Aardvark Swift is supporting Black Forest Games in their search for a Technical Director. The studio is part of the fastest growing publisher in Europe, Embracer Group, and the biggest studio of THQ Nordic Vienna. Their last release was the highly successful remake of ‘Destroy All Humans!’.
Based in the south of Germany, directly at the French border, they combine the creative freedom and culture of an independent studio with the financial security of a big publisher.
They are an international team who foster diversity, and in this role, you will be responsible for organising and overseeing their team of currently 15 talented programmers (growing) in current and future projects. You will have the ability to shape a technical vision and work with the programmers to turn it into reality, and be the person who will directly help to define the course of development during all its stages.
Your role and responsibilities will include...
Guiding and overseeing programmers as well as mentoring them
Coordinating tasks and creating guidelines, including expansive documentation
Establishing quality benchmarks and demonstrating knowledge
Remaining hands-on with the code
Playing an active part in the recruitment of new candidates
Maintaining the tools that go along with features; ensuring they are useable and appropriate for artists, games, and the engine
Being forward thinking – able to keep up-to-date on current techniques, research, graphics data, hardware, etc. and integrate them into development
Directly reporting to the Executive Technical Director
Overseeing three team leads
For this role, you'll need...
Exceptional C++ programming skills and experience with multi-threaded programming techniques
At least two PS4/Xbox One/WiiU/PS3/X360 games shipped, at least one while being involved during the entire development cycle
Passion for mathematics and complex algorithms
Good understanding and practical experience of optimisation
Experience managing and leading a team of programmers with various experience levels
Outstanding verbal and written interpersonal communication skills
Fluency in English
Bonus points if you have...
Additional management qualifications
Extensive SPU and threading experience
Substantial DX11, DX12, GNM or Vulkan experience
Familiarity with a wide range of graphical rendering techniques
Experience working on all aspects for gameplay programming
Console experience on multiple major platforms
Extensive optimisation experience with Razor, GPAD, PIX and Spark (and any other relevant profilers)
Unreal 4 experience
Just some of the benefits of working with Black Forest Games include...
Flexible working hours
28 days of holiday
Competitive salary
Green office, fresh fruits, coffee and drinks
Fitness area in the studio
Free German language classes
Stability of a successful publisher paired with creative freedom of an independent studio
The chance to work with a great team in an open culture where your opinion and input is always welcome and considered, beyond your dedicated task
Black Forest Games are a team with a long history of looking for long-term companions – they are hiring for the studio, not for the project. This is an important part of the company philosophy. Talent is always welcome no matter where you are from. They offer a family-friendly work-life balance and a lot of flexibility.
As a bonus, Black Forest Games is located in one of the most beautiful and wealthiest areas in the South of Germany, located closely to Strasbourg, Karlsruhe and Basel.
Interested? Want to know more?
Contact Paul Walker on +44 (0)1709 834 777 or email paul.w@aswift.com now!
