Location:
Dundee or Guildford

Reports to:
Head of Marketing

Job Description:
Realtime Worlds is a highly successful and forward-thinking developer and online publisher of interactive entertainment. Based in Dundee Scotland, Realtime Worlds is the developer of the No. 1 hit game Crackdown and was founded by the original creators of massive franchises such as Grand Theft Auto and Lemmings. To help drive the launch of their new, hotly tipped online multi-player action game APB: All Points Bulletin and future products, Realtime Worlds are looking for an experienced Product Manager.

Responsibilities:
You will be responsible for positioning a new and genre-defining product into a developing online games marketplace. You will conceive and develop innovative marketing programs that drive demand, trial and conversion throughout the beta, launch and live stages of APB. Attention to detail and an eye for quality, along with the ability to grasp and translate product features into benefits are crucial.

Confident and articulate you will have the assertiveness and communication skills required to represent the needs of the marketing department and the end-user in a technical development environment.
Preferably degree educated with at least 5 years relevant experience.

Required Experience:

• Project management skills with the ability to act quickly in a fast-moving environment.
• Previous experience marketing online entertainment products, preferably in games
• An enthusiastic advocate with excellent presentation skills. Comfortable presenting product to multiple audiences
• Experience managing and implementing fully integrated marketing plans
• Commercially astute and with experience of managing budgets with a focus on ROI
• Superior editorial and technical writing skills
• Knowledge of digital marketing techniques and exploiting social media
• Experience managing agencies and third parties
• Previous experience in planning, scheduling, and running events, both in the real world and the virtual world
• An appreciation of customer segmentation and CRM
• Comfortable with MS Office suite of tools
• Be an expert with respect to the competition and the market
• Adaptable, calm and professional you thrive in an environment driven by change

Desired Experience:

• MMO and gaming enthusiast
• Previous experience managing MMOG beta environments
• Previous connections in media and online gaming industry

To Apply:
If you are interested in this position, please complete our recruitment questionnaire located here: Recruitment Questionnaire. Once you have completed the questionnaire, please send your CV along with any current package details to: jobs@realtimeworlds.com and include “Product Manager” in the subject line.

Realtime Worlds is a highly successful and forward-thinking developer and online publisher of interactive entertainment. Based in Dundee Scotland, Realtime Worlds is the developer of the award winning game Crackdown and was founded by the original creators of massive franchises such as Grand Theft Auto and Lemmings.

To help drive the launch of their new, hotly tipped online multi-player action game All Points Bulletin (APB), and future product releases, Realtime Worlds are looking for a highly experienced Senior Project Manager.

The Senior Project Manager will lead all project management and software development team initiatives for the APB franchise and deliver high quality software solutions to delight internal and external customers. The Senior Project Manager will report to the Executive Producer of the APB project.

Responsibilities

• All project management and software development planning efforts. 
• Manage a large software development and project management team, including directly managing technical and project managers.  
• Develop, drive and deliver high quality software releases. 
• Collaborate with production and design teams on product requirements and priorities.  
• Manage stakeholder (marketing, business development, production) expectations and ensure project status is regularly communicated. 
• Establish best practice project and software development procedures. 
• Analyse and anticipate project risks and drive mitigation strategies.

Experience Required

• Previous experience in Senior Project Manager role, or equivalent responsibility, with proven success in shipping quality software products. 
• In depth experience working with numerous project management methodologies; including managing complex projects and coaching other project managers. 
• Strong people management; experience managing large development organisations/teams (80+ people). 
• Experience managing complex projects across geographic locations. 
• Significant logistics and/or operations management experience.

Experience Desired

• Experience with various software development and project management methodologies. 
• Experience managing multiple disciplinary teams. 
• Previous games development experience would be advantageous.

Knowledge/Skills Required

• Excellent organisational, problem solving and project management skills. 
• Proven experience of project management tools.
• Strong communication, presentation, leadership, and conflict resolution skills. 
• Track record of delivering quality software products. 
• Self-directed and detail-oriented with a strong desire to contribute to a uniquely creative environment. 
• Ability to adapt to a variety of working cultures and processes. 
• Strong problem solving skills; able to manage technical problems to resolution.

