Character Art External Development Manager (Gamedev)

TL;DR

Character Art External Development Manager (Gamedev): Managing the full lifecycle of character art assets produced by external vendors with an accent on quality assurance, art direction, and on-schedule delivery. Focus on authoring asset briefs, coordinating pipelines, evaluating assets against style guides, and mitigating production risks in AAA game development.

Hybrid working policy (USA), base pay varies by geographic location

$120,600 — $180,800 USD

Company

hirify.global, a studio under Sony Interactive Entertainment developing AAA titles.

What you will do

• Serve as primary liaison with external vendors, maintaining communication and managing asset pipelines through milestone cycles.
• Author and review detailed asset briefs for high-poly sculpts, low-poly/UV assets, and textures.
• Coordinate handoffs to internal teams, ensuring assets meet technical and visual standards before engine integration.
• Evaluate vendor work against quality bars and art direction, providing actionable feedback with annotations.
• Collaborate with project directors on budgets, facilitate meetings, and identify schedule risks with mitigation plans.
• Represent ExDev in cross-department meetings and maintain status reports for leadership.

Requirements

• 5+ years in character art production in AAA games, film, or equivalent
• Demonstrated experience managing external vendors, writing briefs, and conducting reviews
• Strong knowledge of character art pipeline: ZBrush sculpting, Maya low-poly/UV, Substance Painter texturing
• Proficiency with PBR workflows, Unreal Engine materials, ShotGrid (Flow), and Perforce
• Exceptional communication skills for remote teams and non-native English speakers across time zones
• Strong organization, autonomy, and ability to handle multiple vendors and priorities

Nice to have

• Shipped at least one AAA title with significant external development

Culture & Benefits

• Top-tier benefits: medical, dental, vision, matching 401(k), paid time off, wellness program
• Employee discounts on Sony products
• Potential bonus package
• Hybrid working policy