hardware at or near 4GB VRAM.

Who you are
You take ownership of your discipline - you don't need someone to define the problem before you start solving it. You're technically precise but artistically driven: you know why a scene feels wrong before you know what to fix. You work well in a small team where communication and trust replace hierarchy. Remote work comes naturally to you: you stay visible, flag blockers early, and keep your collaborators in the loop without being asked.

Who we are
Remote-first. Multinational (mostly Turkey + Poland). Monday–Friday with daily sync overlap and weekly team playtests. Small team, indie spirit - every member brings the best of themselves to the game. High ownership and proactive thinking matter as much as technical capability here.

Process note: If your portfolio or reel doesn't clearly show your workflow or lighting approach, we may ask for a short focused art test - a scoped brief, not a time sink.

Contract: Independent Contractor Agreement (B2B, USD)
Compensation: Discussed privately with shortlisted candidates

Apply with your CV and portfolio or work samples.