Art Director

About Steel City Interactive

SCI was born out of passion for video games and boxing, with the ambition to create an authentic and exciting boxing game that does justice to the sport we love. What started as a fun prototype has grown into ‘Undisputed’, the first major boxing video game in over a decade.

SCI is a welcoming place for expression and open communication, where everyone has a voice. We’re a diverse bunch, consisting of people with decades of games industry experience, graduates and talented individuals who come from other industries. We all bring knowledge and learn from each other.

Together we are driven by ambition to bring the world of boxing into a video game like never before.

The Role

We are looking for an experienced and inspiring Art Director to join Steel City Interactive, providing creative vision, artistic leadership and strategic direction across our game development teams.

As a senior leader within the studio, you will be responsible for defining, championing and delivering the visual identity and artistic quality of our games, ensuring a consistent, compelling and high-quality player experience.

Working closely with our Creative, Design, Engineering and Production teams, you will translate creative ambitions into a clear and achievable artistic vision, balancing visual excellence with technical feasibility, performance requirements and development timelines.

You will provide leadership across multiple Art disciplines, including Character Art, Environments, Animation, VFX, UI/UX and Technical Art, establishing clear quality standards, creative direction and effective development workflows.

Beyond delivering exceptional visual quality, you will play a pivotal role in developing the studio's artistic capabilities, building high-performing teams, strengthening creative leadership and establishing scalable processes that support both current and future projects.

This is a Senior Leadership / Head of Function position, requiring exceptional artistic judgement, strategic thinking, strong people leadership and the ability to influence creative and operational decisions across the studio.

Responsibilities

Artistic Vision & Creative Direction

• Define, establish and champion the overarching artistic vision, visual identity and quality standards for the studio's games.

• Translate creative and product objectives into a cohesive visual direction across all Art disciplines.

• Ensure consistency of visual quality, style and presentation throughout the player experience.

• Establish and maintain visual style guides, artistic benchmarks, reference materials and quality expectations.

• Lead creative reviews, providing clear, constructive feedback and direction to ensure artwork meets established quality standards.

• Work closely with Creative and Design leadership to ensure visual direction supports gameplay, player experience, authenticity and immersion.

• Continuously evaluate and refine artistic approaches to achieve the highest possible quality within project constraints.

Art Leadership & Team Development

• Provide strategic leadership and direction across multidisciplinary Art teams, including Character Art, Environments, Animation, VFX, UI/UX and Technical Art.

• Lead, mentor and develop Art Leads and senior artists, establishing clear expectations, accountability and opportunities for professional growth.

• Build a high-performing Art function through effective recruitment, talent development, succession planning and performance management.

• Foster a collaborative, creative and accountable working environment that encourages innovation, ownership and continuous improvement.

• Establish clear discipline standards and expectations, ensuring teams consistently deliver against agreed artistic and production requirements.

• Identify skills gaps and capability requirements, developing strategies to strengthen the studio's artistic expertise.

• Champion effective collaboration between Art teams and other development disciplines.

Art Production, Planning & Delivery

• Partner closely with Production to establish achievable Art development plans, milestones, resource requirements and delivery expectations.

• Provide strategic oversight of Art pipelines, asset production and development workflows to ensure efficient, predictable delivery.

• Ensure artistic quality expectations are appropriately balanced against project scope, technical constraints, available capacity and development schedules.

• Identify and proactively address artistic, technical and resource-related risks that could impact quality or delivery.

• Support prioritisation and decision-making across Art disciplines, ensuring resources are focused on the highest-value development activities.

• Establish clear review, approval and quality assurance processes throughout the Art production lifecycle.

• Work with Production and discipline Leads to monitor progress, resolve dependencies and ensure Art deliverables meet agreed milestone expectations.

Technical Art Direction & Visual Performance

• Work closely with the Technical Director, Principal Technical Artist and Engineering teams to ensure the artistic vision is achievable within the technical capabilities of Unreal Engine 5.

• Demonstrate a strong understanding of real-time rendering, lighting, materials, animation systems and visual optimisation within modern game engines.

• Provide artistic direction on complex visual challenges, ensuring technical solutions support the intended visual quality and player experience.

• Collaborate with technical specialists to establish appropriate visual quality benchmarks, performance budgets and asset standards.

• Support decisions relating to rendering technologies, visual systems and production pipelines, balancing artistic ambition with platform performance requirements.

• Ensure Art teams understand and consistently work within agreed technical constraints and optimisation standards.

• Champion the effective integration of artistic and technical workflows throughout development.

Studio Strategy, Collaboration & External Partnerships

• Contribute to the studio's wider creative and development strategy as a member of the senior leadership team.

