Jason Zielinski AI operations integrator / Chicago

Jason Zielinski · Director-level leadership · Chicago

AI operations integrator for tomorrow’s businesses, games & creative studios Building teams, pipelines, and agentic systems that ship now.

Games are the track record, not the destination. Twenty years of shipped titles, live-service production, and international teams are the proof. The forward work is AI fluency and leadership — helping organizations in any sector build the teams, pipelines, and systems that ship what’s next.

  • AI operations
  • People leadership
  • Agentic systems

Human judgment. Machine leverage. Shared progress.

AI operationsPeople leadershipAgentic systemsPipeline designTeam buildingCross-sector leadership
01 / Scale

Proof at scale.

The numbers behind the statement — measured in production, not promised in a deck.

35%

Fewer art revision cycles after workflow automation at Studio Wildcard.

22%

Faster vendor delivery timelines through clearer systems and review paths.

3×

Concurrent international workstreams led at Iron Galaxy Studios — three workstreams running in parallel, from alignment and coaching through final delivery.

3 mo

To deliver ARK: Survival Ascended at Studio Wildcard — rigging and up-resing of Evolved assets completed inside a three-month production window.

02 / Leadership case studies

Transformation, not just titles.

Three leadership engagements, framed by what changed — the situation I inherited, the system I built, and the result it produced.

Studio Wildcard

ARK: Survival Ascended

Art Outsource Manager · 2023–2024

The situation

ARK: Survival Ascended needed its Evolved asset base rebuilt — rigging and up-resing characters and creatures — inside a three-month production window, delivered through internal artists and external partners.

What changed

I built qualification and evaluation frameworks for the partner pipeline and put workflow automation into the review loop, so quality was checked against a shared standard instead of negotiated asset by asset.

The result

35% fewer art revision cycles — and delivery inside the three-month window.

Iron Galaxy Studios

Rumbleverse

Art Outsource Manager · 2020–2021

The situation

Rumbleverse, a live-service title, was being fed by three concurrent international outsource workstreams — each with its own schedule, partners, and time zone.

What changed

I ran the three workstreams as one delivery system: shared alignment, asset review, and approval rhythms connecting art direction, design, production, and the external partners — so decisions stopped waiting on time zones.

The result

Three international workstreams delivering in parallel — one quality bar and one delivery rhythm across every time zone.

Zynga

Hit It Rich!

Lead Artist · Lead Art Outsource Manager · 2011–2016

The situation

Zynga was pivoting from city-builder games to casino products, and Hit It Rich! needed an art operation built for continuous live-service content — not one-off launches.

What changed

I helped establish the art pipeline and the scalable live-service processes behind the pivot, leading multi-studio partners across resource allocation, schedules, quality, and forecasting.

The result

A repeatable production system behind the studio’s move from city-builder to casino — the operating pattern I have scaled with distributed teams ever since.

03 / AI in practice

AI fluency, in practice.

Applied, not theoretical. This is the AI work I design, evaluate, and ship in my current role as an AI Trainer at Handshake AI — and the automation practice I built running production pipelines before it.

01

Procedural generation

Designing and evaluating procedural generation workflows for interactive-content production — systems that produce variations from rules and parameters instead of one-off manual builds.In practice — workflow design & evaluation · Handshake AI

02

LLM-assisted review

Building review loops where large language models take the first pass against a brief or a standard, so human reviewers spend their judgment on the calls that actually need it.In practice — LLM-assisted review workflows · Handshake AI

03

In-game agents

Evaluating agent use cases inside games — how autonomous systems decide, act, and stay inside design intent before they ever reach players.In practice — agent use-case evaluation · Handshake AI

04

Production automation

Automating the repetitive steps inside art and content pipelines, so teams iterate faster with fewer loops and clearer ownership.In practice — workflow automation at Studio Wildcard cut art revision cycles by 35%

Tools change quarterly. Judgment, standards, and team capability are what compound.

04 / Track record

The work behind what comes next.

Major franchises and live-service production are the past-tense proof: I can align people, systems, and technology when quality and delivery both matter.

05 / Experience

The path to AI-fluent leadership.

Twenty years of hands-on making, live-service production, global team leadership, and now AI-enabled systems design.

2005 → present

Games built the operating experience. The next chapter applies it wherever people and AI must work well together.

2026—Present

Handshake AI

AI Trainer · workflow evaluation · team-ready AI practices

2023—2024

Studio Wildcard

Art Outsource Manager

2022

Activision / Toys for Bob

UI Artist

2020—2021

Iron Galaxy Studios

Art Outsource Manager · three international workstreams · live-service delivery

2016—2019

Booming Games

Art Director · Art Outsource Manager

2011—2016

Zynga

Lead Artist · Lead Art Outsource Manager

AI fluency · leadership · tomorrow’s teams

Let’s build teams ready for what’s next.

Portfolio / The proving ground

The work behind
what comes next.

Two decades of games, art, and production show the foundation: craft, systems thinking, people leadership, and delivery under real constraints. This is the track record behind a broader, AI-fluent future.

← Back to overview

Hover, focus, or tap any section image to open its full product grid — then hover or tap a tile for JZ’s exact dates and credit on that product.

ARK: Survival Ascended key art 11 products · Official box / key art onlyHover to browse →
Interactive worlds

Video games

Production-ready visual work built for real-time and live-service worlds: from character and creature development to UI, optimization, and cross-studio delivery. It is evidence of how I lead complexity, not a limit on where I lead next.

  • ARK: Survival AscendedArt Outsource Manager · 2023–2024
  • Crash Team RumbleUI Artist · 2023
  • RumbleverseArt Outsource Manager · 2020–2021
  • Pirates of the CaribbeanArt · Pinball · 2018
  • Dialed In!Animation · Pinball · 2017
Hit It Rich! slot art — Zynga 2 products · Official slot artHover to browse →
Casino & entertainment

Slots

Complete visual systems shaped around immediate appeal, readable play, animation, and franchise character—from individual art suites to scalable studio pipelines.

  • Hit It Rich!Lead Artist · Lead Art Outsource Manager · 2011–2016
  • Deadmau5 slotSlot Art / Design / Animation Consultant · 2020
  • Booming GamesArt Director · Art Outsource Manager · 2016–2019
Comic art by Jason Zielinski, as published on this site The Hearts of Men: Throne of Deceit · 2011Hover to browse →
Sequential storytelling

Comics

Illustrated narratives built around pacing, expression, composition, and the transition from one story beat to the next.

  • The Hearts of Men: Throne of DeceitBy / creator · 2011
Character artwork by Jason Zielinski, as published on this site NBA Ballers: Phenom · Character Artists · 2006Hover to browse →
Character & creature

Character art

Character work guided by silhouette, personality, material language, and production constraints—designed to stay expressive from concept through implementation.

  • NBA Ballers: PhenomCharacter Artists · 2006