About the Role

Reporting to the Senior Creative Director, this high-level organisational leadership role is responsible for long-term career progression, discipline health, and operational structures supporting creative staff. It leads a department of managers, lead creatives, and individual contributors across multiple art and design disciplines. The role is focused entirely on people leadership and organisational development, including building high-performing creative cultures, scaling career frameworks, navigating industry tool transformations, and mentoring future creative leaders, while day-to-day game deliverable approvals and creative direction remain with the Art and Design Directors. The team works hybrid/onsite in Vancouver, British Columbia, three days per week from Tuesday to Thursday.

Key Responsibilities

- Lead a department of managers, lead creatives, and individual contributors across multiple art and design disciplines.
- Provide direct line management, coaching, and career development for Artists and Designers across multiple disciplines, and mentor, develop, and prepare future creative leads and art/design managers.
- Define, refine, and champion clear career pathways, competency grids, and promotion criteria studio-wide, ensuring transparency and equity across all creative levels.
- Partner with executive leadership on studio-wide headcount planning, creative team structuring, succession planning, and recruiting strategies to build a world-class creative culture.
- Organise and lead mentorship programmes, cross-project knowledge-sharing, and skill-acquisition initiatives to continuously elevate the studio's overall creative capabilities.
- Partner with Technical Art and Technical Design leadership to help creative teams navigate major industry shifts, including the adoption of AI-assisted design workflows, focusing on change management, skills transition, and ethical, high-impact tool integration.
- Cultivate a high-trust, diverse, and inclusive studio culture, and establish proactive initiatives, processes,



and metrics to monitor department morale, resolve high-level personnel conflicts, and prevent creative burnout.

Required Experience & Qualifications

- 10+ years of professional experience within game development, VFX, or creative tech industries, with a deep understanding of art/design production pipelines.
- 5+ years of direct people leadership experience, including a proven track record of managing managers, lead artists/designers, or multi-disciplinary creative organisations of 10 to 20+ creatives.
- Expert-level experience with career pathing, goal setting, mediation, performance evaluation systems, and executive coaching.
- Demonstrated history of guiding creative teams through organisational shifts, tool chain transformations, and workflow evolutions (such as integrating AI-assisted tools) with empathy and clear communication.
- Strong experience in partner-hiring, with the ability to identify, recruit, and onboard senior creative talent based on long-term studio needs.
- Exceptional interpersonal skills with a proven ability to align priorities, advocate for creative staff, and collaborate closely with HR, Recruiting, and Studio Leadership.

Workplace

- Hybrid/onsite in Vancouver, British Columbia, 3 days per week: Tuesday to Thursday.

Salary

- British Columbia (depending on location, e.g. Vancouver vs. Victoria): $133,500 - $186,400 CAD.
- Pay offered will be determined based on relevant business and candidate factors, including education, qualifications, certifications, experience, skills, geographic location, or business needs.
- If you reside in a different location, a recruiter will advise on the applicable range and benefits.

Perks & Perks

- Vacation: 3 weeks per year to start.
- 10 days per year of sick time.
- Paid top-up to EI/QPIP benefits up to 100% of base salary when welcoming a new child (12 weeks for maternity, and 4 weeks for parental/adoption leave).
- Extended health/dental/vision coverage.
- Life insurance.
- Disability insurance.
- Retirement plan for regular full-time employees.
- Certain roles may also be eligible for bonus and other incentive programs.

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