Mind Candy

Flash Character Animator

Salary: Negotiable + options (dependent on experience)
Overview:

As a Flash character animator at Mind Candy, you will be responsible for creative and emotional animated content for Moshi Monsters and any future Mind Candy projects.

You will need advanced knowledge of Flash animation creation and optimisation techniques, particularly for Web delivery.

Responsibilities / Objectives:

• Ensuring all animation assets are produced in line with the project standards.
• Testing all animation assets against specification, to ensure they perform as required.
• Integrating any audio associated with animation assets.
• Fixing any bugs identified in animation assets, either through own testing or by QA.
• Being an active participant in the whole development life cycle.
• Being an active member of the daily Scrum meetings.

Required Skills:

• Strong Flash character animation skills.
• Strong Flash optimisation for Web skills.
• Knowledge of Illustrator.
• Experience with version control (SVN).
• Ability to produce work in a timely fashion, with a focus on scoping tasks relative to business priorities.

Desirable Skills:

• Familiarity with AS3.
• Good illustration skills.
• Good design skills.
• Experience with kids consumer web sites a big plus.
• Eclipse with FDT.
• Experience working in an Agile/Scrum environment.

For more information/to send in a CV and covering letter, please contact recruitment@mindcandy.com.

No agencies please.

Global Marketing & PR Assistant

Salary: Negotiable + options (dependent on experience)
Overview:

Reporting to the Chief Marketing Officer, we are seeking a creative and talented global marketing & PR assistant to join the rapidly growing global marketing team at Mind Candy.

Tasked with assisting the entire global marketing department, we are seeking a young, enthusiastic and highly creative individual ready for a challenge forging a new career within a rapidly growing entrepreneurial company.

Responsibilities / Objectives:

• Provide baseline global support to the existing global marketing team at Mind Candy HQ.
• Work alongside our existing PR agencies providing ongoing day to day support dealing with ad hoc requests and enquiries.
• Alongside the global marketing team assist with the formulation of ad hoc marketing briefs providing these to the team as needed.
• Manage ongoing global PR logging and reporting to the overall global team.
• Manage / assist with the co-ordination and attendance at third party events.
• Assist with ad hoc marketing research projects as and when required by the team.
• Brief internal teams / stakeholders for various internal marketing tasks and ongoing marketing projects.
• Provide frontline response support to any third party marketing enquiries via phone / post or email.
• Track key marketing metrics / KPIs reporting these back to the overall team on a weekly basis.
• Assist the team with the formulation of global marketing / PR plans and associated activity timelines.
• Work with the global marketing team to co-ordinate direct email marketing campaigns managing scheduling, drafting copy, briefing agencies as required.
• Working alongside our various PR agencies assisting with the drafting of PR related materials, asset development, co-ordination etc.
• Ad hoc support to the CMO and other duties at the manager’s discretion.

Required Skills:

• Some previous service or marketing experience required.
• Previous marketing assistant experience or equivalent.
• Marketing qualifications preferred.
• Excellent verbal and written communications.
• Can do attitude! Willing to get stuck in where needed!
• A passion for games and marketing is a must!

For more information/to send in a CV and covering letter, please contact recruitment@mindcandy.com.

No agencies please.

Flash / ActionScript Developer

Salary: £35 – 45k (dependent on experience)
Overview:

As a Flash / ActionScript Developer reporting to the CTO, you will develop imaginative and innovative solutions to meet the needs of the game development team.

You will need exceptional problem-solving expertise and attention to detail, as well as the ability to adapt quickly in a dynamic environment and integrate with our highly skilled and diverse team.

Responsibilities / Objectives:

• Working with other team members in an exciting and fun quick moving environment to design, develop and ensure the quality of rich media, web-based applications built with Adobe Flash.
• Advanced problem solving.
• Meeting tight deadlines.

Required Skills:

• Highly proficient with Object Oriented ActionScript 3.0.
• Experienced with the entire Flash product workflow from the Flash IDE through to server side development.
• Confidence in working with a large, evolving codebase.
• Understanding of MVC frameworks and related design patterns.
• Familiar with use of REST and XML for back-end communications.
• Confident working in Eclipse with either Flex Builder or FDT with SVN or similar version control systems.
• Experienced in full lifecycle, team-based development work.

Desired Skills:

• A foundation in C or Java programming.
• Strong communication skills, experience of working in an Agile environment.
• Web and graphics design experience (fully standards-compliant).
• Experience in creating frameworks, templates and documentation for others to use.
• An interest in social networking and game design.
• Experience in Flex RMI to a Java back-end.
• Education in Computer Science or related discipline.
• Experience working in a gaming environment.

For more information/to send in a CV and covering letter, please contact recruitment@mindcandy.com.

No agencies please.

Software Engineer

Salary: £35 – 55k + options (dependent on experience)
Overview:

As a Software Engineer reporting to the CTO, you will develop imaginative and innovative solutions to meet the development needs of the engineering and game development teams.

You will need exceptional problem-solving expertise and attention to detail, as well as the ability to adapt quickly in a dynamic environment and integrate with our highly skilled and diverse team.

