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Associate Art Manager (Vancouver)

As an Associate Art Manager at Atomhawk you will be a key partner to the studios Art Manager, working closely with the art and production teams to ensure your projects receive hands on creative direction and support through all stages of the project lifecycle.

This is a key management role on the team that requires a strong artistic background and a skill-set that enables you to motivate and effectively guide your teams through well-defined creative processes, building a culture of trust and commitment to excellence along the way.

You will work directly with clients to understand their vision and needs, and work closely with the art team to realize everything that you set out to achieve together through a daily process of artistic direction, creative conversation, problem solving, and feedback (high level to low level technical artistic feedback). You'll also work closely with producers to devise plans, identify issues, discuss solutions, review artist/project performance, and ultimately ensure that projects as a whole are on track, both creatively and from a time/budget perspective.

This is a hands-on role in a fast paced, creative environment that provides the opportunity to work with a supportive and passionate team on a wide variety of different projects for industry leading clients that include WB Games, Xbox Game Studios, 2K, EA, and many more. If that sounds exciting to you, then we'd encourage you to apply now!

Functional Responsibilities:

• Lead art teams to establish and maintain the creative needs for each project, including process, written and visual feedback, and resources
• Attend client calls to confidently discuss projects needs/challenges from initial inquiry through to final delivery
• Able to find solutions for creative and delivery issues that align with project goals, discussing solutions from a friendly but authoritative standpoint
• Work with the Art Manager to establish best practices and mentor the art team when leading projects
• Work with the Art Manager to help manage artist progress and identify growth opportunities for them while leading projects
• Work with the production team to ensure project milestones are met, including involvement in project scheduling and resource allocation
• May be asked to work with production and artists who are leading projects to establish the creative needs for each project, including process and resources
• May work alongside the production team to ensure project milestones are met, including involvement in project scheduling and resource allocation
• Part of a team responsible for quality control and consistency of art and design produced by the studio
• Contributes to PR opportunities and events when required

Requirements

Required Skills

• This candidate must come from a hands-on creative background (preferably from an Assistant Art Director, Senior artist background) and have experience with leading the artwork creation process in the entertainment industry (games, film, TV, VFX, digital).
• Working knowledge of 2D/3D software packages (e.g. Photoshop, Blender etc) (Note: The role does not require hands-on art production, but the ability to edit and manage artwork files is a must, especially when giving feedback or during client calls)
• A creative at heart, the candidate must have a proven track record of being an effective people manager and people person who can motivate and inspire the team to understand and realize their potential
• A positive, optimistic mindset that seeks out solutions when faced with problems and challenges
• Excellent communication skills (both verbal and written), with the ability to actively engage with the team and our clients
• Able to identify areas of weakness/risk and proactively strengthen prior to problems occurring
• A discerning eye for high quality art and design, with excellent attention to detail
• A self-motivator who can work from their own initiative under the pressure of deadlines
• Must be patient and polite, but also able to judge moments where pushback is needed
• Enthusiastic about managing and developing digital artists

Education and Experience

• Key contributor on multiple successful projects within the entertainment industry (minimum 5 years’ experience)
• Solid understanding of game-specific art development process
• Experience working in a rapidly changing agency or studio environment to tight deadlines
• Comfortable with all degrees of ownership, from providing reference and brief-writing through to providing high-level creative feedback and direction on art and design

Benefits

Atomhawk Canada provides all the following benefits/perks to its employees to ensure they are happy, healthy, and set up for a long, successful career with us:

• Competitive salary
• Annual bonus scheme
• Flexible work schedule with both in-studio and optional from home working
• Extended health & wellness benefits
• 5% RRSP employer matching
• 21 days of paid vacation annually (+1 for every year with us up to a max. of 25)
• $500 health & fitness annual reimbursement
• Monthly and quarterly team activities (cinema trips, lunches/dinners, go karting, arcades etc)
• Free snacks and drinks in the studio