J. King-Yost

Acted as frontline unblocking support for Destiny 2 game developers of all disciplines by troubleshooting tools issues and debugging broken content. Consistently followed up issue root causes to identify preventative opportunity areas & drive improvements.
Acted as point of contact and advocate between content creators and engineers regarding tools user experience and engine backend.
Used knowledge of many discipline workflows to improve interdisciplinary communication and collaboration, often across leads of varying departments and disciplines.
Drove user-focused improvements to tools, workflow UX, documentation, and process by identifying workflow and tooling gaps and designing and/or implementing solutions.
Documented institutional knowledge on workflows and technical systems by partnering with subject matter experts to capture, draft, and publish technical docs.
Updated functionality for unowned tools, navigating a large and mature codebase.
Aided in source control management and build pipeline stability.
Gathered and analyzed data metrics to drive solutions-focused continuous improvement efforts.
Mentored fellow Production Engineers and drove improvements to our discipline.
Reduced critical support dependencies on individual, high-level engineers. Set up data metrics to capture support requests randomizing their time, performed data analysis to identify their major support themes, documented institutional expertise, ran training sessions to spread knowledge, and transitioned ongoing frontline support onto ticketed support groups.
Autonomously targeted force multiplication opportunities for personal side projects, including improving workflows for complex source control branch ecosystem management, continuous integration, release management, and build farm infrastructure.

Destiny 2: Lightfall (2023), Destiny 2: The Final Shape (2024) - Staff Production Engineer

After several years of being a lead & manager, I returned to an Individual Contributor (IC) role, dedicated to force multiplication initiatives that impact a wide scope of the Destiny 2 project.

Destiny 2: The Witch Queen (2022) - Senior Production Engineering Manager

Lead a team of Production Engineers supporting the Destiny Systems Development group, which serves all Destiny 2 releases, annual and seasonal.
Lead, managed, and mentored a team of Destiny Production Engineers.
Collaborated with leads of other disciplines to ensure adequate Production Engineer support for Destiny 2.
Assisted IT in studio-adoption of widescale WFH practices and tools.

Destiny 2: Beyond Light (2020) - Senior Production Engineering Manager

Lead a team of Production Engineers supporting the annual content release.
Interviewed, onboarded, and trained new Production Engineers.
Provided individual contributor (IC) support to activity and world art content creators by unblocking them day-to-day, analyzing workflows, and seeking/implementing solutions to general workflow churn.

Destiny 2: Shadowkeep (2019) - Production Engineer II, Senior Production Engineering Manager

Worked closely with Gear Systems and Activity Systems teams.
Unblocked content creators with workarounds and validated in-progress, internal tools for DCC Apps 3DS Max and Maya.
Collaborated with gear artists to write extensive boot camp documentation for their pipelines, including weapons and armor.
Implemented automation for gear designers on weapons and armor teams.
Took on Production Engineer team management and leadership responsibilities.

Destiny 2: Forsaken (2018) - Production Engineer II

Implemented new user experience prompts.
Contributed to campaign flow implementation and other player journey flows.
Supported designers and QA day-to-day by unblocking them when tools or engine issues arose and by taking on content implementation work when needed.

Destiny Engine Team (2017-2018) - Production Engineer

Performed intensive tools and engine testing alongside designers and artists for new tech implementations.
Facilitated communication between content creators and engineers regarding tech changes, bugs, and feature requests.
Validated rapid-iteration builds and kept content creator teams on stable versions.

Destiny 2 (2017) - Production Engineer

Implemented new user experience prompts.
Contributed to campaign flow implementation.
Acted as embedded PE for the team working on the first three campaign missions.
Fixed bugs across a variety of content workflows.

Harebrained Schemes

Game Writer, Additional Writing

WA | 2013-2014

SHADOWRUN: DRAGONFALL

Developed and wrote character backstory and dialogue for a member of the main cast.

Playtest Consultant

Redmond, WA | 2014-2017

Playtested in-development video games to offer swift, honest, in-depth feedback on:

Mechanics
Narrative Continuity
Look & Feel
Level Design
Is it fun?

If desired, I also tracked bug instances with detailed write-ups and screenshots. I tailored services to the team and specific project.

My playstyle is immersive—I play games thoroughly but swiftly, preferring to invest many hours in a few sittings. This meant a lot of feedback over a short period of time.

Case Study: SHADOWRUN HONG KONG Pre-Launch Playtest and In-Depth Feedback Exchange

Games:

3Sharp

Associate Consultant

Redmond, WA | 2015-2017

Captured and packaged Microsoft Office product demo content in XML.
Provisioned XML content into Azure SharePoint environments and performed quality assurance.
Created and maintained training materials and documentation.
Wrote PowerShell scripts to automate processes frequently performed for keynote and demo support.
Contributed to various projects in a variety of roles as needed. For example, captured and edited audio and video of 40 product demos in Camtasia.

AT&T via Yoh!

Data Analyst

Bothell, WA | 2014-2015

Created, updated, and maintained content for an eCommerce database.
Performed quality assurance of customer-facing eCommerce site following database changes.
Contributed to documentation and training materials.
Utilized ticketing system to perform tasks and troubleshooting within

Eastern Washington University

Instructor of English

Cheney, WA | 2012-2014

Teacher, "English 101: College Composition: Exposition and Argumentation" (ENGL 101)

Aided students in-and-out of class to improve critical reading and writing skills.
Adapted existing curriculum to suit student needs, frequently engaging students in class discussion or one-on-one conferences rather than lectures.
Worked to equip students with critical literacy.
Taught the elements of Rhetoric and the importance of understanding that every writing situation is highly unique.

Co-teacher, "Introduction to Literature" (ENGL 170)

Coordinated and organized instructional materials and logistics for team-taught literature course.
Acted as point-of-contact between faculty lecturers and students.
Led student-driven discussion boards through online learning platforms (Blackboard, Canvas).
Led student book discussion groups in person.

Google

Data Specialist II, Group Lead

Kirkland, WA | 2011-2012

Performed data integration and quality control for Google Maps, Field Trip mobile app, and Ingress mobile game.
Led a team of 16-20 operators.
Developed instructional materials and trained new employees.
Acted as Point-of-Contact between tool engineers, IT, and operator teams.
Developed special project workflow, policy, and data collection methods.

Education

C# Programming Certificate Bellevue College Continuing Education

M.F.A. Creative Writing Eastern Washington University

B.A. English & History Montreat College

In-Progress: Coursera C-Programming Specialization Certificate Program

Skills & Languages

Workflow Analysis
User Advocacy
Customer Service
Quality Assurance
Training & Teaching
Documentation

Microsoft Office & SharePoint
Adobe Photoshop
Confluence
JIRA
Power BI & Power Query M
Tableau

Perforce
Git

XML
Markdown
C#
HTML
SQL
PowerShell
OOP

Self-Taught Areas of Interest/Growth Interests: User Research, User Experience Design, Data Analytics, Build Systems & Infrastructure, Engineering Productivity & Workflow Improvements

Contact

jkingyost@gmail.com

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jkingyost/