[Hiring] Art Lead @Second Unit Games

Role Description

Second Unit is looking for an experienced Art Lead for client game projects. This is a hands-on role. You'll lead artists, but you'll also make art. We're looking for someone who is comfortable setting visual direction, reviewing work, mentoring artists, solving production problems, and jumping in to create or finish assets when that's what the project needs.

If you're a senior artist who enjoys leading people but doesn't want to spend all day in meetings, reviews, and schedules, this may be a good fit.

What You'll Do

• Lead the artists assigned to the project while working with other discipline leads, the client's art leadership, and the rest of the development team.
• Establish and maintain the visual bar, review work, estimate and plan art tasks, assign work, identify risks early, and solve day-to-day problems.
• Create or finish assets, review character or environment work, help artists solve difficult problems, and work with engineering and technical art on performance or implementation issues.
• Mentor both senior and junior artists and help onboard new team members.
• Set the standard for the quality of the work and for how the team communicates, collaborates, and responds to feedback.

You'll Help Us Win the Work, Too

• Participate in client discovery and planning meetings to understand the game, its visual direction, the existing art pipeline, and what the client needs from us.
• Help evaluate scope, identify production risks, estimate the work, and determine what kind of team we need.
• Be an integral part of our initial client conversations, comfortable talking with a client's art directors, discipline leads, and studio leadership.

Qualifications

• Personally contributed art to the development and launch of at least one AA or AAA game.
• Experience supporting a released game and delivering live or post-launch content.
• Strong hands-on game art experience and the ability to create production-quality work.
• Experience leading and mentoring other artists, both junior and senior.
• Experience reviewing work, giving clear feedback, and maintaining a consistent quality bar across a team.
• A solid understanding of game-art pipelines and the technical requirements of getting assets into a game.
• The ability to estimate work, identify production risks, and communicate issues clearly.
• Experience working across disciplines with design, engineering, animation, technical art, and production.
• The judgment and communication skills to work directly with client art leadership, discipline leads, and studio leadership.

Requirements

• You do not need to have "Lead" in your title; if you're a senior artist who has been taking on leadership responsibilities, mentoring other artists, reviewing work, and taking responsibility for the quality of more than your own assets, we're interested in talking to you.
• Professional experience with tools such as Maya, Blender, ZBrush, Substance, Photoshop, Unreal Engine, Unity, or proprietary engines and art pipelines is useful.
• Understanding how game art gets made, integrated, reviewed, optimized, and shipped is essential.

What We Want to See From You

• Portfolio showcasing your work, including games you've shipped and your responsibilities.
• Details about any post-launch support you've provided, such as DLC, live content, characters, environments, or cosmetics.
• Information about teams or artists you've managed or mentored, how you've handled reviews and feedback, and your role in maintaining quality and consistency.
• Evidence that you understand the broader art-production process well enough to lead artists working in disciplines outside your own specialty.

What This Role Isn't

• This isn't an Art Director position where your primary job is defining a vision and reviewing other people's work.
• You won't be expected to personally be the best character artist, environment artist, animator, technical artist, and VFX artist on the team.
• Your job is to ensure the art on your project gets done well, leading the work while also doing the work.

Company Description

Second Unit works with established game studios that need to keep supporting successful games while their internal teams move on to what's next. Our U.S.-based teams work directly inside our clients' development pipelines and take responsibility for defined pieces of their roadmap, including DLC, live content, gameplay features, systems, and other player-facing work. Our teams are led by experienced developers who are still actively involved in making the game.

How We Work

• Second Unit is a remote-first U.S. studio.
• Our primary employment model is W-2 hourly; you'll be paid for every hour you work, including approved overtime when applicable.
• Eligible employees receive monthly healthcare and hardware stipends while assigned to client work.
• You will use your own development workstation, provided it meets Second Unit's hardware and security requirements.

The Person We're Looking For

• You still enjoy making game art and helping other artists improve.
• You can give and receive direct feedback without taking it personally.
• You raise problems early and know when something needs another pass or when it's good enough to ship.
• You are proactive in solving difficult art or production problems.