Senior VFX Director

Cliffhanger Games is a newly formed Seattle Studio focusing on blockbuster action-adventure games and pioneering next-generation emergent storytelling beginning with Marvel’s Black Panther. Join us to pursue your passion to build unique groundbreaking, and inclusive games that empower players to create incredible stories of heroic adventure. Become a foundational part of an ambitious, respectful and diverse team as we are looking for a Senior Environment Director to join our team.

The Senior VFX Director will work with a team of artists, designers, and engineers in realizing an immersive, interactive, visually compelling, and believable combat and game world experience. The Senior VFX Director will inspire and mentor the vfx team and cross discipline contributors in the creation of visual effects that enhance the moment-to-moment gameplay, motivate exploration, and narrativize a deep character and world story. Reporting to the Principal Art Director, the Senior VFX Director can balance maintaining performance metrics and vfx best practices towards gameplay and aesthetic excellence.

You are compelled to find unique and visually stunning vfx solutions that partner with camera and animation to evoke an emotional response during the combat experience. You see environmental visual effects as an opportunity to further immerse players into the worlds we build. You are someone who loves building and growing a team of accomplished world vfx and cross discipline developers. The Senior VFX Director will combine gameplay and vfx skills, technical knowledge, cross discipline collaboration, and vfx team leadership to breathe life into the characters and worlds our players will experience.

Responsibilities

• Create character, combat, and environmental vfx using the latest industry standard tools including Unreal Engine, Houdini, Maya, and Nuke.
• Work with team leadership to establish and uphold the vision and quality standards for our vfx content. This involves ensuring that vfx assets and the player experience remain consistent with the broader project creative goals.
• Effectively foster a team and development environment that balances gameplay, aesthetics, and technical requirements.
• Collaborate with cross discipline stakeholders ensuring vfx content works in tandem with camera, character, and animation presentation.
• Collaborate with technical stakeholders in the development of vfx tools and pipelines ensuring efficient and high-quality output.
• Partner with development directors and team leadership in scope capacity planning, milestone planning, and resource allocation.
• Lead, mentor, and nurture the career development of the studio’s vfx team towards a healthy collaborative team environment.
• Work with the Technical Art and Engineering Teams in the identification and maintenance of engine technology requirements and performance metrics needed to meet product goals.

Qualifications

• Minimum 10 years' experience in the games industry. 4+ years as a VFX director or equivalent.