Senior Art Manager

Job Description

Senior Manager, Art

Sony PlayStation's Visual Arts Services Group (VASG) on our San Diego campus provides world-class content, development and services to Worldwide Studios. Our team is always at the cutting edge of technology and partners with the industry's best minds and companies. This is your opportunity to work closely with game and film industry professionals from all over the world and under one roof!

We are looking for a Senior Art Manager who is highly proficient in all aspects of high-quality art supervision and management in the video game industry. You are an organized and diligent leader, strategic, and thoughtful in all interactions with the internal and external teams and partners.

A dedicated, focused, self-motivated, and collaborative, and have significant experience in business development, outsourcing, bidding, scheduling, and milestone accountability in a wide variety of art disciplines: visual development/concept art, high-end 3d characters, environments, lighting/shaders, visual effects and cinematics.

Responsibilities

Staffing
• You will help build and retain a talented and efficient team that produces and maintains the highest possible quality and standards.
• Partner with talent acquisition and Art Director to interview, evaluate, acquire, and retain top talent. You will mentor artists of multiple disciplines and define recruiting goals for HR to maintain a balanced team.

Production
• Support the creative vision of our clients and the internal Art Director while collaborating with external clients, internal artists, and outsourcing partners while staying on schedule and budget.
• Document, communicate requirements, and provide leadership and guidance to artists.
• Lead the Art Department's Project Manager and Art Director to create responsible and competitive bids and schedule.

Management/Strategy
• You will lead in conjunction with the Studio Art Director to develop an overall strategy for the Art Department; successfully execute initiatives that would improve and maintain the Art Department's efficiency, reduce talents' idle time through leadership in art business, service and talent development.
• Work with Studio Art Director to identify and develop future art pipelines.
• Constantly and proactively seek to improve the production processes, tools and pipelines for all art disciplines.
• Guide the Service Development Department to assist in cost optimization for outsourcing and R&D initiatives.
• Maintain a visible presence in the computer graphics and game industries, representing PlayStation Studios' interests with a high degree of professionalism.

Qualifications
• 10+ years' experience in game or film production and have led or supervised teams of 25+.
• At least 3 shipped AAA games as a Lead, Supervisor or Manager.
• Bachelor of art, degree in business, or equivalent industry experience.
• You have the experience, skills, and knowledge to manage a team of artists and technical artists from three or more core disciplines: High fidelity 3D character development, environments, lighting & shaders, visual effects, or in-game & pre-rendered cinematics. Knowledge of the terminology and processes associated with these departments is a must.
• You understand how the different areas of art function within a game studio art pipeline, and how to organize and supervise artists to accomplish their assignments.
• Excellent understanding of how engineering and technical art work within the organization, and how to collaborate.
• You possess strong technical knowledge and experience in 3D computer graphics production.
• You understand production and can schedule, communicate, and supervise tasks.

Required Skills/Tools
• Strong understanding of artistic principals, techniques and practices, and technical understanding of 3D in-game art development process, limitations and dependencies.
• Significant Scheduling, Budgeting, and Outsourcing experience.
• Excellent verbal, visual, and written communication skills. A balanced skillset between business development/strategy, technical knowledge, and people management.
• Must create polished presentations and proposals to effectively communicate art services to all parts of Sony's PlayStation Studios.
• Guide Studio Art Director and Service Development to identify new areas of business, and lead internal business plans for new art services and pipelines.
• Work with Service Development Department to create materials to justify spending on R&D projects to keep the art group competitive.
• Continuously improving Art's technical and human competencies so the team can manage and deliver high fidelity head and body pipeline, environments, game levels.
• Work with Service Development Department and Production to determine service pricing strategy.
• Large Scale Environment and Prop Productions, using internal and external teams globally.
• Engine Integrations, Lighting, Shader and Asset QC/Optimization
• Jira, Word, Excel, PowerPoint/Keynote, Perforce, Shotgun, Microsoft Project, etc.
• An advanced user of Maya and Photoshop

Jobcode: Reference SBJ-gqkkn9-18-118-30-253-42 in your application.