Qualifications Required

• Project Management certification (e.g. PRINCE, AGILE, PMP) 
• BSc, BA, or equivalent in a relevant subject would be desirable.

To apply

If you are interested in this position, please complete our recruitment questionnaire located here: Recruitment Questionnaire. Once you have completed the questionnaire, please send your CV to: jobs@realtimeworlds.com and include “Senior Project Manager” in the subject line.

Web/Graphic Designer

Employment Status:

Contract To Hire

Job Description:

Realtime Worlds, creators of the No. 1 hit game Crackdown, is looking for a Web/Graphic Designer to join our team in Boulder, Colorado.

Responsibilities:

You will be part of a team tasked to transform concepts into a visually delightful and engaging user experience, working hand-in-hand with our UX Lead and Development team to bring the design to life across platforms. You will be responsible for the look and feel of multiple IPs’ web presence. The team you will join follows Scrum agile development methodology.

Required Skills:

• Ability to work in a fast-paced, deadline-driven environment with high accountability for creative standards.
• Must be able to buy into the established art vision of the game and capable of generating assets that consistently meet this style and associated quality bar.
• Ability to quickly prototype low/high fidelity interfaces.
• Understanding of site architecture, content flow and intuitive navigation schemes.
• Communicate effectively with both technical and non-technical teammates.
• Value and practice iteration in the design process.
• Ability to design web applications, not just websites.
• Passionate about typography and vivid, attention-getting icon design.
• Consider yourself “on the cutting edge.”
• Should ideally have an active interest in computer and video games.

Experience Required:

• Strong portfolio featuring web and print design.
• Expertise in XHTML, CSS, Photoshop, Illustrator.
• Experience with user testing and complicated workflow design.
• Knowledge of JavaScript and Flash.

To Apply:

If you are interested in this position, please send your resume along with any current package details to: boulderjobs@realtimeworlds.com and include Web/Graphic Designer in the subject line.

Senior Java Developer

Employment Status:

Contract To Hire

Job Description:

Realtime Worlds, creators of the No. 1 hit game Crackdown, is looking for a Senior Java Developer to join our team in Boulder, Colorado. You will engage in design, development, testing, troubleshooting, and maintenance of the web applications that support the game, using an agile development methodology.

Responsibilities:

You will be part of a team tasked with designing, building and supporting a Java-based account and billing system. Responsibilities include (but are not limited to) working with stakeholders to elicit requirements and propose solutions; converting high-level requirements into a complete list of discrete development tasks; estimating tasks accurately; anticipating task dependencies that involve your coworkers and requesting them in a timely fashion; creating automated unit tests for all functionality; delivering software on-time, that meets the requirements, and conforms to the architectural and quality standards of the organization; troubleshooting bugs that are found in test and production; supporting the application in production; and documentation of the software for use by the Operations team.

Required Skills:

• Excellent written and oral communication skills and the ability to play well with others. Seriously. You’ll spend time every day communicating with your teammates and external vendors.
• A focus on Java enterprise development for the past few years
• Java
• Spring
• JUnit (or other unit test framework)
• Tomcat (or other app server)
• Familiarity with basic design patterns
• Web development experience (MVC frameworks, HTML, javascript, CSS, etc.)

Highly Desirable Experience:

• Spring MVC (or other MVC experience)
• Agile experience (Scrum, XP, etc.)
• iBatis (or other ORM framework)
• DbUnit
• EasyMock (or other mock object framework)
• Maven
• E-commerce experience (esp. PCI)
• Good relational database skills (SQL, database design)
• Eclipse or IntelliJ
• Git
• Experience with annotations, generics, concurrency, etc.
• Understanding of scalability, clustering, and failover

Other skills that will be helpful include JMX, JSTL, REST (esp. RESTEasy), JAXB, Spring AOP, Apache web server, Hudson, Groovy, UNIX/Linux, Perforce, AJAX (GWT, YUI, jQuery, etc.).

To Apply:

If you are interested in this position, please send your resume along with any current package details to: boulderjobs@realtimeworlds.com and include Senior Java Developer in the subject line.

