Chicago Casting Calls & Acting Auditions

We are searching for a People and Culture Director to help us establish Middle Seat as the number one employer of choice for progressive digital strategists. As a director, you are responsible for cultivating an inclusive workplace culture, improving team member retention, and building support structures that allow Middle Seat staff to thrive.

We understand that workforces across the country are in a time of transition. People are demanding more from their employers, and rightfully so. Middle Seat wants to be on the cutting edge of responding to this transition by providing exceptional pay and benefits; building a diverse workforce and inclusive team culture; and addressing the root causes of burnout in an industry where it is all too prevalent.

This role is not part of the bargaining unit.

Responsibilities

Administrative and Human Resources

• Oversee new employee onboarding processes
• Setup new employees in Justworks including filling out employee I9 forms
• Onboard new staff and provide access to necessary technology, including new accounts, laptops and materials for employees
• Lead HR and security orientation for new hires
• Serve as the lead for new employee questions or issues around organization policies and benefits
• Select and manage benefits systems and compliance including but not limited to: HRA, FSA, 401k, health insurance, vision insurance, and dental insurance and other organizational benefits
• Includes coordinating with PEO to ensure that plan documentation is accurate, that all participants receive an up to date Summary Plan Description and required plan notices, and that annual 5500 returns, and Summary Annual Reports are filed and distributed as appropriate.
• Coordinate with PEO and Accounting to ensure that taxable and nontaxable fringe benefits are reported and taxed accurately.
• Maintain survey data on staff demographics
• Track employee discipline records and keep them up to date in Google Drive alongside team leads
• Advise managers on employee and labor policies, such as ADA, FMLA and OSHA
• Ensure that company policies align with the collective bargaining agreement
• Research, develop and update company policies and edits to the employee handbook as needed
• Devise communications plans for rolling out new or updated policies to staff
• Ensure team member adherence to company policies and procedures
• Oversee security policy and ensure highest level of compliance
• Serve as the go-to resource for dispute resolution and problem solving

Recruitment

• Support hiring and recruitment efforts, including drafting and posting jobs, screening resumes, scheduling interviews, and coordinating skills assessments.
• Identify new hiring sources and develop monthly recruitment strategies to support a diverse talent pipeline, using data analyses to inform recruitment plans.
• Participate in interviewing and vetting processes for new hires
• Responsible for offer letter creation in coordination with team leads and directors and leading front-facing salary negotiations
• Alert union representatives of plans to hire new staff or plans to engage with new independent contractors when appropriate

People Success

• Create professional development opportunities, leadership pathways and mentorship to help develop and retain staff, including managers
• Set up structures for people-focused areas, for example:
• Here’s how we onboard
• Here’s how we hire
• Here’s how we roll out new processes
• Here’s how we onboard people onto new clients
• Research, develop and implement organizational priorities to improve employee retention
• Lead team member orientation, including working with managers to ensure training is completed for all new hires
• Work with managers to refine, standardize, and manage performance review process
• Help maintain a database for managing staff (including manager’s) capacity and workforce planning by creating, maintaining, and analyzing key reports and queries (for example, total emails sent per month, ad spend per month etc)
• Help managers establish effective supervisory relationships and leadership skills

Culture

• Counsel the management of different departments by providing advice on managing employees and cultivating better culture
• Foster and implement internal equity and inclusion strategies, regularly reviewing current policies for improvement
• Strive toward structures, processes, and policies that remove racialized barriers, resulting in more inclusive participation in institutional and structural power-building, -sharing, and -wielding for traditionally marginalized racial groups
• Strengthen working relationships between staff and help set successful culture of communication, including guiding Middle Seat culture as we transition to a majority-remote staff
• Monitor People and Culture suggestions and/or contact boxes
• Coordinate staff appreciation efforts including end-of-year gifts and organize staff bonding activities such as virtual happy hours, virtual game nights, etc.
• Plan team building activities and events, including annual end-of-year get together

