Director Of Art
Warner Bros. Discovery
Kirkland, WAThis was removed by the employer on 10/14/2021 3:34:00 PM PST
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Full Time Job
Location: Kirkland, Washington, United States of America
Company Overview
WarnerMedia is a powerful portfolio of iconic entertainment, news, and sports brands. We bring people, technology, and the world's best storytellers together to drive culture and meaningful connection. We believe the enduring power of stories can open our eyes to the world, to each other, and to new and different perspectives.
For the past 20 years Monolith Productions has been obsessed with delivering a unique gaming experience for our fans. Starting with Blood, our very first title – all the way to our most recent offering, Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor, we are constantly pushing the envelope to combine innovative gameplay, inventive narratives, cutting edge tech & AI, and stunning visuals. We are challenging ourselves even further to ensure that our next project is going to be our best yet. That's where you come in – for us to achieve that, we need the best and brightest talent the industry has to offer. Help us create our next AAA title.
Join us. Shape your story here.
The Job
Monolith Productions, a division of WB Games Inc., seeks a Director of Art. This position leads the entire art department in the studio and is responsible for collaborating on product position and design, for overseeing development of art concepts and visualizations, and for approvals of final content. The Director of Art works in partnership with internal and external developers crafting the aesthetic vision for the product and executing on the production vision. The Director of Art also owns established company art creation process, managing this through team art leads and defined company experts. This includes oversight of estimates and technical implementation approaches. In addition, the Director of Art collaborates with leads and executives to identify hiring needs, insure ongoing artist training and career development, identifying workflow solutions, recommending strategic artist goals for the company, and developing tactical execution once goals have been established. The position identifies and communicates aesthetic goals and risks on an ongoing basis, to both internal and external stakeholders in the project, identifying production challenges, and developing strategic responses to market needs.
The Director of Art possesses a robust knowledge across all aspects of their discipline as well as broad operating knowledge of other disciplines within the development organization, sufficient to be able to participate in business planning with other members of senior studio management. The Director of Art also possesses exceptional leadership capabilities including communication, interpersonal skills, strategic visioning, tactical planning and execution oversight. The Director of Art is able to direct, motivate and persuade people at all levels within the organization through use of strong communication, collaboration and negotiation skills. The Director of Art is self-motivated and results oriented, able to balance large volumes of work across assigned staff. The Director of Art possesses a combination of strong critical thinking skills and sound judgment to independently handle issues within the scope of their position. The Director of Art has expert knowledge of the product development cycle (overall organization, processes and workflows) as well as a solid understanding of the broader WB Games and its role with within Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment (WBIE).
The Daily
Focus of Work:
• Provides overall leadership and direction for the art department within the studio organization and serves as a member of the studio's senior management team.
• Establishes and communicates standards and operational goals for the art department.
• Maintains an awareness of ''best practices'' and new and innovative techniques, sets the highest standards for productivity, initiative and teamwork and works to improve the performance of the functional area as a whole.
• Has a clear vision of how products should function/appear and the ability to lead others to achieve overall project targets within the functional area.
• This position has management responsibility for all levels of staff within the art department.
Developmental Relationships:
• Provides senior-level vision and leadership to motivate and empower staff within the art department.
• Responsible for the overall development of the art department by setting development priorities for the art department including training, individual development plans, staffing decisions, mentor relationships, and career planning.
Decision Making/Problem Solving:
• Top authority responsible for resolving issues or problems within the art department.
• Consults with Studio Head and other senior leaders on decisions that impact key project metrics or other departments. Possesses in-depth knowledge of factors impacting decisions.
• Identifies multiple solutions and determines the most effective course of action. Routinely solves complex problems that impact the broader organization.
Assignment of Work:
• Ownership for all activities of the art department within the studio.
• Identifies and develops strategic initiatives for art department. Develops goals and objectives and implementation plans accordingly.
• Directs and assigns work to a staff of managers/leads/individual contributors to ensure the art department achieves established objectives.
• Monitors deliverables and provides status updates to senior management.
• Actively works with the heads of other departments to impact quality, timelines and cost by improving coordination, integration and implementation activities.
• Ensures competitive positioning of the art department within the industry, identifying and implementing new processes, techniques and best practices.
• Interacts with peers, management and senior management in other departments and business units. Builds relationships with internal and external resources.
• Plans and manages resource needs for the group.
The Essentials
• Minimum of 12 years progressively complex game industry experience within discipline, including 7 or more years of leadership experience.
• Experience must demonstrate a broad range of knowledge within the functional discipline as well as exemplary management skills showcasing the ability to motivate and develop teams of significant size.
• Degree in a related discipline or equivalent functional experience.
• A portfolio demonstrating breadth of experience and range of skills.
• Possesses an advanced knowledge of principles within a specialty or subset of the art discipline, such as composition, color theory, locomotion, layout, architecture, anatomy, perspective, proportion, form, lighting, texture, game design, etc. Uses this advanced knowledge to establish artistic vision and pipeline/workflow of the product.
• Possesses an advanced level of understanding and expertise with regard to all aspects of game content creation. Leverages advanced expertise to set direction, best practices and guidelines, as well as solve issues.
• Possesses a broad range of flexibility in both style and technique. Highly skilled at selecting reference materials, concept models, etc. Able to establish overall content goals and direct creation of high quality art assets based on those goals. Establishes and optimizes workflow for the broader group. Able to direct creation of fully-
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