Pinnacle Solutions is seeking an experienced and driven Art Manager to lead our 3D art production for next-generation serious games and virtual training solutions supporting military platforms. This role is ideal for a hands-on leader who thrives in a technical, mission-focused environment and is motivated to build, mentor, and scale a high-performing art team.
The Art Manager will lead an 8-10 person multidisciplinary art team, owning personnel tasking, production planning, and cross-project resource allocation. Working closely with Subject Matter Experts, Instructional Systems Designers, Software Engineering and Game Design leads, this role will define development schedules, ensure visual quality and technical accuracy, and drive efficient execution across multiple concurrent efforts. In addition to people leadership and production management, the Art Manager will actively contribute to content creation, setting technical and artistic standards for real-time assets deployed in Unity and Unreal Engine-based training applications.
Success in this role requires the ability to operate in a fast-paced, highly collaborative production environment, balancing realism, performance, and instructional fidelity while supporting the evolving needs of military training customers.
Responsibilities
Lead and manage a multidisciplinary 3D art team (approximately 8-10 artists), providing technical direction, mentorship, performance feedback, and day-to-day production guidance.
Own art production planning and execution across multiple projects, including task breakdown, resource allocation, schedule development, and dependency coordination in partnership with engineering, design, and production leads.
Establish, document, and evolve a photo-realistic real-time art pipeline, ensuring consistency, efficiency, and scalability across platforms and projects.
Set and enforce visual and technical quality standards for low-poly, high-fidelity assets, ensuring accuracy, realism, and performance for training-focused applications.
Serve as a hands-on contributor, creating and reviewing high-quality 3D models, textures, materials, and scenes based on photos, technical drawings, and subject-matter-expert input.
Oversee the implementation of art assets into Unity and Unreal Engine, ensuring assets meet performance budgets, LOD standards, and engine-specific requirements.
Collaborate cross-functionally with engineering and design teams to support interactive training goals, instructional fidelity, and technical constraints.
Direct scene setup and visual composition within Unity or Unreal, including lighting, materials, camera framing, and level-of-interactivity considerations driven by storyboards and training objectives.
Review and approve deliverables, providing clear, actionable feedback and ensuring assets meet both artistic and customer-driven realism requirements.
Continuously improve team capabilities, tools, and workflows to support evolving project demands and emerging real-time rendering technologies.
Qualifications
Bachelor's degree in Digital Art, Game Art, Animation, or a related technical discipline, with coursework in traditional art fundamentals (drawing, composition, color theory) and 3D content creation.
10+ years of professional experience in real-time 3D art production, with at least 4+ years in a lead or supervisory role managing artists and production pipelines.
Demonstrated experience creating photo-realistic, performance-optimized 3D assets, including modeling, UV unwrapping, UV packing, and texture creation for real-time applications.
Advanced proficiency in Autodesk Maya (or equivalent), with working knowledge of tools such as 3ds Max, Blender, Substance Painter/Designer, or similar.
Strong working knowledge of Unity and Unreal Engine, including asset integration, scene setup, lighting, materials, and optimization workflows.
Proven ability to balance hands-on production with leadership responsibilities in a fast-paced, collaborative environment.
Excellent communication skills, with the ability to coordinate across disciplines and translate technical requirements into actionable art tasks.
Experience supporting simulation, training, or serious games projects and familiarity with military vehicles, aircraft, or technical platforms is strongly preferred.
Preferred Qualification:
Working knowledge of 3D animation, mechanical rigging, and constraint systems, with the ability to guide, review, and set best practices for artists supporting animated and interactive vehicle components.
Experience developing, evaluating, or directing the use of shaders and procedural materials, including establishing standards and performance guidelines for real-time applications.
Experience using Jira (or similar project management tools) to plan, track, and manage art tasks, sprints, and dependencies across multiple projects and team members.
Familiarity with file versioning and asset management workflows (e.g., Git, SVN, Perforce), with the ability to define, enforce, and troubleshoot team-wide source control practices.
Job ID
2026-21929
Work Type
Hybrid
Company Description
Work Where it Matters
Pinnacle Solutions, an Akima company, is not just another federal contractor. As an Alaska Native Corporation (ANC), our mission and purpose extend beyond our exciting federal projects as we support our shareholder communities in Alaska.
At Pinnacle Solutions , the work you do every day makes a difference in the lives of our 15,000 Iñupiat shareholders, a group of Alaska natives from one of the most remote and harshest environments in the United States.
For our shareholders, Pinnacle Solutions provides support and employment opportunities and contributes to the survival of a culture that has thrived above the Arctic Circle for more than 10,000 years.
For our government customers, Pinnacle Solutions delivers comprehensive services for general construction and renovation, as well as civil and marine construction.
As a Pinnacle Solutions employee, you will be surrounded by a challenging, yet supportive work environment that is committed to innovation and diversity, two of our most important values. You will also have access to our comprehensive benefits and competitive pay in addition to growth opportunities and excellent retirement options.
We are an equal opportunity employer and comply with all applicable federal, state, and local fair employment practices laws. All applicants will receive consideration for employment, without regard to race, color, religion, creed, national origin, gender or gender-identity, age, marital status, sexual orientation, veteran status, disability, pregnancy or parental status, or any other basis prohibited by law. If you are an individual with a disability, or have known limitations related to pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions, and would like to request a reasonable accommodation for any part of the employment process, please contact us at job-assist@akima.com or 571-353-7053 (information about job applications status is not available at this contact information).
