Principal Art Director - Keywords Americas (Creative Centre of Excellence)

[English version, French to follow]

About Keywords Studios

Keywords Studios is a leading provider of technical and creative services to the global gaming industry, with over 13,000 staff across 70+ studios in 26 countries, serving more than 950 clients worldwide.

We partner with many of the industry's leading developers and publishers across the full game development lifecycle—from concept and production through launch and live operations. Within our Create Service Line, world-class studios including Snowed In Studios, High Voltage, Volta, Hardsuit Labs, GameSim, Liquid Development, and Smoking Gun Interactive deliver exceptional art, game development, and audio services across every major genre and platform.

To unify and elevate this capability, we are establishing a lean, highly senior Creative Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Montreal. This marks a strategic shift from traditional co-development support toward end-to-end creative ownership of game vision, systems, and execution strategy across the Americas.

Within this CoE, we are redefining how games are conceived, pitched, and delivered—bringing together world-class studios across Canada, the United States, and Mexico (potentially further reach globally across Keywords Create teams as things progress)under a shared creative vision designed to win new partnerships, elevate execution quality, and shape the future of Keywords’ creative offering.

About the Role

As Principal Art Director – Americas CoE, you are the central Visual Architect for Keywords in North America.

You will help define and evolve the visual identity of products from early concept exploration through production and delivery. While you will play a key role in creating compelling visual directions that support pitches and new business opportunities, you will also partner with studios and multidisciplinary teams throughout development to ensure artistic vision, quality, and visual cohesion are successfully realized.

From stylized, cozy co-op worlds to dark, UE5-powered realism, you define the visual identity that creates the “wow” moment in pitches—and then partner with execution studios to bring that vision to life at scale.

You operate at the intersection of creative vision, client engagement, and regional studio collaboration, empowered by AI-driven workflows that accelerate how we explore, iterate, and communicate visual ideas.

What You Will Do (The Mandate)

Visual Strategy & Artistic Direction

• Define and champion compelling visual directions that align with product vision, audience expectations, and market opportunities across genres, platforms, and art styles.
• Establish artistic pillars, visual identities, and style frameworks that guide environments, characters, UI, VFX, lighting, and overall player-facing presentation.
• Translate creative goals into clear, inspiring visual direction that aligns stakeholders and creates strong first impressions with clients and partners.
• Ensure visual consistency, quality, and cohesion across projects while balancing creative ambition with production and technical realities.

Pitch Leadership & Client Engagement

• Act as a key creative contributor in client engagements, pitches, workshops, and business development initiatives across North America.
• Partner with the Regional Creative Director and Business Development teams to create compelling visual targets, mood boards, and pitch materials that win new opportunities.
• Develop visual explorations, style frames, and presentation materials that clearly communicate artistic vision and production potential.
• Present and articulate visual direction to clients, stakeholders, and internal teams with clarity, confidence, and conviction.

Regional Studio Collaboration , & Discipline Supervision

• Collaborate with studios across Canada, the United States, and Mexico (potentially further reach globally across Keywords Create teams as things progress) to elevate visual quality and execution across all engagements.
• Guide and supervise art production across projects in Keywords Create.
• Provide consultative direction across concept art, environment art, character art, UI, lighting, VFX, and visual development disciplines.
• Ensure visual direction is clearly documented, scalable, and executable by internal and external production teams.
• Establish and reinforce visual standards, style guides, and review processes that strengthen consistency across the region.
• Identify visual and production risks early and guide teams toward strong, achievable solutions.

Visual Innovation & AI Enablement

• Leverage AI-powered image generation and visualization tools to accelerate mood boards, concept exploration, style development, and pre-visualization during pitch and early discovery phases.
• Integrate emerging tools and workflows to improve speed, quality, and efficiency in visual development.
• Champion responsible use of AI while maintaining strong artistic authorship, taste, and quality standards.
• Stay ahead of industry trends, artistic movements, real-time rendering advancements, and evolving player expectations.

What You Bring

• 10+ years of experience in game development, including senior Art Director, Principal Artist, Associate Art Director, or equivalent visual leadership roles.
• Proven success defining and delivering visual direction for commercially successful games across PC & console (mobile and other formats like VR are a plus).
• Exceptional visual literacy across environments, characters, UI, lighting, VFX, and world-building.
• Ability to adapt across a wide range of visual styles, from stylized and genre-driven aesthetics to high-fidelity, realistic experiences.
• Strong understanding of modern art production pipelines, real-time rendering technologies, and game development workflows.
• Demonstrated ability to translate creative vision into scalable visual frameworks executable by distributed teams and external partners.
• Exceptional communication, storytelling, and presentation skills, with experience pitching visual concepts to clients and stakeholders.
• Proven ability to influence and align multidisciplinary teams across studios and cultures without direct management responsibility.
• Experience developing style guides, visual bibles, and look-development documentation that support production execution.
• Familiarity with industry-standard tools and workflows, including modern engines and AI-assisted creative tools.
• Passion for artistic excellence, innovation, and creating memorable visual experiences that define player perception.

This is a hybrid position, however it's currently open to candidates residing in the Greater Montreal Area or willing to relocate to this region. Applicants must be legally authorized to work in Canada.

Salary Range: $185,000-215,000 CAD

Primary working language: English

Why Join Us

You will be part of a strategic transformation at Keywords Studios—evolving from co-development execution to true creative leadership across the Americas.

Based in Montreal, you will have

• The backing of a global industry leader with unmatched scale across the gaming ecosystem
• The agility of a newly formed Creative Centre of Excellence (CoE) designed for speed, focus, and senior-level impact
• The chance to work on a variety of projects
• Direct collaboration with elite North American studios across art, design, engineering, and production
• The opportunity to shape how world-class games are conceived, pitched, and delivered—before they exist and through to execution at scale

Depending on your discipline, your impact will extend across

• Defining the visual identity of games before production begins
• Architecting gameplay systems that define how games feel, engage, and retain players
• Establishing the creative foundations that guide multidisciplinary teams from pitch through full-cycle development

This is a rare opportunity to shape not just games—but how they are imagined, built, and brought to life.

Benefits

• Comprehensive benefits package that covers Dental Care, Health Care (including out of country coverage), Vision Care, Long Term Disability, Physio, Massage etc.
• Generous leave policies including 4 weeks paid vacation (plus 1 week over the Holiday Season), unlimited sick leave and 2 paid personal days and 1 paid volunteer day. We also provide parental leave top-up and an Employee and Family Assistance Plan that offer 24/7 free and confidential help with your physical and mental health.
• RRSP Matching.
• A dynamic and supportive team environment with a range of experience and an amazing culture

Keywords Studios is dedicated to following a well-established Equal Opportunities Policy. We endeavor to create a workplace which provides for equal opportunities for all employees and potential employees.

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