Principal Environment Artist/ Lead

Job Title: Principal Environment Artist/ Lead
Location: Remote, UK OR Hybrid Lisbon, EU
Reporting to: Director of Art
Salary: £45k - £70k per annum/ €53,295 - € 82,748 per annum
Contract: Full time, 6 Month FTC (with possibility to move to permanent)
Company Overview
At Lockwood, our vision is to bring people together through Avakin Life, where players can play, share, and socialize in one of the world's largest and most populous metaverses. Avakin Life provides an immersive 3D life simulation experience for millions of users worldwide.
With a focus on innovation and collaboration, Lockwood offers a flexible and creative environment that empowers our teams to push the boundaries of what's possible. We provide competitive benefits, including an employee share scheme, making Lockwood an exciting destination for those passionate about shaping the future of digital experiences. This position is available as a fully remote role, though there may be occasional meetups for social interaction and strategic sessions.
Role Summary
As a Principal Environment Artist, you will be responsible for defining and delivering world-class, immersive environments for Avakin Life, while driving artistic quality, technical excellence, and innovation across the environment art discipline. You will lead by example through hands-on creation, mentoring, production planning, and the adoption of AI-assisted workflows. Working closely with Art Direction, Experience Design, Technical Art, and Production, you will help shape the visual identity of the game while improving team workflows, scalability, and efficiency.
Key Responsibilities
Environment Art & Visual Development
Translate creative briefs into compelling AI-generated visual concepts, enriching the original vision with innovative ideas while remaining aligned to the creative direction
Transform briefs, concepts, mood boards, concept art, and AI-generated visual explorations into polished, production-ready 3D environments that support gameplay, narrative, and player experience
Create visually stunning and immersive environments for Avakin Life, including interiors, exteriors, landmarks, and interactive spaces
Produce high-quality hard surface and organic 3D assets that meet both artistic and technical standards
Design and create high-quality textures and materials that achieve a cohesive visual style while remaining optimised for mobile platforms
Deliver lighting, simple environment animation, and VFX that enhance mood, atmosphere, and player immersion
Optimise environments and assets to achieve excellent performance across supported mobile devices without compromising visual quality
Maintain and improve the quality of existing environments through bug fixing, optimisation, and continuous polish
AI Innovation & Workflow Development
Champion the integration of AI-assisted workflows across the environment art pipeline, leveraging both proprietary internal tools and external AI technologies
Utilise AI tools for ideation, concept generation, image enhancement, texture creation, material generation, lighting exploration, and 3D asset generation to improve production efficiency
Evaluate emerging AI technologies and identify opportunities to enhance quality, speed, and creative exploration
Contribute to the development and refinement of internal AI pipelines, implementation standards, and best practices
Promote responsible and effective AI adoption across the art team through documentation, knowledge sharing, and mentoring
Leadership & Collaboration
Act as a senior creative leader within the Environment Art team, setting quality benchmarks and driving artistic excellence
Under the guidance of the Art Director, lead environment ideation sessions, visual exploration, and workflow planning in collaboration with Experience Designers
Mentor Environment Artists and Prop Artists through regular feedback, technical guidance, workflow coaching, and AI knowledge sharing
Review environment and prop assets, providing constructive feedback to maintain consistent quality across the team
Present work to the Art Director, interpret feedback, and guide the team through implementation
Collaborate closely with Designers, Technical Artists, Engineers, Producers, and QA to ensure environments support gameplay, technical requirements, and production goals
Work effectively with external outsourcing partners by preparing clear briefs, reviewing deliverables, and ensuring outsourced work meets project quality standards
Production & Delivery
Support planning and oversight of environment and prop production, helping artists overcome blockers and ensuring timely delivery
Break down complex environment tasks into achievable work packages, providing accurate effort estimates and identifying dependencies
Prioritise environment work in alignment with production milestones and project objectives
Adapt priorities effectively as project scope evolves
Provide accurate reporting on progress, risks, blockers, and delivery status to Leads, Art Directors, and Production
Contribute actively to creative discussions, planning meetings, and production reviews
Quality & Testing
Deliver high-quality, bug-free assets ready for production
Identify, troubleshoot, and resolve technical and artistic issues throughout production
Apply strong quality control practices to minimise defects and improve asset stability
Requirements
Essential Skills & Experience
Expert knowledge of 3D environment creation, including both hard surface and organic modelling
Strong understanding of colour theory, composition, lighting, scale, and environmental storytelling
Excellent low-poly modelling and topology optimisation skills
Advanced UV mapping and texture creation experience
Strong understanding of mobile optimisation techniques
Experience creating lighting setups within Unity
Ability to create simple environment animations and visual effects
Experience using AI tools for image generation, concept exploration, texture creation, material generation, and 3D asset generation
Comfortable working with proprietary tools, scripts, shaders, and internal production pipelines
Ability to work effectively from briefs, mood boards, concept art, or AI-generated visual references
Excellent time management with the ability to consistently meet production deadlines
Leadership & Collaboration
Proven ability to lead environment ideation and visual development from concept through production
Experience mentoring artists and helping develop team capability
Strong communication and presentation skills, with confidence presenting work to Art Directors and senior stakeholders
Ability to provide constructive art reviews and maintain consistent quality standards
Experience collaborating across multidisciplinary teams including Design, Technical Art, Engineering, Production, and QA
Experience managing relationships with external outsourcing vendors
Strong problem-solving skills with the ability to balance artistic ambition against technical constraints
Passion for sharing knowledge, improving workflows, and driving continuous innovation across the team
Production & Planning
Experience planning and overseeing environment and prop production
Ability to estimate task complexity, effort, and production timelines accurately
Strong understanding of game development production pipelines and milestone planning
Comfortable reprioritising work as project requirements evolve
Ability to communicate progress, blockers, dependencies, and risks clearly to stakeholders
Quality Assurance
Strong understanding of asset validation, testing, and bug prevention
Ability to identify and resolve technical issues efficiently
Commitment to delivering polished, production-ready content that meets both artistic and technical quality standards
Desirable Experience
Experience shipping live service or mobile games
Experience working on stylised game environments
Experience developing or improving AI-assisted art pipelines
Knowledge of procedural content generation tools and workflows
Familiarity with performance profiling and optimisation techniques for Unity
Experience contributing to studio-wide art standards, documentation, and best practices
Please note our initial CV screening may be completed with support from AI
Benefits
At Lockwood, you'll be part of an inclusive, creative, and highly motivated team. You'll work on systems used by millions of players, shaping the live game experience and ensuring we can deliver new content and events rapidly and reliably. This is your opportunity to make a real impact—not just on our games, but on the future of how we operate.
Private Healthcare Plan
Pension Plan
Life Assurance
Work From Home
Training & Develo

Work arrangement
Yes