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Activision Blizzard, headquartered in Santa Monica, CA, is the premier worldwide publisher of interactive entertainment software. Activision Blizzard's portfolio includes such best-selling video game franchises as Activision Publishing's Call of Duty, Spider-Man, X-Men, James Bond, and Transformers, in addition to Blizzard Entertainment's StarCraft, Diablo, Warcraft and the #1 subscription based massively multi-player online role-playing game, World of Warcraft.

Art Director

We are looking for an Art Director to join our Corporate Studio and Central Art team.

The Art Director is responsible for driving excellence in art for all Activision projects, by working closely with our development teams to identify needs, then utilizing Central resources efficiently and appropriately to ensure our products are outstanding, timely, and cost-effective. The Art Director will also liaise with external vendors, create processes for tracking and driving art across all of Activision, and act as line manager for a small group of Central art directors and leads.

The Art Director must be an excellent and persuasive communicator, capable of dealing with a wide variety of internal and external partners. The ideal candidate will be comfortable with all degrees of ownership, from personally directing to providing high-level feedback. The Art Director must thrive in a challenging and ambiguous environment, and be adept at driving quality regardless of team, schedule, or budget.

Duties and Responsibilities:

o    Effectively champion excellence in art across the company

o    Identify potential art-related issues and collaborate with developers and Central resources to devise and implement solutions

o    Effectively and sensitively communicate art critiques to developers

o    Guide the Central Art team in their role as expert consultants to the development studios

o    Maintain relationships with development teams throughout projects to ensure art-related goals are progressing appropriately

o    Develop art milestones to integrate into existing greenlight process and review deliverables within this context

o    Assist in driving art-related R&D projects  to completion

o    Assist in advocating art-related R&D projects to internal and external stakeholders

o    When required, act as liaison between vendors and teams to ensure smooth and effective communication

o    Actively guide teams through issues with regard to vendors, licensors, and other outside agencies

o    Assist or provide feedback to other Activision teams with regard to art-related business issues

Required Qualifications and Skills:

o    Multiple shipped titles in art leadership positions

o    Strong, successfully-demonstrated expertise in game art pipelines

o    Clearly-demonstrated passion for pursuing excellence through innovation

o    Excellent understanding of game-specific technical art knowledge

o    Experience of multiple art packages/workflows/methodologies

o    Outstanding communication skills

o    Desire and capability to affect change on multiple projects without ownership

o    Ability to balance both ambition and risk mitigation

This job listing originated on Gamasutra.com, the game industry's leader.