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UI/UX Lead Designer
2 years ago
Blackbird Interactive is a creative-fueled, future-driven, independent game studio where the best talent in the industry can find long-term careers to help grow their abilities while working on a wide range of projects, which encompass world-class IPs as well as our own creations across multiple genres.
In 2022, we announced that our studio is implementing a four-day work week as well as supporting in-studio, remote, and hybrid work arrangements as permanent options to our employees.
Blackbird Interactive is looking for an experienced UI/UX Lead Designer to join our growing studio. We are developing an exciting 3rd person action-strategy game and are looking for a key hire to lead the efforts of the UI/UX team including setting goals, iterating on designs and overseeing the final UI/UX for the game including post-launch.
As an ideal candidate, you will have experience as a lead or senior member of a UI team and are eager to collaborate with a team of talented designers, artists and programmers to create an engaging and accessible experience. You’ll enjoy leading the UI team in solving design challenges, meeting milestone goals and proactively pushing best UI/UX practices to all areas of the project.
Responsibilities
- Manage the UI team and ensure the quality of the team’s work meets the high standards expected by the studio.
- Work closely with directors and product owners across the project to understand their needs and create UI/UX solutions for a variety of different features.
- Establish and maintain best practices, quality standards, processes and procedures for the team.
- Create, iterate and guide team members in the design of UI mockups for different menus and in-game systems while maintaining a consistent art style and adhering to established guidelines.
- Proactively find ways to improve the game’s user experience, both in-game and in the front end.
- Inspire, motivate and mentor UI team members by identifying opportunities to challenge and grow their skills and abilities.
- Advocate for improving the accessibility, usability, and inclusiveness of all UI systems.
- Deliver creative solutions within constraints of the project’s scope and toolset.
- Provide team-facing documentation and presentations to inform and guide the work of other disciplines.
- Strong knowledge of mockup/prototyping software (ex: Figma, Miro, Adobe XD, etc.).
Requirements
- 6+ years of professional experience in UI/UX design.
- Experience leading team of designers with a passion for managing, mentoring and growing their skills and abilities
- Strong understanding of console UI/UX and usability principles.
- Experience on several full game production cycles in a senior or leadership role (PC, Console, or Mobile).
- Proven capability to work on multidisciplinary project teams, able to handle changing priorities throughout a product life cycle.
- A collaborative and proactive work ethic that requires little to no supervision.
- Excellent communication and presentation skills.
- Experience creating UX designs, screenflow, motion graphics, UI art, style guides, and supporting concepts.
Pluses
- CSS / Javascript experience
- Experience with user research methodologies and user playtest analysis.
- Experience designing player onboarding and tutorialization features.
- Experience playing a variety of strategy and action-adventure games.
- Experience with multiple areas of design (systems design, level design, UI/UX,.)
- Understanding of games as a service and the UX design of online portals.
- Traditional 2D sketching and composition skills
Vacation & Extras
+ 4-day, 32-hour work week for all full-time staff
+ Mentorship program
+ Skunkworks internal game jam program
+ 4 weeks paid vacation per year
+ 11 paid stat holidays
+ 3 paid days per year for professional development
+ December holiday studio closure (extra paid time off!)
+ Comprehensive health/dental benefits from day 1
+ Life insurance
+ $300 Healthcare Spending Account per annum
+ RRSP matching up to $1500
+ Profit-sharing bonus program
If applying for an artistic role, please provide a link to your portfolio and/or demo reel.
Any questions about the role and/or accessibility requests can be sent to: hr@blackbirdinteractive.com
Unfortunately, we cannot reply to everyone. Only successful applicants will be contacted about the next steps. Thank you for your understanding.
If you are interested in the role, please apply even if your experience and skills don’t perfectly match our ideal credentials. We are committed to inclusion and especially encourage members of historically marginalized communities to apply. As an equal opportunity employer we encourage applications from all qualified individuals. BBI does not discriminate against applicants based on gender, race, national and ethnic origin, religion, age, sexual orientation, marital and family status, and/or mental or physical disabilities.
Our work takes place on the stolen, unceded and traditional territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations.
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