What does an Audio Director do?
An audio director leads the sound strategy and audio team for a game or other interactive media project. Working with creative, design, engineering, and production leads, the audio director defines the project’s sonic identity, supervises music, dialogue, and sound effects, and guides implementation through game engines and audio middleware. The role balances artistic direction with technical performance, accessibility, scheduling, and budget constraints.
This is a leadership position for a communicative, deadline-oriented, and creative problem-solver.
At a Glance
This is a senior position in the audio team and requires a minimum of five years working in video game audio. Audio directors typically start out as sound designers and may be generalists or specialized in an area such as dialogue, music, or effects. After some time on the team, senior designers may be chosen to lead small audio projects and eventually be promoted to audio director. An ideal candidate for this position has experience with many aspects of game development, including at the very least audio development, sound design, implementation, and basic game design.
The Game Audio Network Guild (G.A.N.G.) presents many opportunities for networking within the audio section of the video game industry. Attending general video game industry conferences such as the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) or the Game Developers Conference (GDC) can also prove valuable for networking.
- Sound design
- Electronic production
- Audio engineering
- Audio implementation (typically C or C++)
- Video game design
- Leadership
- Personnel management
- Budgeting
A communicative and deadline-oriented problem-solver who sets the pace for the rest of the team. Must possess a great sense of time and resource management, be calm and hardworking under pressure, and constantly look for ways to improve workflow.
This is typically a full-time position with a salary and benefits. As with most video game industry roles, production cycles are extremely influential on work hours and environment. At the very start of a project, the job might resemble a typical office 9-to-5; in deadline crunch-time, however, the audio director might work nine to 12 hours per day, through weekends, and from home.