Responsibilities / Objectives:

• Designing and developing end-to-end client-server solutions across all tiers of the application layer
• Providing business orientated scalability, performance, security and tuning advice
• Participating in and carrying out design and architecture meetings/reviews
• Creating code of the highest quality and rigorous standards
• Documenting code through comments, unit tests and declarative naming
• Considering code reusability and extensibility at every step of the development lifecycle
• Being an active participant in the whole development life cycle
• Being an active member of the daily Scrum meetings
• Being a mentor to junior members of the tech team, and a point of contact regarding software design and the thorough understanding of user stories

Required Skills:

• BSc or MSc in Computer Science / Software Engineering preferred
• The ideal candidate will be able to program in Java / ActionScript / PHP / any other language we throw at you
• Ability to produce work in a timely fashion, with a focus on scoping tasks relative to business priorities
• Experience working in an Agile/Scrum environment with test driven development
• Experience working on multiple rapidly developed, high traffic web applications
• Experience working with multiple relational database technologies, preferably Postgresql / MySQL
• Experience working with APIs such as Facebook Developer Platform / Facebook Connect, OpenSocial, OpenID is a plus
• Experience working in data services with large volumes of data is a plus

For more information/to send in a CV and covering letter, please contact recruitment@mindcandy.com.

No agencies please.

Technical Product Manager

Salary: £35 – 55k + options (dependent on experience)
Overview:

As a Technical Product Manager reporting to the CTO, you will be a sharp, innovative member of a fast paced social game development company, working with key stakeholders throughout the business to understand, prioritise and communicate project requirements and translate them to a multi-disciplined team of experienced engineers, who you will work with throughout the Agile development process through to release.

You will need exceptional problem-solving, planning and communication skills with a high attention to detail, as well as the ability to adapt quickly in a dynamic environment and integrate with our highly skilled and diverse team.

Responsibilities / Objectives:

• Aggregating input from all stakeholders to form a description of the prioritised requirements for all products across the engineering and game development teams
• Working with our end users, engineering team, marketing team, community team and executive management team to define and rank the top level milestone concepts and more granular sprint backlogs
• Defining user stories and accompanying acceptance tests
• Being an active member in the daily scrum meetings, working with the team on a day-to-day basis and during release and iteration planning
• Representing stakeholders in accepting or rejecting work results
• Representing the interests of the business and end users in development team discussions
• Creating tight and detailed requirements and documentation for engineers to use in product development

Required Skills:

• The ideal candidate will have 3-5 years experience in product management, software design and production
• Experience with Agile / Scrum, preferably as a product owner
• A strong understanding of computer science in general, with a focus on large web applications and rich client development, preferably coming from an on-line social networking / gaming background
• BSc or MSc in Computer Science / Software Engineering preferred
• Games industry experience is preferred, but not necessary
• Excellent presentation and communication skills

For more information/to send in a CV and covering letter, please contact recruitment@mindcandy.com.

No agencies please.

Head of Licensing

Salary: Salary negotiable + Options (dependent on experience)
Overview:

Reporting to the CEO, we are looking for a highly talented individual with kids licensing experience to fill this new position.

We believe there is a tremendous amount of potential to expand our very successful online properties, Moshi Monsters and Moshlings, into innovative physical products across a broad range of categories.

Responsibilities / Objectives:

• Planning and building a global licensing strategy
• Identifying and negotiating licensing opportunities with partners
• Putting in place licensing agreements and handling contract negotiation
• Appointing Licensing agents in territories where relevant
• Full ownership and accountability to drive licensing revenue
• Helping develop new product ideas in-house where relevant
• Being involved in the full lifecycle of products ensuring quality and time to market
• Building and managing an internal Licensing department, as the business grows
• Evaluating and managing attendance at appropriate global licensing shows
• Carrying out revenue analysis and forecasting in conjunction with licensees
• Managing the marketing relationship with licensing partners in conjunction with internal stakeholders
• Working with the internal finance team to ensure licensee’s financial compliance

Required Skills:

• Significant experience working in the kid’s licensing sector,
• Wide range of connections within the toy and licensing industries
• Highly creative mindset
• Strong understanding of social media and online opportunities for licensing businesses.
• Excellent negotiation, presentation and communication skills.

For more information/to send in a CV and covering letter, please contact recruitment@mindcandy.com.

No agencies please.

Business Intelligence Engineer

Salary: £35 – 45k + options (dependent on experience)
Overview:

As a Business Intelligence Engineer reporting to the Head of Technology, you will develop imaginative and innovative solutions to meet the business intelligence needs of our game design, customer support, engineering and management teams.

You will help us gain valuable insights into all our external and internal software projects related to our rapidly growing multi-player game Moshi Monsters, which will lead to increased KPIs and an improved user experience.

You will need exceptional problem-solving expertise and attention to detail, as well as the ability to adapt quickly in a dynamic environment and integrate with our highly skilled and diverse team.

Responsibilities / Objectives:

• Collaborate with other engineers and teams on key business intelligence technology projects and decision support systems
• Create strong relationships with business stakeholders and game designers to progress new business intelligence initiatives, focusing on changes that lead to increased return on investment
• Develop global reporting systems to support strategic decisions in Mind Candy’s core business
• Design, build, and maintain highly-optimized OLAP systems
• Perform proactive analysis and make recommendations that affect critical technical initiatives

Required Skills:

• BSc or MSc in Computer Science and/or statistics related field preferred
• Knowledge of SQL and relational databases
• Working knowledge of industry standard data analysis tools
• Experience programming at least one scripting language such as Perl, Python or Ruby
• Experience in a Java / J2EE environment
• Data warehousing/data modeling/data analysis experience
• Experience with financial reporting systems

Desirable Skills:

• Experience working with social networks, online gaming and children’s properties
• Experience of Postgresql
• Experience of distributed query engines such as Hadoop map / reduce
• Experience of performance tuning database engines
• Experience of Unix/Linux environments
• Experience with Mac OS X
• Experience working in an Agile/Scrum environment

For more information/to send in a CV and covering letter, please contact recruitment@mindcandy.com.

No agencies please.