Description
Hybrid Work Model
Job Summary
Associate Producer, Console
SEGA of America is seeking a game Associate Producer to help deliver Sonic the Hedgehog console and PC products developed in Japan to publish in the Western markets. Our Burbank, CA-based Producers are internationally minded professionals who coordinate between our Japan-based development teams, our Burbank-based Sonic the Hedgehog Marketing team, our Irvine-based Publishing teams, and Europe-based Localization teams to deliver Sonic the Hedgehog video games product to market on time, on budget, and at target quality.
We are currently considering a wide range of experienced candidates for this position, and are looking for individuals who love games, language, multiculturalism, creativity, and can speak with enthusiasm for their product.
Duties And Responsibilities
In the SEGA Production Department, you will spend your days doing the following
- Gathering and digesting information about your production responsibilities and deadlines with the Producer to reassess the current status of the project needs and priorities.
- Checking terminology and naming conventions across the localized languages. High attention to detail is critical!
- Acting with the Producer, you will represent the vision and nature of the product in your care.
- Acting as the international conduit for QA setup and LQA execution, making sure Producers and QA Leads understand the timing and requirements for testing.
- Communicating internally to support the content approvals and localization needs for the project, in addition to keeping those teams up to date with the weekly status of localization.
- Communicating with the internal teams to make sure content approvals, publishing needs and product setup and submission are all happening in a timely manner.
- Building resourcing plans and schedules for approval by your managers and alignment with your dev teams.
- Communicating with external vendors to estimate, schedule and execute on time, on quality and on budget for any production needs the title requires.
- Breaking down your projects into manageable subtasks and getting them done independently.
- Supporting the greater needs of the projects, including coordinating internal communications, translating and distributing internal documentation, getting game text translated, or shuffling bug reports. Whatever it takes to get things done.
- Setting up and attending the recording of English voiceover with the legacy Studio, Director, Game Producer and Voice Talent.
- Coordinating with QA to make sure the quality of the product is assured, vetting issues, and providing direction to the Development team if necessary.
- Providing proactive guidance and engaging with marketing on external activities related to your product.
- Presenting relevant game information to the Licensing, Lore, Marketing and Animation teams supporting the Transmedia initiatives and working with them to get the assets and information they need to execute on their plans.
- Keeping the Localization Producer and Game Producer aware of accurate schedules, up-to-date needs, daily bug status reports, and updated conversations about the projects under your supervision.
- Making sure internal teams understand what makes your game fun, compelling, interesting, and unique, and what is the importance of the title to the brand roadmap.
- Building post-mortem lookbacks on your project for the benefit of yourself and the group.
- Playing the games and generating feedback and insight as needed.
- Making sure best practices and policy is followed and implemented within your projects.
- Getting in front of fans and media to talk about and promote your product at tradeshows and media tours.
- Other duties as assigned.
- Working in-office is an essential function of this position. This requirement of face-to-face interaction is in place to ensure effective supervision, collaboration, and teamwork. In-office attendance is required for the following reasons:
- For effective supervision of employees and our work product, which includes ensuring all employees have necessary oversight of their work and access to supervisory assistance, which includes meetings to review work product, deadlines, and status.
- To foster communication and collaboration among team members, which includes the following: allowing for spontaneous brainstorming sessions and exchanges of ideas, quick access to team members to enable collaborative problem-solving, and stronger cohesion among co-workers and within teams.
- To enhance the sharing of information necessary to effective job performance and product creation.
- To enhance understanding of our stakeholders’ work and business needs, facilitate a more seamless and organic workflow, and ultimately increase efficiency and successful outcomes.
Qualifications
Qualifications and Skills:
You should apply for this job if…
- You have at least 3 years of combined production, project management, and/or localization experience within the game industry, and understand what it takes to ship a console and PC video game product.
- You are credited on at least 1 shipped global title on current generation consoles/platforms
- You can speak and are proficient in near-native English (proficiency in Japanese and additional languages also welcome but not required!)
- You are highly organized, love bringing order to chaos, and keeping people in the loop.
- You can throw together a production schedule in a heartbeat, and follow that up with a plan for addressing the many checks and confirmations required to see the content to completion.
- You have a deep understanding of the importance of proper written and verbal communication required to entertaining a wide variety of people across different languages and cultures.
- You enjoy the responsibility and satisfaction of working with teams all around the world on a shared project.
- You are a wiz at commonly used production tools and formats, such as Excel, Word, PowerPoint, MemoQ, XLOC, and other localization tools and platforms.
- You are accustomed to working across regions, time zones, and languages and are familiar with the associated challenges.
- You have a proven track record of driving projects to completion.
- You have a strong work ethic, positive attitude with a high degree of professionalism.
- Working in multilingual, multicultural environments is exciting for you, and you have a strong understanding of the language challenges facing the game industry.
- You have extensive experience working with vendors and teams associated with the video game industry, including video game voice over recording experience.
- Games are love, games are life: Especially games from Japan. You have opinions about them, know what makes them good and what makes them bad.
- You can balance the expectations of fans with the needs to a larger gaming audience.
- You can respect the legacy of over 30 years of Sonic the Hedgehog video games, and work to preserve the integrity of the characters and terminology across the projects you manage.
- Fly both domestically and internationally to conduct business, meet vendors or attend professional industry events.
- Passport and ability to fly internationally preferred.
- Attend media, trade and consumer events a couple of times a year.