careers - ninja theory limited

Current Vacancies (updated 2nd February 2012):

Lead Environment Artist

Now you too can become a Ninja, but without putting in years of martial arts training on mountain tops!

We are looking for a very talented individual to work alongside the Art Director team, other leads & senior management as Lead Environment Artist. It will be your duty to ensure the overall environment art vision of the game/project, as well as the production tasks needed to achieve this, are met. We will expect you to take the lead in advising your team of on-going scheduled tasks, to ensure the environment art demands are met on time and to schedule, but without sacrificing the high quality ethos of the studio. As Lead, you will have responsibility for managing the development of the Environment Art team and safeguarding the long-term career/development needs of the team, making sure these are met.

We will look to you to foster and maintain strong relationships and effective communication with the Art Director team, other art, design and programming leads, as well as with the Production team. In particular strong communication and day-today interaction with the Technical Art Director will be key. As Lead, we would expect you to establish yourself as the point of contact for all environment art related issues and actively take responsibility for performance and memory budgets allocated to art, working closely with the Lead Producer.

Your role as Lead will require you to create and maintain an atmosphere within the Environment Art team that encourages focus and efficiency, but at the same time actively inspires and motivates the team. You will need to draw on your extensive experience and knowledge to pinpoint potential risks within the Environment Art team's work and ensure that you thoroughly document such risks. As Lead it will be your role to ensure that communication channels within the Environment Art team itself are managed and monitored at all times, to keep the team running smoothly and effectively.

We will expect you to proactively manage the team's schedule and your own, working with the Art Direction team (who set the creative direction and workflow of project) to ensure tasks are set and prioritised to fit correctly within Studio milestones - ensuring work across the team is in line with, compliments and represents the overall vision of the Studio. As Lead, you will be responsible for maintaining an overall view of the project and be able to anticipate technical/workflow issues and subsequently provide solutions in relation to environment art objectives.

As a Lead, you need to be able to confidently build and maintain a strong and talented team through effective recruitment, development and personnel management - you need to be able to appreciate both the current and future requirements of the Company. We would like you to have overall control of the professional development of the Environment Art team and be able to work closely with HR to ensure all staff have regular appraisals, training and development opportunities. Actively keeping up-to-date with current techniques and tools used within your field to ensure that the ethos of continual learning is encouraged, is also paramount.

As Lead Environment Artist, we will expect you to work closely with the Art Director to establish the environment art aesthetic and technical qualities required on the project, as well as address any issues related to the creation of environment art, in order to deliver an efficient and stable pipeline of communication and work. You need to be confident in conducting all interactions with professionalism and in a timely manner, considering both the overall artistic vision of the studio and the actual feasibility of the requirements on the team.

It is important that you demonstrate and communicate the studio expectations for quality of work, productivity, communication and professionalism to the team. As Lead, it is you who will oversee the work of the environment artists on a daily basis, effectively communicating the art direction of the project, as well as delivering constructive feedback on work in progress. Your responsibilities extend to ensuring that work is undertaken by the correct team member, with consideration given to each environment artist's particular skills and their career development. You will be expected to juggle the efficient completion of tasks, at the same time as delivering a challenging and supportive working environment for each environment artist.

As well as your managerial responsibilities as a Lead, you must also be able to produce artwork to an exceptionally high finish, to agreed schedules and technical specifications.

To be successful in this role, it is essential that you can demonstrate:

Experience of managing a team of artists including (but not limited to) recruitment, training and development, employee relations issues and scheduling demands.

Extensive experience of working with Maya/Max, such that you are able to lead by example in terms of proficiency.

A proficient level of experience of working with Photoshop.

The ability to remain objective when evaluating projects.

Outstanding interpersonal and communication skills.

Excellent levels of literacy and numeracy.

Highly creative and enthusiastic and the ability to pass this on to the team and inspire them.

Excellent communication and presentation skills.

Strong emphasis on quality and originality.

Highly demanding of others and yourself.

Ability to take charge and motivate others.

Ability to help with scheduling and understand time constraints and dependencies.

It would also be great to see, (though not essential):

Extensive knowledge of major console systems.

Proven implementation of work, from conception to the final product.

To apply for this role please submit your CV, examples of your best work and a covering letter (with salary expectations & eligibility to work in the UK please) to jobs@ninjatheory.com by Wednesday, 7th March, 2012. Please quote reference NT/LEA/Feb12 in the subject bar. All applications will be reviewed after the closing date and we will be in touch shortly thereafter.

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