Production Lead (Casual Mobile Games, 2D Art & Creatives)

RetroStyle Games · Kyiv, Ukraine

Discipline
Art
Seniority
Lead
Work model
Not stated
Employment type
Not stated
Pay
Pay not stated
Posted
27 Oct
First seen on Hakken
27 Oct

Apply on the studio's site

About the role

RetroStyle Games is a Ukrainian game art & development studio with 15+ years of experience. We create 2D art and animation for casual mobile games (match-3, merge, narrative), along with marketing creatives and playable ads. Our portfolio includes Love & Pies, Episode, Time Blast, Spark Link, and many more.

We are bringing all our mobile projects and services, from casual game art to marketing creatives, together into one direction: Mobile Games Art. We are looking for a Production Lead to own it: take every mobile project and service under their wing, grow the direction in both volume and profit, and control how projects come into the company and how they leave it.

How you will shape the company

  • Define how Mobile Games grows: with which clients, which offers, and which team.
  • Own the results of the direction: number of projects and returning clients, profit and margin, team utilization, and the quality our clients see.
  • Own the entry and exit points. Together with BDM, decide which requests we take on, how quickly and accurately we estimate them, and how we turn them into contracts. On the way out, decide how we close projects and bring clients back with their next order.
  • Lead the PM team of the direction: distribute projects, set priorities, and take on tough decisions and escalations. Run some key projects yourself.
  • Build the AI pipeline of the direction, from request analysis to art production, together with our art leads.

Your first month

  • Map where the direction stands today: all active projects and clients, who runs what, margins, and team capacity for the next 1–2 months. The result is a one-page direction map.
  • Understand the goals: what the business expects from Mobile Games in 2027 and where the direction is falling behind.
  • Audit the team: talk to every PM and art lead in the direction about strengths, bottlenecks, who runs what, and how much is on their plate. Then propose what we should change in the team, processes, and client offering.
  • Review the last three months of incoming requests with BDM: what came in, what we won, what we lost, and why.
  • Take 1–2 projects under your direct management to experience our process hands-on.

What you will need

  • 3+ years in game development, art outsourcing, or creative production, with a focus on casual mobile games preferred.
  • Experience running a business direction or a PM team with accountability for results.
  • An insider’s understanding of casual mobile games and creatives: you play them, know the genres and mechanics, and understand playable ads and UA creatives, including why some work and others don’t.
  • Experience working with demand: incoming requests, estimates, proposals, and negotiations alongside sales. You track the metrics of the direction beyond margin.
  • Daily use of AI on complex tasks, well beyond writing emails. You can show a process or pipeline your team uses thanks to you.
  • Upper-Intermediate (B2+) spoken English: our clients are international studios.

This role is not for you if you don’t play mobile games or don’t really know your way around this market, if AI for you is just a chat for emails and quick questions, or if you are looking to deliver a single project rather than own the results of an entire direction.

What we offer

  • A direction that is yours, with real influence on its strategy.
  • A strong team of PMs and art leads you can rely on from day one.
  • Minimal bureaucracy: we make decisions fast and leave room for experiments.
  • A large two-story office in Kyiv near Pochaina metro station, with a kitchen, lounge areas, and a PlayStation.
  • Monday to Friday, 9:30–18:30, with a lunch break from 13:00 to 14:00.
  • Salary pegged to USD, 18 days of paid vacation, paid sick leave, health insurance, and military service deferment if needed.

Hiring process

  1. Fill in the details and click Get Started.
  2. Answer a few short questions from our HR team by email or Telegram.
  3. Have an introductory call with HR.
  4. Meet our Head of Production at the Kyiv office.

We strive to make our hiring process as simple and fast as possible. We’d love to hear from you! ^^

From the studio's careers page (site). Checked 10 Nov.