Requirements

• Experience working in a human resources or people & culture management capacity, ideally at an agency or political organization
• Experience working with a PEO like JustWorks, PayChex or Rippling
• Experience working with people from diverse racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds
• Experience managing performance evaluations
• Experience with salary negotiations and terminations a plus
• Ability to incorporate an anti-racist and anti-oppression lens into Middle Seat’s people-focused operations
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills
• Ability to draft and publish internal policies
• Understanding of labor laws or experience at a unionized workplace a plus

Benefits

• Salary starts between $90,000 – $105,000
• Profit sharing plan: share in the growth and success of Middle Seat
• $50 mobile phone subsidy monthly
• Regular raises
• 100% premium coverage for health, dental, and vision, with deductibles paid on a Middle Seat funded flex card up to $3,000 per individual and $6,000 per family
• $100 monthly student loan reimbursement
• $550 monthly mental health reimbursement
• $1,000 annual professional development reimbursement
• 6% employer match on your 401k retirement account
• 20 paid vacation days off, plus your birthday and work anniversary off
• Unlimited sick leave
• Commuter benefits for public transportation
• Flexible work from home schedule (or work in our D.C. office)
• 12 weeks of paid leave for new parents

Middle Seat Digital

Title: Executive Producer

Location: Remote

Contract: Permanent

1518 studios is looking for an Executive Producer to join a new top-tier team, to help craft our next clients innovative AAA games.

The Executive Producer is responsible for making sure all our client projects are released on time and within budget. As the Executive Producer, you are ultimately responsible for our clients AAA projects and your goal will be to manage development from concept through to release and delivery of a high-quality engaging game for various platforms. You will be collaborating with global teams, management, internal, and external stakeholders.

As an Executive Producers you will be an engaging communicator, creative problem solver, and thoughtful collaborator. You will use your depth of experience across all facets of game development, providing vision and clarity across the production process, ensuring all the pieces fit thoughtfully together, so we can deliver the unique and memorably gaming experiences our clients fans demand.

As our Executive Producer, you will help drive the development team towards their production goals, determine resource requirements, and manage various risks to any of our client projects.

Responsibilities

• Accountable for game’s full development cycle, where you lead the development and champion the product’s vision to the team.
• Accountable for the game’s overall quality and delivery.
• Responsible for the P/L of the games and that the games reaches agreed goals.
• Manages ongoing financial tracking for the games, coordinating between the project and the financial department.
• Responsible for the collaboration with external clients and internal stakeholders.
• Liaising with PTW’s Business Development to co-create new pitches in the pitch process to our new clients.
• Oversees project risk mitigation efforts and ensures they are effective.
• Accountable to define the project’s production goals and monitor the relative KPI’s.
• Mentor & coach key project personnel.
• Partner with studio creative leadership to drive product vision and ensure execution at the highest quality level.
• Own and optimize the overarching creative roadmaps & schedules for products, ensuring that all production phases flow efficiently between teams.
• Lead any legal/contractual/licensing discussions.
• Balance project production requirements within budget and staffing constraints while ensuring high production values are never compromised.
• Proactively surface issues, roadblocks, and concerns between development teams, driving alignment and consensus for projects and priorities.
• Grow and expand a culture promoting collaboration and continuous improvement, ensuring the team is consistently set up for success.
• Effectively communicate the needs of the project, building and strengthening communication at all levels and with all key stakeholders.
• Bring energy, momentum, passion, and charisma to inspire and motivate the team.
• Build the appropriate scaling structures inside the team to allow it to grow as needed.
• Foster a healthy, collaborative, and impactful team culture. Use inclusive behaviours to ensure all voices are heard, invite input from many perspectives, and resolve disagreements.
• Partner with the Studio Senior Managers on innovating, refining, and improving processes throughout development (from concept to release).
• Craft clear, detailed, and proactive communication to your immediate group, the studio leadership team, and external stakeholders.

