Creative Director - Hearthstone | Irvine, CA

Team Name:

Job Title:

Creative Director - Hearthstone | Irvine, CA

Requisition ID:

R025115

Job Description:

Pull up a chair and join us by the hearth! Blizzard Entertainment is seeking a visionary Creative Director to lead the creative charge of Hearthstone. We're looking for a bold, imaginative leader who thrives in collaborative environments and is passionate about delivering unforgettable player experiences.

In this role, you will set the creative vision for Hearthstone, working with cross-disciplinary teams to provide direction on tone, narrative, and visual design while ensuring a cohesive and inspiring experience for all of our players. You’ll work closely with leadership across design, art, engineering, and production to ensure every element of the game reflects our commitment to quality, diversity, and player surprise and delight.

This role is anticipated to be a hybrid work position, with some work required to be on-site and some work-from-home. The studio for this role is in Irvine, CA.

Responsibilities

• Forge the overall creative direction for new content and features, including tone, themes, stories, locations and player experiences.

• Define and drive the team’s understanding of different types of players and how to create compelling content for each.

• Align the creative vision across all disciplines, including art, UI/UX, audio, and narrative, to ensure a cohesive and impactful player experience.

• Drive great story and craft that inspires players through all areas of the game, including gameplay, features and live ops.

• Champion diversity and inclusion across all areas, including setting and meeting targets for team composition and in-game representation.

• Effectively manage team directors around setting creative goals, establishing standards for quality and review of delivery with an eye toward ongoing improvement.

• Partner closely with game designers to execute the vision as an integral part of innovative gameplay and features.

• Work with publishing, marketing and story-franchise development teams to generate high quality assets (including cinematics) and ensure creative alignment between those teams and the game team.

• Oversee external partners and outsourcing teams to ensure delivery of high quality creative content.

• As needed, directly generate content including style guides, art descriptions, concept sketches, flavor text, card names, pet & other cosmetic concepts and other tasks that align with your core skillsets.

• Operate with autonomy while upholding and embodying Blizzard’s creative values in all aspects of your work.

• Inspire and encourage all of our teams with your energy, optimism and dedication.

• Contribute to new R&D projects in the same role.

Minimum Requirements

Experience

• 10 years of experience in AAA video game development with multiple shipped titles or live service equivalent.

• Lead or director-level experience in one or more of the following domains: art, UI art, narrative or audio.

Key Attributes

• Demonstrated aptitude for practical reuse and production techniques to maximize ROI on creative systems.

• Proficiency in creative software tools such as Maya, Adobe Creative Suite, Unity, or Unreal Engine.

• Incredible storytelling acumen and world-building toolset.

Extra Points

• Experience in shared world game development is strongly encouraged.

• Knowledge and passion for the Warcraft universe, Hearthstone and CCGs generally is highly desirable.

• UX experience is a plus.

Your Platform

Best known for iconic video game universes including Warcraft®, Overwatch®, Diablo®, and StarCraft®, Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. (www.blizzard.com), a division of Activision Blizzard, which was acquired by Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), is a premier developer and publisher of entertainment experiences. Blizzard Entertainment has created some of the industry’s most critically acclaimed and genre-defining games over the last 30 years, with a track record that includes multiple Game of the Year awards. Blizzard Entertainment engages tens of millions of players around the world with titles available on PC via Battle.net®, Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, iOS, and Android.

Our World

Activision Blizzard, Inc., is one of the world's largest and most successful interactive entertainment companies and is at the intersection of media, technology and entertainment. We are home to some of the most beloved entertainment franchises including Call of Duty®, 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!

Our ability to build immersive and innovative worlds is only enhanced by diverse teams working in an inclusive environment. We aspire to have a culture where everyone can thrive in order to connect and engage the world through epic entertainment. We provide a suite of benefits that promote physical, emotional and financial well-being for ‘Every World’ - we’ve got our employees covered!

The videogame industry and therefore our business is fast-paced and will continue to evolve. As such, the duties and responsibilities of this role may be changed as directed by the Company at any time to promote and support our business and relationships with industry partners.

We love hearing from anyone who is enthusiastic about changing the games industry. Not sure you meet all qualifications? Let us decide! Research shows that women and members of other under-represented groups tend to not apply to jobs when they think they may not meet every qualification, when, in fact, they often do! We are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment and strongly encourage you to apply.

We are committed to working with and providing reasonable assistance to individuals with physical and mental disabilities. If you are a disabled individual requiring an accommodation to apply for an open position, please email your request to accommodationrequests@activisionblizzard.com. General employment questions cannot be accepted or processed here. Thank you for your interest.

We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status, among other characteristics.

Rewards

We provide a suite of benefits that promote physical, emotional and financial well-being for ‘Every World’ - we’ve got our employees covered! Subject to eligibility requirements, the Company offers comprehensive benefits including:

• 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.

Eligibility to participate in these benefits may vary for part time and temporary full-time employees and interns with the Company. You can learn more by visiting https://www.benefitsforeveryworld.com/.

In the U.S., the standard base pay range for this role is $164,800.00 - $304,800.00 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.