Concept Art Lead

Are you on a mission to create games that bond players within an invested community? Would you like to help create an action-packed world with comedic, whimsical characters? Do you geek out about how art impacts gameplay clarity, how character design can inspire fanart and cosplay, or how character posing and environments relate to cultures around the world? 

As Concept Lead on an Unannounced Project, you’ll lead an amazing concept art team from prototype through production on teamLFG’s new IP!

Your ability to lead and inspire a team will have broad impact. You’ll bring dynamic characters to life, propose visual solutions to world-building and style questions, and mentor your team with your proven experience and exceptional taste. Your investment will delight players and contribute to the best-in-class action experience that defines a new space for Sony games.

As a member of our incubation art team, you’ll balance craft expertise with a player-first mindset and willingness to contribute beyond your role to improve player experience wherever necessary. Most importantly, you will work with a fun, dedicated, cross-discipline team united around our mission to create a positive impact in people's lives as we bring a new world to life.

We look for candidates who value joining a cohesive, supportive team with a diverse set of backgrounds, experiences, interests, and viewpoints. 

Responsibilities:

• Lead and coordinate work for a multidisciplinary concept team accountable for character, environment, worldbuilding, and marketing art
• Mentor and inspire a talented team of concept artists through all phases of production 
• Create a safe culture for growth and feedback, guidance, and coaching to enhance efforts
• Collaborate with Art Director and Leads to help shape and communicate the vision of our game through close collaboration and alignment with our Design and Narrative partners
• Create strong processes and scalable art workflows that force multiply the team and define a high art quality bar
• Inspire and motivate the team with personal craft - creating high-quality concepts, paint overs and art for the game
• Embrace “we” culture in addition to being an outstanding collaborator and communicator
• Develop internal and ex-dev style guides and workflows, and manage teams through creation of game assets 

Required Skills

• Proven experience in AAA game development leadership role(s)
• Advanced foundation in digital & traditional arts, including, but not limited to, figure drawing, landscape painting, graphic design, and illustration
• Experience working as a Concept Lead from R&D through ship including early prototyping explorations
• Demonstrated skills and deep understanding of stylized art and style adaptability
• Experience working on a stylized game and / or a game with an isometric camera perspective
• Software knowledge: Expert at digital illustration software IE: photoshop, Clip Studio or equivalent
• Strong organizational, analytical skills, problem solving ability and attention to detail
• High level of strategy & critical thinking skills and good habits of validating assumptions working across discipline lines
• Strong portfolio showcasing previous concept art work in games

Nice to have Skills

• Passion for games & familiarity with the competitive gaming landscape
• Experience working with 3D software for block ins
• Understanding of 3D character workflow - ability to create concepts that support character modeling & rigging needs 
• Experience with development using Unreal Engine
• Experience leading multiple teams on a live game (“game as a service”)