Contract · Remote · Up to 30 hours/week

Dirk Interactive is hiring an experienced Art Director for an unannounced PC game currently in development with Unreal Engine 5.

The project is an action-oriented hybrid-genre game with a strong emphasis on gameplay, atmosphere, and visual storytelling. Further details will be shared with qualified candidates under NDA.

We are looking for an artist with a strong point of view: someone capable of developing a visual language that is novel, striking, and unmistakably its own.

This role is about more than maintaining consistency or supervising production. The Art Director will work closely with the Game Director to identify what should make the project visually singular, then carry that vision across the complete presentation of the game—from moment-to-moment gameplay and world building to cinematics, key art, and public-facing imagery.

The strongest candidate will have a distinct artistic voice and the practical judgment to turn that voice into a coherent production language. We are particularly interested in Art Directors who are also accomplished concept artists and can communicate ideas directly through paintovers, style frames, key art, lighting studies, and work inside Unreal Engine.

Responsibilities

- Define a bold and recognizable visual identity for an unannounced PC game.
- Establish the visual principles that distinguish the project from generic genre conventions.
- Develop a coherent language across environments, characters, animation, VFX, lighting, materials, colour, cinematics, interface presentation, and promotional art.
- Create hands-on visual-development work, including paintovers, style frames, key art, reference boards, and lighting studies.
- Translate artistic direction into practical standards that production artists can execute without flattening the original vision.
- Evaluate the current game and identify the changes with the greatest artistic and presentational impact.




- Work directly in Unreal Engine 5 to shape composition, lighting, atmosphere, materials, scale, and final presentation.
- Direct the visual development of in-game spaces, gameplay moments, cinematics, and representative imagery.
- Review work from concept, environment, character, animation, VFX, and other contributors.
- Help determine the lean combination of internal and contract talent needed to realize the direction.
- Define clear creative briefs and acceptance criteria for commissioned and fixed-bid work.
- Guide visual quality through implementation, capture, colour grading, and final presentation.
- Protect the clarity and individuality of the visual direction as the project grows.
- Handle confidential project materials with care and follow NDA requirements.

Required qualifications

- Skilled experience as an Art Director, Associate Art Director, Lead Artist, or equivalent senior visual-development leader.
- A strong artistic vision and a clearly identifiable creative voice.
- Professional Unreal Engine 5 experience.
- Experience shaping visual direction through direct in-engine evaluation.
- A portfolio demonstrating authorship, taste, and high-quality production work.
- Evidence that your direction materially influenced the identity of a finished project.
- Expert understanding of composition, lighting, colour, form, materials, atmosphere, and visual storytelling.
- Ability to move between high-level artistic intent and concrete production decisions.
- Ability to critique work precisely while preserving and strengthening the artist’s contribution.
- Clear written and verbal communication.




- At least one shipped commercial title, published cinematic project, or equivalent professional production credit.
- Willingness to sign an NDA before receiving confidential project materials.

Strong advantages

- Exceptional concept-art, paintover, or visual-development skills.
- A portfolio showing original visual languages rather than adherence to established genre templates.
- Experience with action-oriented or hybrid-genre games.
- Experience directing realistic, stylized-realistic, or visually unconventional projects.
- Strong Unreal Engine lighting and look-development experience.
- Experience with Sequencer, Movie Render Queue, Niagara, or real-time cinematics.
- Experience creating a consistent identity across gameplay, cinematic, and promotional work.
- Experience establishing visual direction for a small or distributed team.
- Resourcefulness in combining original art, procedural workflows, licensed assets, and selective custom production.

Contract

- Remote contract role.
- Up to 30 hours per week with flexibility.
- The initial engagement will be front-loaded around visual exploration, art-direction development, and production planning, followed by continued guidance through implementation and review.
- Initial target engagement: September through mid-December 2026, with the potential for a longer relationship as the project develops.
- Expected rate band: CAD $45–$65/hour, based on experience and scope.
- International applicants are welcome if they can maintain reliable working overlap with Pacific Time.
- An NDA and contractor agreement will be required before access to confidential materials is provided.

Application

Please include

- Portfolio.
- Résumé or professional credits.
- Availability, location or time zone.

Applications without a portfolio will not be considered.

- Please share only work you are authorized to disclose. Password-protected portfolios are welcome.

📌 Art Director - Unreal Engine 5 (Canada)
🏢 Dirk
📍 Canada