Job Description

Schell Games is a highly talented group of artists, programmers, producers, and game designers led by game industry veteran Jesse Schell. We're the largest full-service education and entertainment game development company in the United States. Since 2002, we've worked with world-class clients and partners to create interactive experiences that engage and inspire players of all ages across all platforms. Presently, we are focused on virtual reality, augmented reality, location-based experiences, and social games.

Do you like to work on innovative projects in a motivating, friendly atmosphere? Would you agree that games can engage and inspire?

If you answered "YES!" to both questions, you might be a fit for our studio!


GAME DESIGN CRAFT MANAGER

At Schell Games, Designers source game design ideas from the team & partners, then organize those ideas into an elegant, coherent plan for features & content. Then they help to implement that plan onscreen, playtesting & adjusting the plan as needed along the way.

Schell Games is looking for a Game Design Craft Manager to mentor and develop talented designers in a world-class Design Department dedicated to achieving our studio’s vision of creating experiences we are proud of with people we like, so we can make the world a better place.

As a Game Design Craft Manager, you will be entrusted with growing designers’ careers within the company. We need a manager who leads by example, fosters teamwork and demonstrates excellent communication skills. You must thrive in an environment rich with multi-faceted challenges and stay abreast of multiple projects at a time. The ideal candidate will demonstrate excellent mentorship ability, strong design skills, and extensive experience working across disciplines with partners, engineers, artists, and producers.

We're looking for that unique individual who can perform deep, hands-on mentorship work with designers--while also working across teams to facilitate communication, unearth assumptions, improve designs, foster better practices around designs and prototyping, and ultimately, grow designers’ skills & careers.


AREAS OF RESPONSIBILITY:

Nurture Design Talents

Mentor and develop Entry and Intermediate Design Team Members in their career journey.
Set up career goals and plans, coach, follow-up, review and track progress.
Support Designers’ development program, training, knowledge transfer plans.
Manage Designers’ dedicated self improvement time based on projections of future needs.
Identifying, analyzing, reporting and resolving challenges of individual Designers.


Support Project Staffing

Support Vice President in project staffing by understanding direct reports' craft skill levels, career goals, and areas for growth.
Assist in evaluating and confirming project staffing requirements.
Pair great opportunities for individual designers with the ideal resource needs of individual projects.


Support Design Discipline Department

Support deployment of methodologies inside the Design Discipline as well as across departments.
Evangelize design "best practices" across all the company's project teams.
Support, facilitate and communicate initiatives of the VP of Design.


DESIRED SKILLS & EXPERIENCE:

Minimum of 5 years in a people manager role.
Experience in game development as a designer.
Experience in managing a Team of creative individuals.
Highly organized and detail focused with great time management skills.
Able to gather, evaluate, create, manage, and maintain employee objectives, performance reviews, and team feedback.
Able to learn quickly and adapt to change.
Familiarity with a few game channels: theme parks, mobile market, schools, pc & console, tabletop games
Software skills & authoring in Google Suite, Slack, Bamboo and Small Improvements.
Must be located in the Pittsburgh area for the role: local hybrid schedule option available.


DEI COMMITMENT:

Our studio is committed to providing an equitable and inclusive work environment that ensures that all applicants and team members are treated with dignity and respect. We will not tolerate any type of discrimination or harassment directed at any applicant or employee because of their sex, gender, gender identity, race, religion, age, disability, national origin, ancestry, sexual orientation, veteran, family or parental status or any other protected group characteristic. This equal opportunity and nondiscrimination policy applies to all aspects of employment including recruitment, hiring, promotions, discipline, terminations, wage and salary administration, benefits, and training.

Prohibiting discrimination and harassment is only one part of the equation. “Diversity makes us strong” is more than just something we say. We value diversity in all forms because it is essential to our success, and we want every member of our team to feel their best creative self. Our development environment and social culture are based on welcoming, respecting, and celebrating differences among our team members and our players. We rely on each person to add their own unique skills and perspective to our culture. Every member of our team is responsible for making the studio as inclusive and equitable as possible.