Tech Art Manager

Sago Mini is an award-winning publisher of preschool apps and toys worldwide. We are supported by a team of artists, designers, developers, product managers, thinkers, and doers devoted to play. With over 100 million downloads, three subscription services, and 40+ apps, Sago Mini brings thoughtful design to life for kids and parents worldwide.

About the Role

The Sago Mini team is hiring its very first Tech Art Manager to lead our team of 7 Technical Artists (TAs). Our TAs work in multidisciplinary teams, and they bridge the gap between our artists, game designers, sound designers, and programmers. As the Tech Art manager, you will help define the TA craft at Sago Mini. If you are energized by helping people grow and want to work on products you can be proud of, then you'll love working at Sago Mini, and we can't wait to hear from you.

You’ll thrive in this role if you…

• You are at a point in your career where you get more energy from helping others do their best work versus doing the work yourself.
• Have a flair for visual design and an attentive eye for all the little details that go into making great experiences.
• Love making beautiful things with code and art.
• Enjoy working in a startup-like environment that is regularly evolving and often requires you to juggle multiple tasks simultaneously.
• Proactively seek out problems, find ways to minimize complexity, and encourage experimentation.
• Get excited about making digital games that delight kids and parents around the world.

What You’ll Be Doing

• Managing our 7 TAs. You'll organize regular 1on1s where you'll coach your direct reports and help them progress in their careers. As we grow, you'll be responsible for interviewing, hiring, and onboarding new TAs to our team.
• Establishing our best practices, participating in tech art design/tech reviews, and identifying new ways to use technical art to make our products the best they can be.
• Working closely with our production managers and design/art/tech/QA leads to plan projects.
• Advocating for and supporting the development of TA related tools and pipelines.
• While your primary focus will be on the people and the TA craft, there will be time to roll up your sleeves and evaluate new technology, jump on a project to help a team get unblocked, build tools and prototypes, and create and teach new training programs.

Qualifications and Skills

• Multiple years of experience managing a high-performing team of TAs or gameplay focused artists or developers in either a people manager or team lead capacity.
• Having a high emotional intelligence. You understand what it takes to build great relationships, reduce team stress, and defuse conflict.
• You're multilingual and can speak art, game development, and game design.
• Ability to look at an interaction and articulate why it "feels" good or bad.
• Solid foundation in creating 2D/3D games using Unity.
• Comfortable using Adobe Illustrator and Animate to create, organize, and export 2D art.
• Building and supporting custom art tools and pipelines. Bonus points if you have experience writing scripts to automate tasks in Animate or Illustrator.
• Confident programming using C# and you're comfortable teaching others basic programming concepts.



About the Process

• Once you apply, you'll receive an email confirming that we've received your application. After we've had a chance to review your application (1-2 weeks), we'll reach out to let you know what the next steps are.
• If you are moving ahead, your first interview will be a 30 min interview where we'll learn more about you and answer any questions you have about the role.
• In your second interview, you meet with a cross-functional group of Sago Mini members for 1hr. You'll discuss your experience and let us know what you're excited to tackle next in your career.
• Next, we will ask you to complete a short take-home assignment that will assess your technical art skills.
• Your fourth and final interview will be a 1.5hr technical interview where we will explore your technical experiences through questions/answers and a live exercise.

We welcome and encourage applications from people with disabilities. Accommodations are available upon request for candidates taking part in all aspects of the selection process.  

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Based in Toronto, Sago Sago Toys of Spin Master Limited a leading global children’s entertainment company that creates, designs and manufactures a diversified portfolio of innovative toys, games, products and entertainment properties. We hire humble, collaborative, and ambitious people who care about doing great work. Sago Mini is an equal opportunity employer. We value diversity at our company.