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Senior Art Outsource Manager
1 year ago
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 Senior Art Outsource Manager to help visualize the future of immersive gaming.
The Senior 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.
- Own the communication and coordination with all external art vendors, delegating and overseeing additional support as needed.
- Work closely with the directors and leads to understand and communicate the expectations for visual quality of in-game art with external teams.
- Continue to build and maintain our full rolodex of studio partners, vetting new vendors as needed.
- Advise the production team, art leads and directors on the best courses of action regarding partner engagement, interaction and onboarding.
- Work closely with production, art leads, and designers to develop and maintain the outsourcing production schedule.
- Responsible for projecting cost and timeline of all current and upcoming outsourcing work and maintaining the outsourcing budget tracking.
- Own the entire onboarding process for new vendors including testing, communication channels, file and/or engine sharing, initial tasking, and any other administrative tasks required to prepare the vendor.
- Work with the discipline leads to establish tests for vetting new outsourcing vendors, plus review and rate incoming test assets.
- Work closely with the legal and financial teams to prepare SOW’s and ensure vendors are set up for payment.
- Responsible for ensuring that external teams are receiving clear, concise and detail- oriented briefs from Art Director and/or discipline leads.
- Ensure that assets coming in from outsource studios are technically validated by enforcing and maintaining the established review workflows for external work.
- Ensure all outsourced assets are being reviewed promptly and feedback is being given in a clear, timely manner.
- Meet with key stakeholders consistently to ensure vendor expectations are being met.
- Find new partners and create new ways to make outsourcing and co-development work more efficiently.
- Maintain all existing external art development workflows, pipelines and documentation, and create new documentation and workflows as needed.
- Ensure the partner teams have the support they require so that production runs smoothly.
- Complete post-mortems with vendors as relationships end.
- Report the status a nd progress of outsourcing vendors to production, leads and directors on a consistent basis.
- Ensure that trusting relationships are built with culturally and geographically distant partners so that they feel a part of the larger, cohesive team.
- Own the management of potential partnership and/or project collaboration issues with the art leads and producers, driving the tough conversations with vendors as needed.
- Assist in the development of the internal Outsource Department, providing insight and guidance as needed.
Requirements:
- 5+ 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.
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