Summary
We are looking for a Senior Producer to lead production across our Cinematics, Narrative, and Audio disciplines on an all-new open world game. This is a deeply cross-functional role - one that requires someone who can hold the long view on story and craft while also managing the day-to-day complexity of three highly interdependent teams.
As a Senior Producer at Absurd Ventures, you will partner directly with Narrative Directors, Cinematics Directors, and Audio Directors to plan, schedule, and deliver content that is ambitious in scope and cohesive in execution. You understand how cinematics, story, and sound function together to create emotional impact - and you know how to protect that work inside the pressures of a large production. You are a clear communicator, a steady presence under uncertainty, and someone who earns trust across disciplines by being prepared, direct, and honest.
Core Responsibilities
- Own production planning, scheduling, and milestone delivery across Cinematics, Narrative, and Audio, ensuring all three disciplines are aligned and moving at pace.
- Partner with department directors and leads to define scope, build roadmaps, track progress, and surface risk before it becomes a problem.
- Facilitate cross-discipline coordination across Narrative, Cinematics, Audio, Mission Design, Animation, and Engineering - making sure dependencies are visible and handoffs happen cleanly.
- Track and manage the narrative pipeline; working with studio partner teams to facilitate asset creation and ingestion into the game.
- Maintain a clear picture of team capacity, flag resourcing gaps early, and work with Production leadership to resolve them.
- Run effective reviews, standups, and cross-team syncs - keeping meetings purposeful and decisions documented.
- Track and manage budgets across your disciplines, providing accurate forecasts and escalating when needed.
- Protect the creative intent of directors and leads by building schedules that give the work room to be good - and knowing when to push back on scope.
- Mentor and support Associate Producers and Coordinators on your team, helping them grow and take on more ownership over time.
Core Qualifications
- 7+ years of production experience in the video game industry, with at least one shipped AAA title as a Producer or Senior Producer.
- Direct experience producing across at least two of the three disciplines - Cinematics, Narrative, or Audio - at meaningful scale.
- Deep understanding of how cinematic, narrative, and audio content is built, integrated, and iterated on in a large open world production.
- Demonstrated ability to manage complex cross-discipline dependencies and keep multiple workstreams on track simultaneously.
- Experience working with external vendors supporting cinematics or audio content.
- Comfort working closely with creative directors and strong-willed leads - you can hold a schedule and push back on scope without damaging trust.
- Excellent written and verbal communication. You run a tight meeting, write a clear brief, and know how to deliver hard news without drama.
- Proficiency with standard production tools - Jira, Shotgrid, spreadsheets, or equivalent - and the judgment to know when to use them lightly.
Plus if…
- Experience producing narrative or cinematic content inside Unreal Engine 5, with familiarity of Sequencer or dialogue toolsets.
- Background in film, audio post-production, or interactive narrative
- Experience managing mo-cap shoots or on-set productions.
- Familiarity with music licensing, adaptive audio systems, or middleware such as Wwise or FMOD.
- Previous experience on an open world title with a large mission and story slate.
Description
- Full-time job with benefits.
- Role is on-site in Santa Monica, CA.
- Office is located near downtown Santa Monica - near metro and freeways.
- The base pay range for this position is $120,000 to $150,000 per year. Actual compensation is based on market location and may vary depending on job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. We also offer a competitive package of benefits including paid time off, sick time, company holidays, parental leave, medical/dental/vision insurance, life insurance, disability insurance, and 401(k) to regular full-time employees. Certain roles may also be eligible for bonus and equity.
About Absurd Ventures
Absurd Ventures is a media company creating new IP across all platforms and for all formats. Absurd Ventures is building narrative worlds, creating characters, and writing stories for a variety of genres, without regard to medium, to be produced for live-action and animation; video games and other interactive content; books, graphic novels, and scripted podcasts.
Skills Required
- 7+ years of production experience in the video game industry, with at least one shipped AAA title as a Producer or Senior Producer.
- Direct experience producing across at least two of the three disciplines: Cinematics, Narrative, or Audio.
- Deep understanding of how cinematic, narrative, and audio content is built, integrated, and iterated in large open world production.
- Demonstrated ability to manage complex cross-discipline dependencies and multiple simultaneous workstreams.
- Experience working with external vendors supporting cinematics or audio content.
- Comfort working closely with creative directors and strong-willed leads; ability to hold schedules and push back on scope while maintaining trust.
- Excellent written and verbal communication; ability to run tight meetings, write clear briefs, and deliver difficult news constructively.
- Proficiency with standard production tools (Jira, Shotgrid, spreadsheets, or equivalent).
- Experience tracking and managing budgets, providing forecasts, and escalating when needed.
- Ability to mentor and support Associate Producers and Coordinators.
- Experience producing narrative or cinematic content inside Unreal Engine 5, familiarity with Sequencer or dialogue toolsets.
- Background in film, audio post-production, or interactive narrative.
- Experience managing mo-cap shoots or on-set productions.
- Familiarity with music licensing, adaptive audio systems, or middleware such as Wwise or FMOD.
- Previous experience on an open world title with a large mission and story slate.
What We Do
Absurd Ventures is an entertainment company creating new IP across all mediums including video games, live-action and animated TV, film, fiction podcasts, books, comic books and more. Absurd Ventures’ original properties include the sci-fi thriller universe “A Better Paradise”, the crime fiction universe “American Caper,” and the comedy satire universe “Absurdaverse”. The company has already launched a chart-topping audio fiction series set in the “A Better Paradise” universe and will be debuting an American Caper comics series and Absurdaverse animation projects in 2025. Founded by Dan Houser, Absurd Ventures is headquartered in Santa Monica, with additional studio offices in Marin, CA. Storytelling. Philanthropy. Ultraviolence.








