Art Manager in Madison, WI, USA

Filament seeks an experienced creative manager to lead our teams of passionate and talented creators towards successful game releases with our prestigious clientele in the games for impact space. This position works closely with the Studio Operations Director and senior artists, animators, and interaction designers to manage people and projects through pre-production, development, launch, and support. This position is ideal for someone who is thriving in their current position but wants to take a step up in responsibility and authority in a small studio or for someone who has worked at larger studios for a while and is passionate about participating in the games for impact space. You will have the opportunity to develop and grow our technical talent both by developing our current team, recruiting top talent, and growing our network of freelance specialists.

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Authority

• Manage the art department budget
• Hire and fire artists, animators, modellers, interaction designers, UX designers

Relationships

• Direct Reports: Artists, animators, modellers, interaction designers, UX designers.
• Reports To: Chief Creative Officer

Responsibilities
-Ensure the company is staffed with the creative talent required to meet business objectives

• Maintain job descriptions and postings for art and UX jobs
• Ensure that candidates are screened appropriately
• Network with local and remote industry to identify recruitment opportunities
• Maintain a written record of contractors including contact info, skills, rate history, and performance.
• Maintain relationships with contractors by keeping them informed of future opportunities and understanding their near term and long term capacity.
• Negotiate contracts with art and UX developers while balancing quality and cost both short and long-term.
  -Ensure that artists are supported and on growth trajectories
• Ensure 1:1 interviews with each team member are conducted routinely.
• Ensure frequent verbal feedback is given to artists and UX on their behavior and performance.
• Set and track written performance improvement plans as appropriate.
• Foster individual and group opportunities for team members to learn new skills.
• Facilitate opportunities for artists and UX to discuss their work and projects with peers.
  -Ensure that artists are set up to succeed
• Review project plans and make art and UX allocation recommendations to the Studio Operations Director.
• Keep track of team member’s professional strengths and weaknesses.
• Coach artists and UX to improve their professional skills, including collaboration and interpersonal skills
  -As time allows
• Create art and/or UX content for sales in pursuit of new projects
• Provide estimates for art or UX during sales estimations
• Coordinate efforts of pitch art generation across the art and UX team on limited timelines
• On projects requiring large/complicated art pipelines, lead the communication and application of art and UX on the project

Typical Education
-Bachelor’s degree or above in Art, Graphic Design, Interactive Design, Game Development or related field. For this application, assume that education credentials are relevant, but not as relevant as skills and experience.

Required Skills & Experience

• 5 years of professional experience in a creative role in a technology industry
• 1 year of supervisory experience at the individual/professional level or above
• At least one shipped title on which you held a designated leadership role ($100K+ budget)
• Strong understanding of the game development process and the roles played by all disciplines
• Strong digital and in-person communication skills
• Ability to prioritize and manage time effectively
• Ability to be direct when providing critical feedback

Personal Characteristics

• Practical
• Dependable
• Candid
• Patient
• Empathetic
• Self-directed
• Aligned with Filament’s mission and core values

Bonus Points

• Background in 3-D art
• Familiarity with Unity
• Familiarity with JIRA
• A track record of recruiting qualified candidates for creative job openings

About Filament Games
-Filament Games is a game production studio that creates digital learning games and interactives. Our mission is to create playful experiences that improve people’s lives. We believe that games are a powerful way to engage and inspire learners, and we approach game design by translating learning objectives directly into meaningful gameplay mechanics and playful curriculum materials.

Benefits
-Filament Games is an awesome place to work. Why?
Our team is a creative, interdisciplinary group of people who are making a difference. Through innovative educational games we’re working to modernize education and revolutionize learning!

We believe that the best work – and the best life – comes from a healthy balance between work and play, discipline, and fun. Our office culture reflects this. For example, we have flexible work hours, causal dress everyday, grill outs, sketch comedy classes, Show-n-Tells, and the occasional paintball battle.

Our office is located in the heart of downtown Madison, a lively city with a world-class university, burgeoning tech industry and beautiful state capitol. Downtown Madison is a vibrant, active urban center with fun weekly events like Concert on the Square and the Farmer’s Market, and offers access to a variety of eclectic restaurants, music venues, and the best of Madison’s nightlife.

Filament offers a competitive benefits package, including health/dental/vision care, short & long term disability, a Flexible Spending Account, 401k retirement plan, subsidized bus fare, discounted gym membership, profit sharing, and unlimited paid time off.

Applicants will be considered for positions on the basis of qualifications and ability to perform the job for which they are applying without regard to race, religion, creed, sex, age, residency, national origin, disability, sexual orientation, marital status, or physical appearance. Minorities are encouraged to apply.

Are you looking to pay or is this a collaboration?
Pay to hire someone

Is this ongoing work or a one off job?
Ongoing work

How would you prefer to pay?
Day rate

What’s your day rate budget range? (USD)
$250-350 (Industry average)

Do you have an estimate of the job or project length?
A few months

Are you a company or individual hiring?
Company

Do you have internal sign off on the hire?
Yes

Do you need to hire for a specific city, country or place?
Yes, they need to be at a location (give location in job title)

When do you want to have the freelancer secured by?
2-3 weeks

What is most important for this job?
Quality

Twine can guarantee 3 relevant freelancers for an upfront fee of $650/£500. Would you like to know more?
No

How many freelancers do you want to contact you?
4-5

Do you have a job specification or creative brief?
Yes (please enter this in the description)

Does the freelancer need insurance?
Yes

Where did you find Twine?
You contacted me