Principal Sound Designer

Zeni Max Media, Inc.; Rockville (MD); On-site; USD 90,000 - 200,000; Full time

Job summary

Join a forward-thinking company as a Principal Sound Designer, where your creativity will shape the audio landscape of groundbreaking games. This role offers the chance to work with industry-standard tools and collaborate with a diverse team to create immersive soundscapes. You'll be responsible for designing audio systems, mentoring junior designers, and ensuring high-quality sound effects that enhance gameplay. With a commitment to innovation and inclusivity, this established industry player offers competitive salaries and a supportive work environment. If you have a passion for sound design and want to make a meaningful impact, we want to hear from you!

Benefits

Healthcare Benefits

401(k) Plan with Company Match

Paid Vacation Time

Paid Sick and Mental Health Time

Short-term and Long-term Disability Coverage

Basic Life Insurance

Paid Holidays

Wellbeing Benefits

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in sound effects for games.
• Expert knowledge in audio recording, editing, and mixing.
• Ability to mentor junior designers.

Responsibilities

• Design and maintain Wwise and Audio Data structure systems.
• Create sound effects tied to gameplay and world interactions.
• Mentor junior designers and provide feedback.

Skills

Audiokinetic Wwise

Sound Design

Audio Recording

Audio Editing

Audio Mixing

Mentoring

Problem Solving

Game Design Knowledge

Tools

Reaper

Cubase/Nuendo

ProTools

Job description

Overview

Build Worlds at Bethesda!

Come joinBethesda Game Studios, the award-winning development team behindStarfield,The Elder ScrollsandFallout. Bethesda Game Studios strives to offer its employees a well-balanced home and work life by providing competitive salaries, a generous benefits program, and offices located in some of North America’s best cities.

With a goal of creating a culture as fun and diverse as our games and our players, we welcome applicants with unique skillsets, experience levels and backgrounds. If you are passionate about making a meaningful contribution to some of the most significant games around, we’d love to hear from you!

We will consider candidates for any of our four Bethesda Game Studios office locations: Rockville, MD; Montreal, Quebec; Austin, TX; Dallas, TX.

Responsibilities

Your Daily Life at Bethesda Game Studios

AsPrincipal Sound Designer, you will…

• Design and maintain our Wwise and Audio Data structure systems, including interfacing with industry standard DAWs (Reaper, Cubase/Nuendo, ProTools, etc.) and implement created content into our games.
• Use proprietary toolsets to implement data changes for Sound implementation.
• Work closely with the Lead Sound Designer and leadership to ensure consistency, scope, and quality of content.
• Create sound effects that are contextually appropriate and closely tied to gameplay and world interactions
• Work closely with all departments (Art, Code, Design, Production) to ensure Audio systems meet established goals.
• Take on moderately challenging content and features and complete it with occasional supervision.
• Own features or small content packages as an Individual Contributor, including providing accurate scope and estimates, evaluating risks as well as the requirements needed.
• Take full responsibility for your own content, test it thoroughly and ensure testing by other disciplines is done accurately as well.
• Regularly play game content and provide constructive feedback to fellow designers to help improve the product.
• Mentor junior designers by providing regular and timely guidance and feedback.
• Maintain existing content and make required bug fixes

Qualifications

What Makes You S.P.E.C.I.A.L.

• You have 10+ years of professional experience creating and implementing sound effects for games
• You have advanced knowledge of Audiokinetic Wwise
• You possess expert knowledge of audio recording, editing, processing and mixing fundamentals
• You can provide mentorship to junior team members
• You consistently create high-quality sound effects across a variety of categories
• You can troubleshoot and fix audio bugs and issues
• You generally meet deadlines on or ahead of schedule and can negotiate due dates with leadership as soon as problems arise.
• You can identify less obvious problems from both player feedback and game-related metrics data and provide solutions that mitigate risks all while fitting within project constraints
• You can work independently and show initiative in reaching out to leadership when you need clarification or have comments.
• You can adapt your Audio designs to the feedback of product owners and communicate the changes and intentions to the team.
• You understand how your content fits into the wider vision of the game and can prioritize your work based on project needs and creative constraints.
• You can effectively pitch your ideas to the team.
• You can represent Audio within a cross-discipline feature team.
• You have previous experience shipping, doing updates on or working on AAA games
• You have good knowledge of game design, including hands-on experience with the full life cycle of game development from production to post-launch.
• You have experience with The Elder Scrolls Construction Set or GECK

You must provide a portfolio featuring examples of your work.

Salary Range

Principal Sound Designer - The typical base pay range for this position at the start of employment is expected to be between $90,000 - $200,000 per year.

ZeniMax has different base pay ranges for different work locations within the United States, which allows us to pay employees competitively and consistently in different geographic markets. The range above reflects the potential base pay across the U.S. for this role; the applicable base pay range will depend on what ultimately is determined to be the candidate’s primary work location. Individual base pay depends on various factors, in addition to primary work location, such as complexity and responsibility of role, job duties/requirements, and relevant experience and skills. Base pay ranges are reviewed and typically updated each year. Offers are made within the base pay range applicable at the time.

At ZeniMax certain roles are eligible for additional rewards, such as merit increases and discretionary bonuses. These awards are allocated based on individual performance and are not guaranteed. Benefits/perks listed here may vary depending on the nature of employment with ZeniMax and the country work location. U.S.-based employees have access to healthcare benefits, a 401(k) plan and company match, short-term and long-term disability coverage, basic life insurance, wellbeing benefits, paid vacation time, paid sick and mental health time, and several paid holidays, among others.

This position is in a union and represented by the Communication Workers of America.

We embrace diversity, equity, and inclusion in everything we do – from recruiting for our studios, publishing and operations to fostering safe and respectful workplaces that encourage collaboration. Our culture is based on principles of respect, inclusion, and fair treatment and we welcome anyone into our family without regard to race, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, or age.

Our diversity fuels our innovation and inspires us to create game worlds that bring us closer to the global community of players we serve.

You will receive an automated email confirming we have received your resume.

Due to the high volume of applications received, it's not possible for us to respond directly to each candidate.

Don't see your desired position listed? Apply under "General Application" instead!

If you are selected, you will be contacted by our team for an initial phone screen to chat about your previous experience.

You may go through one or two phone interviews, and possibly a follow-up Skype call.

If your qualifications do not match the criteria of a current position, your resume will be kept on file.

Site Visit

The next step will be an invitation to come out and meet the team at the studio for onsite interviews.

In the event that we choose not to move forward at any point in the recruiting process, we will let you know.

Your Privacy

ZeniMax understands the importance of privacy. Please review the Applicant Privacy Notice attached to each position, which explains how we process the personal information we collect about you when you apply for a job or submit information to us through our job portal. BY APPLYING FOR THIS OR ANY POSITION, SHARING THIS JOB, OR OTHERWISE PROVIDING US WITH YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION THROUGH THIS JOB PORTAL, YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT YOU HAVE READ AND UNDERSTOOD THE APPLICANT PRIVACY NOTICE, WHICH IS SET FORTH IN THE “APPLICANT PRIVACY NOTICE” SECTION BELOW EACH POSITION.