Lead Artist

About Us

Weekend is the leading developer of voice AI games for smart TVs. Our games attract millions of users every month, with family favorites like Jeopardy!, Song Quiz, CoComelon: Sing and Play with JJ, and Wheel of Fortune.

We believe voice interfaces will become the main way people access entertainment in their living rooms, kitchens, bedrooms, and cars. We're building a bundled subscription product similar to Netflix or Spotify for the emerging category of "AI-powered games."

Weekend was founded by Max Child and James Wilsterman in 2024. The founders went through Y Combinator in 2018 and landed a spot on the 2022 YC Top Companies List. We're a quickly-growing team headquartered in Union Square, San Francisco.

Role Summary

Weekend is hiring our first in-house Lead Artist to own the visual craft across our entire games slate: Jeopardy!, Wheel of Fortune, Song Quiz, Wit's End, CoComelon, and titles in development. This is a hands-on role. You'll ship game UI, HUD, menus, lobby, and key art moments yourself, run the specialist contractor roster, and set the standard for what the Weekend games art studio becomes. Lead Artist today, with a clear path to Art Director for the right person.

This job opportunity offers a hybrid work arrangement, and we are specifically seeking candidates who are comfortable with on-site attendance in our Bay Area office 2-3 times per week and are either currently residing in or near the Bay Area or willing to relocate for on-site work.

What You'll Do at Weekend

• Ship the screens. Game UI, HUD, menus, lobby, and key art moments on titles in flight and in development. The work needs to land in a living room, not a desktop.
• Hold the craft bar across every Weekend title. The same household plays across our games. The interaction and finish should feel like one studio made them, even as each title keeps its own visual identity.
• Run the specialist roster. Decide who you need, when, and for which titles. Brief and direct contractors on character, environment, motion, and video. Own scope, timeline, and quality on those engagements. Cut the spend that isn't earning its keep.
• Ship production-ready, not previs-perfect. Get art into the actual title alongside engineering, then iterate. Don't over-stay in mockups.
• Set what the games art studio becomes. Hire the next artists alongside you, shape the standards the team works to, and grow the bench as the slate grows.

We're Excited About You Because You Have

• 6+ years shipping game UI, HUD, and key art across TV, console, web, or mobile. Your portfolio shows finished screens you took from rough to live. Multiple shipped titles is a plus.
• Exceptional game UI and HUD craft for stylized, family-facing titles. Typography chosen rather than defaulted. Density that fits the surface. Motion that means something on a tap. Range across the rest: composition, color, hierarchy, layout, illustration as an adjacent discipline. You produce key art and screens yourself, not just briefs.
• Daily AI in your hands. Midjourney, Claude, Cursor, ChatGPT, or whatever you reach for. You explore ten directions in an hour and ship faster, and you have a sharp opinion on where AI belongs and where it doesn't.
• Managed and directed contractors on shipped game work. You've held the bar with specialists you don't see every day, owned scope and budget, and stepped in to ship the fix when the work wasn't landing.
• Bias to ship. You'd rather get art into the actual title this week and iterate than spend a month polishing in a deck.
• Love of games. You play them, you have opinions about why some feel right and others don't, and you bring that intuition to the work.

Bonus Points

• AI side projects, art-related or not. Any AI work you've built on the side.
• Mobile game UI experience, including mobile-controller surfaces.
• Game-show, party, trivia, or family co-viewing format experience.
• Built an art team from one seat up.

Our Stack

• Figma for UI design
• Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects)
• Image-gen tools (Midjourney and similar)
• Claude, Cursor, v0 for prototyping and prompt work
• Unity for engine-based titles

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• AI-driven asset pipelines on our newer game scaffolding

The Hiring Process

• Stage 1 (Recruiter Screen): 30-min call with a member of our recruiting team
• Stage 2 (Hiring Manager Screen): 30-min conversation covering portfolio, philosophy, and contractor management experience
• Stage 3 (Take-Home Art Test): A take home design exercise
• Stage 4 (Onsite): Portfolio review, project-based session, and conversations with the product team and founders
• Stage 5 (Founder Chat): Conversation with our founders

What's in it for You

• Your medical, dental, and vision insurance is 100% covered by Weekend, for yourself and all dependents, and we match 401k!
• We offer a flexible, hybrid work-from-home and in-office work model.
• We offer unlimited paid time off (enforced 2-week minimum), 14 paid holidays, 40 hours of bereavement leave, and unlimited sick days.
• Our generous parental leave policy includes 24 weeks at 100% pay for birthing parents and 12 weeks at 100% pay for non-birthing parents.
• We offer visa support for eligible candidates, making relocating for the job smoother and more streamlined.
• A full breakdown of our benefits is here!

For Pay Transparency: The final offer amount may depend on experience, education, skills, and location. Base pay is one part of the total package that is provided to compensate and recognize employees for their work.