Requirements

• At least 8 years experience as a Producer within game development production, where at least 4 years be in a position with management experience;
• At least three released and successful games as Executive Producer, Senior Producer, Game Director, or similar.
• Previous experience applying Agile methodologies to game development projects.
• Ability to gain and maintain the respect and trust of development teams through thoughtful discussion and perseverance.
• Persuasive communication skills, able to diplomatically and effectively negotiate efficient solutions across cross-functional teams.
• Comfort with a variety of project management tools and methodologies, able to fluidly move between systems and approaches.
• You understand and have hands-on knowledge of all aspects of game production from concept through live operations.
• Proven leadership skills, with an inspiring, enthusiastic spirit for collaborative teamwork.
• Credit on at least three shipped games as Producer or above or been involved with two projects through a complete development cycle.
• Has directly led a full or significant part of a development team as a senior producer or similar management role.
• Extensive knowledge in game and software development methods.
• Experience with identifying risks and developing mitigation strategies.
• Great problem solving skills and ability to motivate others to find solutions in new and dynamic environments.
• Ability to lead teams of 20+ individuals in different Time Zones.
• Agile with budgeting and numbers, able to analyse, plan and strategize in coordination with our Financial department.
• Attention to detail and strong organizational skills.
• Excellent listening and communication skills.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills in English.

Desired Qualifications

• A background in animation will be a big plus.
• You are knowledgeable about current trends that impact player motivations and behaviour.

Benefits

• Highly attractive remuneration, and career advancement opportunity.
• You will be working for the pre-eminent global provider of specialist services to the games industry and provided with full training and leadership support and the opportunity to work with the biggest games clients in the world.
• Competitive full company kit, remuneration, pension and holidays, regular team competitions with great prizes; and inclusion into an extensive social calendar. Collaborative teamwork with people from all around the world, different nationalities and languages.
• A supportive community inclusive of LGBTQ+, and any age, ethnicity, religion, or disability. We care about the wellbeing of our employees and have a dedicated employee wellbeing programme.

Who We Are

35+ Studios | 26+ Years of Experience |1,000+ Products | 60+ Awards for Clients | 8,500 Employees

PTW is a video games services company that supports video game developers and publishers through outsourced production services. We started 25 years ago and since then, have grown exponentially year on year to where we are today. Our history is in gaming, and we are gamers at heart. In our time within the games industry, we have worked on over 1500 titles across all genres and all platforms, including 8 out of the past 10 Game-Of-The-Year-winning titles.

We have grown rapidly over the past few years and now have 35 sites spanning the globe. The PTW Family of Brands includes SIDE, 1518, and Orange Rock. SIDE works at the cutting edge of interactive media as a provider of audio services for the global entertainment market. Orange Rock is our in-house game and product development studio. 1518 is our award-winning global art studio providing art-related services at every stage of the game or app development process.

1518

Our in-house art team offers the highest-quality assets: from 2D concept design to 3D animation, in-game to package art, smartphone to VR, we make everything look amazing.

1518 Ranged across time zones and countries, we’re a diverse group of tech wizards, engineers, and strategists, with over 25 years combined on-the-job experience. Alongside our internationally-acclaimed art directors, artists, and animators, we’re building immersive game worlds through Art and Co-Dev. Our client list includes Electronic Arts, Google, Jam City, Disney, Warner Bros, and Uber. No detail is too small or insignificant, and no vision is too big or ambitious. Let’s make beautiful worlds together!

Our Values

Pole To Win’s core values are imbued across our global organization: Reinforced by our actions and our attitudes. Echoed throughout our approach to our operations and our clients. Exemplified by our culture, and most of all, our people. We build people and their careers. We actively turn to team mates for counsel, inspiration, and diverse perspectives. Relationships are built on mutual respect. Personal and professional integrity is our guiding principle. We are honest, authentic, transparent, and ethically sound. Our primary goal is to advance our clients’ businesses and their customers’ satisfaction. We set the bar for generating imaginative and effective solutions for the most challenging problems. We move with speed and agility. We love what we do. We have unwavering loyalty to our DNA, our culture, our values, and ourselves.

Welcome to PTW, Family of Brands

1518 STUDIOS
PTW

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