Posted at: 14 October
Art Director
Company
Stone Kite
Stone Kite is a Santa Monica-based B2C entertainment studio specializing in world-building across games, film, TV, comics, and audio, founded by veterans from major industry players.
Remote Hiring Policy:
Stone Kite offers flexible remote work arrangements, with some positions, such as Technical Animator, being fully remote. The company does not specify geographic hiring restrictions, welcoming applicants from various regions.
Job Type
Full-time
Allowed Applicant Locations
Worldwide
Salary
$200,000 to $250,000 per year
Job Description
Art Director
Stone Kite is a world building studio that thoughtfully develops heroic universes across games, film, TV, comics, audio, and more. Built by veterans from game and entertainment studios such as Marvel, Disney, Pixar, Bungie, and Riot, our team leverages expertise and passion to build worlds that matter.
We’re looking for an experienced Art Director to join our Game Incubation team. This role will drive the creative vision and process, blending innovation and technical expertise to help bring our flagship world to life. Partnering closely with the Game Director, you’ll establish the artistic standards, best practices, and processes to bring visual projects to life. This high-impact role will have the opportunity to lead the creative execution of our first IP throughout the full production lifecycle.
This role is a remote based position.
What You’ll Do:
- Develop the ownable look and visual style for the game prototype, and lead the process in creating bibles and other materials to help align internal and external artists.
- Collaborate with directors in other disciplines to ensure a strong creative alignment between art, design, narrative, and technology.
- Establish an art quality bar, review process, and feedback culture that aligns the art team with the overall project goals and game direction.
- Partner with incubation teams working in other forms of media to help establish visual design, aesthetic, and art direction principles for a transmedia franchise.
- Work with tech art and engineers to ensure the art direction is in alignment with our performance and platform targets.
- Represent art as a discipline and player experience to leadership and project stakeholders
- Manage a departmental budget and staffing plan in alignment with overall project requirements.
- Develop relationships with co-dev and outsourcing resources.
- Ensure alignment between the art team’s capabilities and the overall project scheduling requirements and milestones.
- Help establish hiring processes including portfolio review guidelines, art tests and job descriptions for future art roles.
- Build an art team from the ground up, hiring key roles and overseeing the team’s growth while preserving positive culture.
- Model and evangelize a positive and inclusive culture where everyone can do their best work.
What You’ll Bring:
- 8+ years experience in games as a production or concept artist, with multiple shipped titles required
- Experience shipping at least one project in an Art Director role is required
- Excellent management skills, having developed and overseen an art team
- Experience with Unreal engine required
- Ability to establish workflows and standards, balancing technical precision with creative needs
- Effective communication and collaboration skills, with the initiative to drive solutions independently
- Strong collaboration skills and ability to work both autonomously and in a small creative group
- Excellent communication and feedback skills with a passion for quality and excellence
- Ability to adapt and problem solve in a fast-paced startup environment
What You’ll Get:
- Competitive medical, vision, and dental benefits
- Generous PTO
- Winter holiday break
- 401k Options
- Monthly meals stipend
- Opportunities for learning and development across multiple areas of media and forms of storytelling
- Be a part of a fun, innovative team
- Experience the ground-floor start up culture
The expected salary range for this position is $200,000 - $250,000 annually. The compensation package will also include a range of generous medical, dental, vision and other perks & benefits. Compensation decisions are determined using a variety of job-related factors such as skill set, geographic location, market demands, experience, and education / certifications. If we extend an offer for employment, we will consider all individual qualifications.
Stone Kite provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.
This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation and training.