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Art Outsource Manager

People make games great. And at Survios, we know we can’t grow from an acclaimed VR studio to the world’s premier game developer and publisher without them. That’s why our most valuable investments aren’t in the next-generation technology we use to make our games or the swanky new HQ we’re building in Marina Del Rey, but in creating a hybrid workplace that seeks out talent across the globe, nurtures its people, and encourages fun. A workplace where every team member knows they’re respected and cared for. If you want to join a passionate team of developers driving toward the future of immersive gaming, we’d love to hear from you! Survios is currently searching for a talented Art Outsource Manager to help visualize the future of immersive gaming.

The Art Outsource Manager will be responsible for managing and maintaining relationships with external art studios. You will work with the internal team discipline leads and producers to help manage the assets being developed by external vendors. Being able to assess development situations and form strategies for delivering quality, cost-effective assets through 3rd party vendors is critical. Excellent organizational and feedback skills are needed as you will be responsible for creating production packets and reviewing the technical and creative quality of assets as they progress through the pipeline. The role requires the ability to track the progress, to achieve the production objectives and to ensure that both the internal development team and the outsourcing partner are well aligned, working towards the same goal and remain committed and motivated.

Responsibilities:

• Define and execute creative strategies for outsourcing and co-development that improve quality, cost-effectiveness, and risk mitigation of our products.
• Act as the primary point of contact for communication and coordination with external art vendors.
• Work closely with the art directors and art leads to understand and communicate the expectations for visual quality of in-game art with external teams.
• Build a wide variety of partnerships to deliver concept art, characters, animation, environments, and more.
• Work closely with production, art leads, and designers to develop and maintain the outsourcing production schedule.
• Ensure that all security measures are in place when onboarding new outsource partners.
• Consistently prepare clear, concise, and detail oriented asset packets for the external team.
• Check technical validity of art assets coming in from outsource artists.
• Prescreen visual quality of art assets coming in from outsource artists.
• Organize and present all outsourced art assets for art reviews with the art director and art leads.
• Document and communicate art review feedback to the external team.
• Find new partners and create new ways to make outsourcing and co-development work more efficiently.
• Oversee the creation of all external art development workflows, pipelines and documentation.
• Establish tests for vetting new outsourcing vendors, plus review and rate incoming test assets.
• Manage the archiving of delivered assets within the studio storage system.
• Ensure that the partner teams have the support they require so that production runs smoothly.
• Ensure that trusting relationships are built with culturally and geographically distant partners so that they feel a part of the larger, cohesive team.
• Escalate potential partnership and/or project collaboration issues to the art leads and producers, presenting potential solutions as they apply.

Requirements:

• 3+ years of professional industry experience in Art, Project Management or other relevant fields, with at least one shipped game under your belt.
• Extensive experience with managing outsource partners, ideally involving a wide variety of art disciplines within the games industry.
• Knowledge of external development pipelines, processes, and workflows required.
• Exemplary communication(written and verbal), collaboration and interpersonal skills are a must.
• Strong proficiency with asset tracking software (Jira, Confluence, Shotgun etc.).
• Experience with developing schedules and setting milestones and associated deliverables.
• Excellent organizational skills and proven experience managing multiple 2D and 3D assets in various states of completion.
• Strong analytical and problem solving skills, especially when faced with complex issues are essential.
• Solid understanding of the game industry and art creation processes.
• A keen artistic eye.
• Ability to understand, match, and communicate varied target styles.
• Goal oriented and driven, with a strong leadership ability.
• Ability to quickly adapt to change and work effectively under pressure.

Pluses:

• Knowledge of Maya, 3D Studio Max, Photoshop, and other industry standard software used for developing art assets.
• Understanding of Unreal Engine 4.
• Advanced knowledge and mastery of Jira.
• Passion for developing and playing video games.
• Previous work in VR and/or a passion for VR.

About Us:

Survios is an award-winning game studio that takes a holistic approach to development, merging our hardware, software, and games expertise to create unbelievable immersive game experiences. As we expand our focus from VR-Only to create games across all PC and Console platforms, we’re dedicated to leveraging our passion, expertise, and creativity to develop and publish the next generation of groundbreaking and immersive video games.