Video Game Jobs in Schenectady, NY (NOW HIRING)

At Blizzard, we craft genredefining games and legendary worlds for all to share. Through unparalleled creativity and storytelling, we create immersive universes and iconic characters that are beloved across platforms, borders, backgrounds, and generations - only made possible by building a work environment that cultivates the artistry of game development and unleashes the aspirations of our people.

We are looking for aSeniorIILighting Artistto help craft a new, unannounced game for Blizzard. As a senior individual contributor, you will support and develop all aspects of lighting across characters, environments, and cinematics. You thrive in the technical and artistic balance of photometric lighting, cameras, lenses, and postprocessing, and enjoy diving deep into topics such as theexposuretriangle and inversesquare falloff. You are comfortable operating in a dynamic environment, navigating fluid deadlines and changing priorities with purpose.

Location Fixed

This role isanticipatedto be a hybrid work position, with some work onsite and some work from home. The potential home studio for this role is Irvine, CAor Albany, NY.

Responsibilities

Priorities can often change in a fastpaced environment like ours, so this role includes, but is not limited to, the following responsibilities:

• Partner with Directors and Leads to design and implement highquality character andenvironmentlighting in Unreal Engine.

• Collaborate closely across disciplines to ensure lighting solutions support both aesthetic goals and gameplay readability.

• Treat every frame as a composition, using atmospherics, color, light, postprocessing, and shadow to enhance mood and storytelling.

• Demonstrateexpertisein cinematic global lighting and atmospheric looks, including the creation of lighting Blueprints and light functions.

• Work with Technical Art and Engineering teams tomaintainperformance targets and diagnose lightingrelated artifacts and issues.

• Contribute to lighting workflows, documentation, and best practices that scale across the team.

Experience

• 12 years of professional experience working on AAA gamedevelopment teams in a lighting or closely related role.

• Confirmed experience shipping at least one major title in a relevant capacity.

• Proven experience delivering highquality lighting solutions in collaboration with art, design, and engineering partners.

Knowledge and Skills

• Indepth knowledge of AAA game engines with a strong understanding of multiple approaches to lighting and look development.

• Extensive Unreal Engine experience, including lighting channels, Lumen, Virtual Shadow Maps (VSM), hardware ray tracing (HWRT), andMegaLights.

• Expertlevel understanding of the interaction between physicallybased rendering and lighting.

• Superb grasp of color theory, composition, and visual storytelling.

• Strong ability to analyze, debug, andoptimizelighting for both visual quality and performance.

Key Attributes

• A teamoriented approach to your work, with a strong emphasis on collaboration and crossdisciplinary partnership.

• The ability to inspire and elevate others through craft excellence and an enthusiastic approach to game development.

• A selfmotivated, proactive problemsolver who can independently drive complex lighting tasks to completion.

• Strong communicationand documentation skills.

Extra Points

• Experience creating andmaintainingpostprocess materials.

• Strong illustration or photography background.

• Experience working through earlydevelopment and R&D phases of a project.

• Passion for playing a wide variety of video games.

Required Application Materials

Portfolioshowcasinglighting work, including detailed breakdowns thatdemonstrateartistic intent, technical execution, and problemsolving.

Your Platform

Best known for iconic video game universes including Warcraft, Overwatch, Diablo, and StarCraft, Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. (www.blizzard.com), a division of Activision Blizzard, which wasacquiredby Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), is a premier developer and publisher of entertainment experiences. Blizzard Entertainment has created some of the industry's most critically acclaimed and genre-defining games over the last 30 years, witha track recordthat includes multiple Game of the Year awards. Blizzard Entertainment engages tens of millions of players around the world with titles available on PC via Battle.net, Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, iOS, and Android.

Our World

Activision Blizzard, Inc., is one of the world's largest and most successful interactive entertainment companies and is at the intersection of media,technologyand entertainment. We are home to some of the most beloved entertainment franchises including Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, Overwatch, Diablo, Candy Crushand Bubble Witch. Our combined entertainment network delights hundreds of millions of monthly active users in 196 countries, making us the largest gaming network on the planet!

Our ability to build immersive and innovative worlds is only enhanced by diverse teams working in an inclusive environment.We aspire to have a culture where everyone can thrivein order toconnect and engage the world through epic entertainment. We provide a suite of benefits that promote physical,emotionaland financial well-being for 'Every World' -we'vegot our employees covered!

The videogame industry and therefore our business is fast-paced and will continue to evolve. As such, the duties and responsibilities of this role may be changed as directed by the Company at any time to promote and support our business and relationships with industry partners.

We love hearing from anyone who is enthusiastic about changing the games industry. Not sure you meet all qualifications? Let us decide! Research shows that women and members of other under-represented groups tend to not apply to jobs when they think they may not meet every qualification, when, in fact, they often do! We are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment and strongly encourage you to apply.

We are committed to working with and providing reasonableassistanceto individuals with physical and mental disabilities. If you are a disabled individual requiring an accommodation to apply for an open position, please email your request toaccommodationrequests@activisionblizzard.com. General employment questions cannot be accepted or processed here. Thank you for your interest.