About the role
Role Overview
Blizzard is seeking a Cinematic Director to craft a new, unannounced game. As a key member of the development team, you will lead a team to execute the vision, development, and delivery of cinematic work, partnering with the game team, production leadership, and the executive producer. This role functions as the product owner for the cinematics team, responsible for setting priorities, aligning creative direction, and delivering compelling storytelling that supports the overall vision of the game.
Responsibilities
- Lead the creative development and execution of cinematic work for a new, unannounced Blizzard game, ensuring alignment with overall vision, tone, and player experience.
- Guide cinematic work from early concepting and pitching through animatics, iteration, implementation, and final delivery.
- Personally author, block, and iterate cinematic sequences within a real-time engine (e.g., Unreal Sequencer), not solely through delegation.
- Establish and uphold a high bar for cinematic storytelling, including pacing, staging, camera language, performance, emotional clarity, and overall quality.
- Partner with audio, music, and voice-over teams to help shape performances and ensure cinematic moments land with clarity, emotion, and impact.
- Present work clearly and confidently to stakeholders, synthesizing feedback while maintaining creative clarity and momentum.
- Partner closely with the creative director, project leadership, and cross-functional teams (design, narrative, animation, audio, art, production) to drive alignment and deliver compelling cinematic storytelling.
- Balance the project’s creative ambition with production realities, making thoughtful trade-offs across scope, timelines, resources, and team capacity.
- Act as the product owner for the cinematics team, setting priorities, aligning work to project goals and milestones, and focusing the team on the highest-impact opportunities.
- Serve as the people manager for the cinematics team, providing coaching, feedback, performance management, and support for growth and development.
- Help define effective workflows, review rhythms, and team practices that support strong collaboration and predictable execution.
- Collaborate with external partners when needed, providing clear creative direction and feedback to ensure work meets project expectations.
Minimum Requirements
- 10+ years of professional experience in cinematics, game development, animation, film, television, or other narrative visual media.
- 2+ years of direct people-management experience, including coaching, feedback, and performance management.
- Proven hands-on ownership of cinematic sequences from previs through final in-engine implementation, including camera, staging, pacing, and polish.
- Ability to step in at any stage of production to resolve creative or technical blockers with minimal overhead.
- Deep working knowledge of real-time cinematic pipelines, including animation integration, lighting, layout, and runtime constraints.
- Practical experience with industry-standard tools such as Unreal Engine, Maya/MotionBuilder, and performance capture workflows, with the ability to prototype and iterate directly in tool.
- Experience diagnosing and resolving pipeline inefficiencies and bridging gaps between cinematic, animation, and engineering teams.
- Hands-on experience directing performance capture sessions, with the ability to translate narrative intent into actionable direction for actors and technical teams.
- Strong understanding of capture limitations and downstream implications to ensure performance translates effectively in engine.
- Demonstrated ability to adapt creative direction based on engine constraints, memory budgets, and runtime performance targets while maintaining narrative clarity.
- A player-coach leadership style, leading through direct contribution and craft credibility rather than review-only cycles.
- Ability to mentor through active engagement, in-tool reviews, pairing, and hands-on problem solving.
- Strong understanding of cinematic storytelling fundamentals, including pacing, composition, staging, camera language, editing, and performance.
- Experience balancing creative possibilities with schedules, dependencies, bandwidth, and production constraints.
- Strong communication skills, including the ability to pitch ideas, synthesize feedback, and represent the team clearly in reviews.
What Sets You Apart
- You are a hands-on cinematic creator who actively works in engine and DCC tools to bring sequences to life.
- You have personally shipped cinematic content and can clearly articulate your direct contributions.
- You are comfortable owning both creative direction and execution, stepping into the work when needed to maintain quality and momentum.
- You treat technical constraints as part of the creative process, not a downstream consideration.
- You lead through craft excellence and direct engagement, not abstraction.
Bonus Points
- Experience developing or shipping cinematic work for AAA games.
- Experience with multiple in-engine or real-time cinematic pipelines.
- Experience working on story-driven or character-driven games.
- Experience collaborating with external vendors or outsource partners.
- Familiarity with Blizzard games and a strong appreciation for interactive, narrative-driven storytelling.
Application Materials
- Resume.
- A strong portfolio or reel demonstrating high-quality cinematic, narrative, or visually driven storytelling work.
Working Conditions
- Location: Irvine, CA studio.
- Arrangement: Flexible hybrid work week; a mix of remote and on-site days, or full-time on-site.
- Relocation: Assistance may be available if moving geographic locations is required.
Compensation & Benefits
- Base Pay Range: $119,280.00 - $220,700.00 Annual.
- Incentive Compensation: May be eligible for incentive compensation (not guaranteed).
- Health & Wellness: Medical, dental, vision, health savings account (HSA), health reimbursement account (HRA), healthcare spending accounts, dependent care spending accounts, life and AD&D insurance, disability insurance, mental health & wellbeing programs, and fitness programs.
- Financial: 401(k) with company match, tuition reimbursement, and charitable donation matching.
- Leave & Time Off: Paid holidays and vacation, paid sick time, floating holidays, compassion and bereavement leaves, and parental leave.
- Additional Perks: Free and discounted games, and a variety of voluntary benefit programs like supplemental life & disability, legal service, ID protection, and rental insurance.