Associate Art Director

ACTIVISION PUBLISHING, INC.; Santa Monica (CA); On-site; USD 127,000 - 235,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, vision, HSA/HRA, life

401(k) with company match

Paid holidays and vacation

Mental health & wellbeing programs

Relocation assistance

Job summary

Activision Publishing, Inc. is seeking an Associate Art Director in Santa Monica, CA to lead the visual direction for a mobile 3D project. You will oversee multiple visual disciplines, ensuring a cohesive, high-quality experience aligned with an established IP.

You will review content, provide clear feedback, and guide the project toward creative and quality goals. On-site role with four days per week in the Santa Monica office.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of professional game development experience in a senior/lead/art direction role.
• Strong artistic judgment to evaluate and direct across multiple disciplines.
• Solid understanding of 3D game art, visual development, and game production.
• Flexibility across a broad range of visual styles, especially stylized art.
• Experience collaborating with external developers or distributed teams.
• IP and brand stewardship with balance between franchise expectations and unique visual identity.
• Excellent communication, collaboration, and presentation skills.
• Mobile development experience with Unity and shipped titles preferred.

Responsibilities

• Maintain the project’s artistic vision, visual identity, and quality bar in collaboration with the Creative Director.
• Provide oversight and feedback across character, enemy, environment, animation, VFX, UI, concept, and other visual areas.
• Ensure content feels authentic to the IP's visual language, tone, and brand pillars.
• Review concepts, WIPs, milestones, and game content, giving actionable feedback.
• Create art direction notes, paintovers, references, benchmarks, and feedback packages for teams.
• Collaborate with Design, Production, Marketing, and other stakeholders to align visual direction with product goals.
• Produce concepts, paintovers, mockups, and visual materials to communicate direction.

Skills

Art direction

3D art

Stylized art

IP/brand stewardship

Communication

Collaboration

Unity

Tools

Unity

Job description

Job Title: Associate Art Director Requisition ID: R028122 Job Description: Job Title: Associate Art Director Reporting To: Creative Director Location: Santa Monica, CA

Your Mission As an Associate Art Director, you will partner closely with the creative team to help establish, communicate, and maintain the visual quality for a mobile 3d project. You will provide creative oversight across all visual disciplines—including character, enemy, environment, animation, VFX, UI, and concept—helping ensure the game delivers a cohesive, high-quality experience that feels authentic to an established IP. You will work closely with internal teams and development partners, reviewing content throughout production, providing clear and actionable feedback, and helping guide the project toward its creative and quality goals. This role is based in our Santa Monica, CA office and follows an onsite work schedule of four days per week. Work arrangements may change at the company's discretion to meet business needs.

Responsibilities

• Partner with the Creative Director to maintain the project’s artistic vision, visual identity, and overall quality bar.
• Provide creative oversight and feedback across character, enemy, environment, animation, VFX, UI, concept, and other visual disciplines.
• Serve as a steward of the IP, ensuring content feels authentic to its core visual language, tone, and brand pillars while supporting the project’s unique stylized identity.
• Review concepts, WIPs, milestone submissions, and game content, providing clear, actionable creative feedback.
• Assist in creating art direction notes, paintovers, reference, benchmarks, and feedback packages for internal teams and development partners.
• Collaborate with Design, Production, Marketing, and other stakeholders to ensure visual direction supports broader creative and product goals.
• Create or contribute to concepts, paintovers, mockups, presentation materials, and other visual content as needed to communicate direction or support the project.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of professional game development experience, including experience in a senior, lead, supervisory, or art direction role
• Strong artistic judgment with the ability to evaluate and provide meaningful direction across multiple visual disciplines.
• Strong understanding of 3D game art, visual development, and contemporary game production.
• Demonstrated flexibility across a broad range of visual styles, with particular strength in stylized art direction and the ability to adapt to varied aesthetic targets.
• Experience collaborating with external developers, outsourcing partners, or distributed teams.
• Strong understanding of IP and brand stewardship, with the ability to balance established franchise expectations with a project’s unique visual identity.
• Excellent communication, collaboration, and presentation skills.
• Mobile development, Unity, and shipped-title experience preferred.

Our World At Activision, we strive to create the most iconic brands in gaming and entertainment. We’re driven by our mission to deliver unrivaled gaming experiences for the world to enjoy, together.

We’re home to some of the most beloved entertainment franchises including Call of Duty®, Crash Bandicoot™, Tony Hawk’s™ Pro Skater™, and Guitar Hero®.

As a leading worldwide developer, publisher and distributor of interactive entertainment and products, our “press start” is simple: delight hundreds of millions of players around the world with innovative, fun, thrilling, and engaging entertainment experiences.

We’re not just looking back at our decades-long legacy; we’re forging ahead to keep advancing gameplay with some of the most popular titles and sophisticated technology in the world.

We have bold ambitions to create the most inclusive company as we know our success comes from the passionate, creative, and diverse teams within our organization.

We’re in the business of delivering fun and unforgettable entertainment for our player community to enjoy. And our future opportunities have never been greater — this could be your opportunity to level up.

Rewards

• Medical, dental, vision, health savings account or health reimbursement account, healthcare spending accounts, dependent care spending accounts, life and AD&D insurance, disability insurance
• 401(k) with Company match, tuition reimbursement, charitable donation matching
• Paid holidays and vacation, paid sick time, floating holidays, compassion and bereavement leaves, parental leave
• Mental health & wellbeing programs, fitness programs, free and discounted games, and a variety of other voluntary benefit programs like supplemental life & disability, legal service, ID protection, rental insurance, and others
• If the Company requires that you move geographic locations for the job, then you may also be eligible for relocation assistance.

In the U.S., the standard base pay range for this role is $126,800.00 - $234,580.00 Annual.

These values reflect the expected base pay range of new hires across all U.S. locations. Ultimately, your specific range and offer will be based on several factors, including relevant experience, performance, and work location.

Your Talent Professional can share this role’s range details for your local geography during the hiring process.

In addition to a competitive base pay, employees in this role may be eligible for incentive compensation. Incentive compensation is not guaranteed. While we strive to provide competitive offers to successful candidates, new hire compensation is negotiable.

Activision Blizzard, Inc. is the world’s largest interactive entertainment company, with operations across North America, Europe, and Asia. We are home to some of the most beloved entertainment franchises including Call of Duty®, Skylanders®, World of Warcraft®, Overwatch®, Diablo®, Candy Crush™, and Bubble Witch™. Our combined entertainment network delights hundreds of millions of monthly active users in 196 countries, making us the largest gaming network on the planet! We’re proud to be recognized as one of FORTUNE’s "100 Best Companies To Work For®” for five consecutive years and have earned a spot on FORTUNE’s “Most Admired Companies,” and “Future 50” lists. Our 10,000+ global employees are some of the best and brightest talents across entertainment, media, and technology.

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