[MichaelEstes]

One interesting thing I’ve noticed over my career bouncing between the video game industry and general software industry is that every decently sized game studio I’ve worked for has had people in the role of technical artist, these are the people who bridge the gap between art and engineering, but I’ve never seen a similar role though at massively larger software companies. I’ve seen people with strong design sense in engineering and people with engineering skills in design, but it’s always been siloed enough that they’ve never been able to really make an impact one way or another on the final product. I’ve always thought I would reuse that same structure even if I was making non video game software.

[hudixt]

I refer to these people as the "glue" between two departments.

At big companies, this is mostly a management issue.

Questions like these are common 1.) Is this person part of the design team or engineering team? 2.) Who does this person report to, and how is his sprint planned?

And, as a company grows in size, managing people becomes a more important issue than focusing on minor product details.

[kitsunesoba]

Perhaps the company structure needs re-evaluation if cross-discipline individuals don't have places that they neatly fit without fudging.

[asplake]

Organisation is always a compromise. Rather than seek the perfect structure, it’s better I think to address what makes structure get in the way of doing the right thing. Better structure may follow, but it’s a constant fight. Different challenges call for different people to work together.

[rarecoil]

Meta hires technical artists for a fair amount of code-and-3D work. Here's an open job req: https://www.metacareers.com/v2/jobs/2076260812574632/

[tiffanyh]

Product Manager?

Is what you’re describing the role of a product manager?

[meheleventyone]

Nope, a Technical Artist will own the art pipeline and tools for artists as well as help produce specific pieces of art that need programming skills. They're an artist who can code or a coder who can make art. So they're using both talents to interface the artists to the game engine and runtimes.

In games a Product Manager doesn't really exist as a specific role generally and is distributed between the Production and Design teams.