Outsource Producer

Crystal Dynamics, a part of the Square Enix family and the studio behind Marvel’s Avengers and the award-winning Tomb Raider franchise, is constantly on the hunt for top-tier gaming talent worldwide. We pride ourselves on attracting and developing the best talent available to concept, create, and contribute to the most exciting projects in gaming. Our 25-plus years of game development experience, as well as our combined AAA games industry pedigree, has established us as one of best studios to work for today.

Benefits for this full-time position include a competitive salary, 100% employer-paid medical, dental, and vision insurance options and plenty of days of paid time-off.

Position Summary

The Outsource Producer focuses on the visual development of the product, works closely with the team Art Manager, Creative Director, Art Director and external vendors to ensure that the quality and integrity of the product meets or exceeds product vision, and pushes the boundaries of competitive visual quality.

With exceptional visual and communication skills as well as a strong understanding of the art creation process from an aesthetic, pipeline, and technical standpoint, the Outsource Producer monitors the continuity of art assets with outside vendors.

Essential Duties & Responsibilities

• Collaborate with Art Director and leads to understand and communicate the visual goals of the project externally and maintain consistency of this vision with outside vendors and teams.
• Vet external parties for viability and quality and make recommendations on external vendor.
• Track and provide feedback on all assets throughout the stages of production, verify standards and communicate readiness.
• Responsible for shepherding and improving the art production pipeline between internal and external productions and enforcing the process throughout the project cycle. Work with tech art and engineering to continually improve pipeline.
• Work with team to adjust project goals and design revisions as necessary to adapt to changing situations to meet established schedules.
• Help settle project-related conflicts and disputes, and remain proactive in problem solving.
• Assist with staffing plans, project postmortems, continued development of external relationships.
• Supporting the Director of Production to keep studio executive staff, the publisher and/or marketing staff up to speed on product status through the preparation and presentation of appropriate project materials (e.g., milestone updates, demos, etc).

Skills and Abilities

• Experience with outsourcing, managing external vendors or teams, and directing others through written and verbal communication.
• Understands game production process and development cycle.
• Demonstrated ability to solve complex problems efficiently.
• Strong time management skills with a proven ability to focus on priorities,juggle multiple tasks and meet deadlines.
• Ability to work cooperatively with artists, programmers and designers.
• Ability to communicate effectively across all levels of an organization on a broad range of topics: technical, business and creative.

Essential Requirements

• 3+ years Project Management experience in outsourcing and video game development
• Shipped a minimum of 2 video game titles
• Proven AAA console development experience (Xbox One, PS4)
• Experience with external and/or distributed development

Crystal Dynamics is an EOE and M/F/D/V employer