Lead Artist, World

Job Description

The creative team that brought Mortal Kombat and Injustice to life is now NetherRealm Studios, part of the Warner Bros. Games family. With over 20 years of creation under our belts, NetherRealm's mission remains the same: to create cutting edge entertainment and deliver industry leading tech, game art and overall gaming experiences. NetherRealm Studios is a collaborative and creative environment, constantly striving to up the ante on what is possible in interactive entertainment. Our team is comprised of dedicated professionals with years of experience who are at the forefront of the gaming industry. The passion and energy that made Mortal Kombat a reality is still on display every day in our offices, our hallways and most definitely the studio's arcade room.

NetherRealm Studios is on the lookout for a Lead Environment Artist to help create standout, next-level game worlds. You'll work with the Art Director, Art Leads, and Tech Leads to set the look and feel for our environments, pushing both the art and tech boundaries. As Lead, you'll guide a team of artists and collaborate with external partners to make sure everything we create hits our high standards. We're looking for someone who's all about finding ways to make the game even better, values feedback and loves working in a team to bring amazing, and sometimes brutal, ideas to life.
• Work with the Art Director, Art and Technical Leads to shape and maintain the overall vision for environments and environment-adjacent systems.
• Mentor, support, and give regular feedback to build and maintain a strong, cohesive team.
• Promote skill-sharing through training sessions, clear documentation, and both written and video tutorials.
• Estimate tasks, coordinate with production, and ensure that environment goals align with other departments.
• Collaborate closely with the team during prototyping to enable quick iterations on environment assets and game systems.
• Create benchmark quality assets from concept art and breakouts to demonstrate visual and technical quality as a reference for the environment team.
• Regularly review assets to maintain quality and ensure proper technical implementation.

The Essentials
• At least 4-5 years of video games development experience with significant involvement in 2 published AAA games, with at least one project at the Lead level or equivalent experience.
• Ability to quickly prototype and iterate in collaboration with other departments.
• Strong skills in environmental design, layout, composition, and storytelling.
• Great sense of scale and proportion.
• Expert knowledge of Adobe Substance tools like Painter and Designer.
• Knowledge of physically based rendering (PBR).
• Experience with Unreal Engine 4 or newer
• Self-motivated and proactive with a strong work ethic.
• A creative, empathetic, and collaborative approach to teamwork.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills.

The Nice to Haves
• Familiar with Mortal Kombat, Injustice, and other fighting game properties
• Experience with procedural content creation packages

Championing Inclusion at WBD
Warner Bros. Discovery embraces the opportunity to build a workforce that reflects the diversity of our society and the world around us. Being an equal opportunity employer means that we take seriously our responsibility to consider qualified candidates on the basis of merit, without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, mental or physical disability, and genetic information, marital status, citizenship status, military status, protected veteran status or any other category protected by law.

If you're a qualified candidate with a disability and you require adjustments or accommodations during the job application and/or recruitment process, please visit our accessibility page for instructions to submit your request.

Jobcode: Reference SBJ-g4bqxq-18-189-189-251-42 in your application.