Technical Design Manager

Sony Bend Studio, renowned creator of Days Gone, Uncharted: Golden Abyss, and Syphon Filter, is seeking outstanding talent to join our passionate and creative family in crafting our next high-profile AAA console title.

We are seeking a Technical Game Design Manager who oversees a team that designs and develops AAA products with a specialized focus on creating gameplay-oriented tools, pipeline, content, prototypes, and workflow solutions utilizing a combination of creative and technical design skills. A Technical Design Manager must possess the ability to lead and collaborate with a wide-range of development team members outside of direct discipline such as Directors, Artists, Animators, and Programmers to define and direct the implement the desired tools, processes and game play efficiently and at a high level of quality. This role is a mixture of hands-on development and management responsibilities.

Responsibilities:

• Be a passionate leader and mentor within the design group to ensure all our gameplay and game systems hit PlayStation’s high-quality bar to provide a world class experience to our players.
• Responsibilities include prototyping gameplay, writing technical design documents, the final game play implementation according to defined quality standards, conceptual designs, development pipelines, technical parameters, and production goals.
• Provide guidance and communicate with the team to align with project needs.
• Achieve a high velocity with the Technical Design Department, resolve any blockers, and provide resources to the team as required.
• A Technical Design Manager must possess the ability to collaborate with a wide range of development leads outside of direct discipline such as Directors, Artists, Animators, and Programmers to define and implement the desired tools, processes, and game play efficiently and at a high level of quality.
• Help establish, create, maintain and guide gameplay-oriented systems, pipeline, content and workflow solutions, gameplay-related design features by using a combination of code and script based solutions, written technical documents, tutorials, visual designs, and verbal communication.
• Ensure the team adheres to coding standards set forth by the engineering department and oversee the code development process to ensure quality for the internal development team.
• Own, drive and delegate technical gameplay features and systems during pre-production, production, and final polish.
• Discover, define, and share information, as well as best practices across the team.
• Assist the Design Leads in identifying and creating techniques, structures and tools used to guide and encourage the evolution of game design within the studio, to improve quality and or efficiency.
• Organize regular updates and presentations to stakeholders, directors and team members.
• Review design implementations for quality, technical soundness, and adherence to script and code standards.
• Be a mentor to the Technical Design Team and uphold core studio values.
• Help define and manage the career path of the Technical Design Team.
• Work with production to establish, schedule and communicate short- and long-term goals for the Technical Design Team.
• Guide the Technical Design Team through the development process starting with ideation, prototyping, development, finalizing, and post launch game support.
• Work with the production team to manage tasks and resource distribution.
• Cultivate a culture of learning and support education and skill development of the team.

Requirements/Education:

• Experience in at least one AAA Game Engine.
• Experience successfully managing and mentoring others.
• Game Design process knowledge including (but not limited to) story and character design, level design, AI design, player control, user interface, pacing, etc.
• Understanding of the technical aspects of product development and its relationships to game design.
• Advanced knowledge of C style programming and scripting languages (e.g., C#, Python, C, C++) preferred.
• Basic understanding of computer design and architecture and experience optimizing script and code for performance and memory.
• Good error checking and debug skills to help identify problems and bugs and ensure the assigned design implementation tasks are always working.
• Possess working knowledge of Maya (or similar 3D package), engine tools and processes.
• The ability to communicate effectively with engineering and the design group on an individual basis, or within a group setting.
• Good time management skills with the ability to break down assignments and prioritize them into workable tasks on a daily, weekly, and project length basis.
• Able to manage long-term projects, creating and following a comprehensive schedule for the creation of gameplay mechanics, game systems, tools, etc.
• Experience working with custom game development tools and related commercial software.
• Familiar with Lean, Agile, and Scrum Methodologies as it pertains to game development.
• Experience with using version control systems such as Perforce, Git or Subversion.
• Knowledge of mathematics that pertain to game development (Vector, Geometry, Calculus and Newtonian Physics)
• 5+ years of experience in a game production environment.