Partner of Jonathan Garner

I first came to Dundee almost two years ago when my boyfriend was offered a job in QA at the company. It was his first job in the industry and neither of us had been to Dundee before so it felt like a big risk to move up here but I knew that it was a great opportunity for him to come to Realtime Worlds so we agreed to make the move together.

When we first arrived the company were really friendly and helped us both out. They gave us accommodation as part of the relocation package in one of company flats for 6 weeks while he got settled in and I began to search for a job. I found that there were plenty of jobs in the city and quite a few further away too but I was keen to avoid too much travelling so I was pleased when I found a job close to the city centre.

When we came to look for our own place to live we pretty quickly found a flat close to the city centre. The flat was quite nice and a lot cheaper than our previous place had been! Money was a little bit tight because of all the moving but the company were very supportive and helped us to sort out the money for our deposit. All in all things went rather well.

Since moving in things have got even better. We’re now engaged and planning to get married next year. My boyfriend has been promoted and I’m still enjoying my job too. Sometimes I feel like I’m a long way from home but my family are always happy to visit Dundee and I’ve got used to driving home to sort out my wedding plans with my mum! I won’t say it’s always been easy but the company have always been helpful and we’re both settled here now. We certainly don’t regret making the move up here.

Partner of Rob Anderberg

I moved to Dundee from Glasgow about 5 years ago when my husband Rob started work at Realtime Worlds. We are originally from Northumberland in Northern England. I was a little unsure about moving here at first but we found a really nice flat for less than we were paying in Glasgow, and because Dundee is a small city everything we needed was right on our doorstep. Also it’s only a 15 minutes drive or bus ride from the city centre to the lovely Angus or Fife countryside. There are some beautiful places to visit nearby.

Since moving here we’ve bought our first house and had our first baby. I really like living in Dundee and have a really nice group of friends who are mostly partners of other employees. It can be hard bringing up a family away from home but that is made easier for me by the support of friends I’ve made through Realtime Worlds, many of whom are in the same position as me. There are so many people at Realtime worlds that I’m meeting new friends all the time.

Realtime Worlds is a stable well managed games company that’s enabled us to properly settle down. They help to promote a really social atmosphere which includes partners who especially enjoy the company Christmas parties and summer barbecues.

IT Systems Administrator

Employment Status:

Full-Time / Benefits

Job Description:

Realtime Worlds, creators of the No. 1 hit game Crackdown, are looking for a SYSTEMS ADMINISTRATOR to join our IT department.

The Systems Administrator will be an integral member of the IT team providing mission critical support to our Boulder office as well as working with the Senior Systems Architect and Systems Engineer in Scotland and the Online Operations teams in Boulder to define technology solutions.

Responsibilities:

• Day to day administration of multiple Windows Servers and desktop environments.
• Deploy, manage and administrate Microsoft products and technologies.
• Provide creative solutions to unique and sometimes unusual requirements.
• Maintain technical documentation throughout entire project lifecycle.
• Administer audio visual and telecommunication equipment.
• Other IT duties as and when required.

Qualifications:

• Degree in technology related discipline or professional qualification desirable.

Experience Required:

• Administration experience Windows Server 2003/2008 and Windows desktop XP/Vista
• The ability to measure up hardware requirements for given applications.
• Extensive experience with Active Directory, Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft SQL, MS System Center Family.
• Understanding of common virtualization technologies.
• Experience troubleshooting Microsoft Office 2007.
• General understanding of networking technologies.
• Proven ability to create and maintain technical documentation.
• Knowledge and understanding of ITIL best practice.
• Experience working across multiple time zones.

Knowledge/Skills Required:

• Ability to work unsupervised and able to act on own initiative.
• Well organized and the ability to priorities work within a changing environment.
• Experience maintaining the highest standards of quality.
• Good Communication and interpersonal skills.

To Apply:

If you are interested in this position, please send your CV along with any current package details to: boulderjobs@realtimeworlds.com and include IT Systems Administrator in the subject line.

REALTIME WORLDS – creators of the no.1 hit CRACKDOWN and forthcoming online game APB, are looking for a talented Front-End Web Developer, to work closely with the creators of the much anticipated online game APB. This is a contract role for 6-9 months.