• Work collaboratively with Creative, Engineering and Production leadership to align artistic priorities with project and business objectives.

• Establish long-term Art capability, technology and resource strategies that support sustainable studio growth.

• Provide artistic oversight of external development partners and outsourcing vendors, ensuring delivered content meets studio quality and technical standards.

• Support external partner selection, briefing, review and quality assurance processes.

• Evaluate emerging artistic techniques, technologies and industry trends, identifying opportunities to improve visual quality and production efficiency.

• Represent the Art function in senior leadership discussions, providing clear visibility of progress, risks, priorities and strategic recommendations.

• Lead continuous improvement initiatives, incorporating feedback, development learnings and postmortem outcomes into future Art practices.

Knowledge, Skills & Experience

Essential

• Extensive professional experience within the games industry, including significant experience in senior Art leadership roles such as Art Director, Associate Art Director or equivalent.

• Proven experience defining and delivering a cohesive artistic vision for high-quality, commercially released games.

• Exceptional artistic judgement, with a strong understanding of composition, colour, lighting, character design, environments, animation and visual storytelling.

• Demonstrable experience leading multidisciplinary Art teams across several specialist disciplines.

• Strong knowledge of modern game development pipelines, asset production workflows and the interdependencies between Art, Design and Engineering.

• Significant experience working with Unreal Engine, ideally Unreal Engine 5, with a strong understanding of its visual capabilities, rendering technologies and production constraints.

• Strong understanding of real-time rendering, materials, lighting, shaders, optimisation and platform performance considerations.

• Proven ability to establish artistic quality benchmarks, style guides and effective creative review processes.

• Experience balancing artistic ambition with technical feasibility, development schedules, resources and commercial requirements.

• Strong experience in Art resource planning, production forecasting, prioritisation and delivery oversight.

• Demonstrable experience managing, mentoring and developing Art Leads and senior creative professionals.

• Experience establishing clear performance expectations, providing constructive feedback and building accountable, high-performing teams.

• Proven ability to collaborate effectively with Creative Directors, Technical Directors, Producers and other senior development leaders.

• Excellent communication, presentation and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to articulate creative direction and influence decisions at all levels.

• Strong problem-solving and decision-making skills, with the ability to navigate competing creative, technical and production priorities.

• Experience managing external Art partners, outsourcing vendors and content quality assurance processes.

Desirable

• Experience delivering visually ambitious AAA or AA games across PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC.

• Extensive experience with Unreal Engine 5, including technologies such as Nanite, Lumen, Niagara and advanced material and lighting workflows.

• Experience directing high-fidelity character art, realistic environments, animation and cinematic presentation.

• Experience developing games with a strong focus on realism, authenticity, character likeness and visual fidelity.

• Familiarity with character creation pipelines, facial animation, motion capture, rigging and deformation systems.

• Experience working with technical specialists to address rendering, visual performance and asset optimisation challenges.

• Experience leading Art teams through significant production milestones, including Alpha, Beta, optimisation and final release.

• Experience establishing scalable Art pipelines, shared standards and development practices across multiple projects.

• Experience working with international outsourcing partners and external development studios.

• Experience contributing to studio-level strategic planning, organisational development and long-term capability building.

What we offer

Healthy work-life balance:

• 23 days annual leave (plus bank holidays), that increases 1 day per year of service, up to a maximum of 30 days.

• Christmas shut down

• Holiday exchange programme

• Flexible working hours & pattern (Certain Hybrid models available)

Support for family life:

• Enhanced Maternity and Paternity pay (subject to eligibility requirements)

• Private Healthcare which includes Optical & Dental

Great office environment:

• Friendly studios based in Sheffield and Leamington, with free snacks, fruit and drinks!

• Free parking - At our Sheffield site

Health & wellbeing support:

• Company sick pay

• 2 days Wellbeing Days leave per year

• Access to 24/7 doctors

• Employee Assistance Programme

Learning support:

• Learning days

Additional financial support:

• Technology scheme (salary sacrifice up to £750)

• Relocation benefits (subject to eligibility requirements)

• Electric Car Vehicle Scheme (subject to eligibility requirements)

• Discretionary Bonus

Connection and perks:

• Wrap parties & company paid outings

• Individual entertainment budget to cover team events

Steel City Interactive is an equal opportunity employer. We’re committed to building a diverse team and welcome all applications, considering them without regard to race, religion, belief, age, gender, gender expression, gender identity, gender reassignment, disability, marriage or civil partnership status, pregnancy or maternity, sex or sexual orientation.

If you’re excited about this role and believe you would add value to our team, but don’t meet every single requirement, we would still like to hear from you – please let us know about the value you would bring in your application.