Responsibilities:
You will be responsible for skilfully adapting high fidelity in-game content from our cutting edge game title, in to a web friendly user-focused experience. Further, you will be helping to build a dynamic user interface to deliver these assets; working hand-in-hand with our User Experience, Back-end Web Development, and the Product Development teams to fully realize this important extension of our game. You will review Product requirement documents as well as participating in analysis, design and development of application systems.

Qualifications Required:
• A minimum of 4-6 years of development experience in Front-end website development.
• Expert and up-to-date XHTML / Javascript / CSS coding skills.
• Working knowledge experience with relevant client-side libraries such as JQuery / Dojo.
• Deep and thorough understanding of web standards, CSS-based design, and cross-browser compatibility.
• Ability to work collaboratively with design, product management, and engineering teams.
• You design web applications, not just websites.
• You have an eye for detail, pixel-perfect is your motto.

Experience Required:
• Expertise in deploying websites to multiple platforms including Browsers / Mobile / Print.
• Experience with user testing and complicated workflow design.

Knowledge/Skills in the following areas a plus:
• Knowledge of Flash and ActionScript 2.0 / 3.0.
• Knowledge of XML, XSLT, XPATH.
• You have graphical background, be it traditional or digital.
• Familiarity with revision control software such as Subversion / Perforce.
• Game industry experience.

If you are interested in this position, please complete our recruitment questionnaire located here: Recruitment Questionnaire. Once you have completed the questionnaire, please send your CV along with any current package details to: jobs@realtimeworlds.com and include “Senior Front-end Web Developer” in the subject line.

Key Responsibilities

• Be a key stakeholder, along with the Studio Creative Director and Executive Producer, in driving the development and success of the APB franchise
• Lead and mentor an effective team of designers, including collaboration with in-house User Experience team
• Be a key stakeholder in the future evolution and growth of APB from a balance of pragmatism and quality-focus
• Identify and drive improvements to the Design processes, tools, and workflows
• Review and drive improvement to overall game quality and structure
• Oversee the collection, filtering, and analyzing of game feedback from various internal and external sources such as the community, publishing partners, and etc.
• Evangelize the APB Vision and evolution to the team and company at large

Experience Required

• 5+ years of professional game design, including previous design leadership experience
• 2+ years in a design leadership role for medium-to-large (15-30 personnel) design team
• At least 2 shipped AAA persistent online and/or action titles

Knowledge/Skills Required

• A positive leader who can comfortably motivate, mentor & coach direct reports.
• A strong work ethic and passion for expanding and innovating on a persistent online action game
• A structured approach to work and ability to prioritise effectively
• Ability to overcome truly unique design challenges
• Excellent written/verbal communication that succinctly communicates intent
• Able to sift through public and internal feedback from all areas to determine necessary design goals to improve APB post-release
• Able to work under pressure, managing multiple activities in an organized manner
• Ability to work closely with all disciplines and be responsive to feedback
• Strong analytical mentality/conceptual way of thinking
• Advanced understanding of game logic and problem solving
• Passion for and broad knowledge of various genres of games and an ability to critically analyze them

If you are interested in this position, please complete our recruitment questionnaire located here: Recruitment Questionnaire. Once you have completed the questionnaire, please send your CV along with any current package details to: jobs@realtimeworlds.com and include “Design Lead” in the subject line.

The contest is open to university students of any year, as long as you can program. It’s an algorithmic programming contest, similar to the IOI or ACM collegiate contest but in our competition the questions have a game programming slant and each team has just one computer. Last year’s contest was hugely enjoyable for all involved. For more details and last year’s questions, please see the write-up.

Student Programming Contest

When:
Saturday, 6 March 2010, 11 a.m.

Where:
Abertay’s Whitespace
Dundee, Scotland

Rules

• In teams of up to five
• Each team will have one computer to work from
• Choice of C++ or C# programming environments
• Doesn’t matter what year you are as long as you can program

Deadline for entry

The deadline for entry to the contest is 29 January 2010.

Prizes

There will be prizes for the top three teams.

How to participate

If you want to take part please send your team name and names of your team members with contact details to: katieb@realtimeworlds.com. The deadline for entry is 29 January 2010. For any further information, please call Katie Boner at 01382 202821.