Development Director, Distributed Development

EA Create is a collective of content production teams partnering with EA Studios game teams to deliver outstanding visuals, audio and technology. Our teams comprise of artists, engineers, technicians, designers and development directors. Worldwide, we combine our teams to form a global group of extraordinary individuals fueled by imagination and a unified passion for creating amazing visuals, sound and experiences. We are a diverse team, unified through collaboration, culture and craft.
Development directors in the XDI Content (ExDev) team manage various responsibilities in partnership with internal team members, clients, EA stakeholders, and external 3rd party developers. They are responsible for finding scalability and content creation solutions for EA’s internal teams, primarily through 3rd party developers and internal solutions like leveraging other EA locations and resources.
The ExDev DDs are responsible for working with client teams such as Sports Art and non-content partners to find content creation solutions. While also finding scalability by applying standardized processes for requirements gathering, requirements analysis, and 3rd party vendor shortlisting, testing and selection, or alternative solutions. Responsible for being an information conduit between external content development and other EA teams, such as XDI (Intelligence) and External Dev teams at other studios.
The ExDev DDs are keepers of the external development artifacts for each engagement such as development schedule, staffing plan, budget, travel and onsite, training, stakeholders register, risk register, and communications plan. They play a vital role in successfully moving the content development teams from one project phase to the next while ensuring a strong focus on quality, collaboration, and communication (both internally and externally). They must work with internal and external teams to manage the project on time, top quality, and within budget. They also serve as an escalation point for the internal and 3rd party development teams when production issues need resolution.
Leadership:
Build effective partnerships, including establishing trust and credibility with EA Studios and Vendor studios around the globe
Build and maintain effective working relationships with the immediate team and those outside of the immediate team that influence the successful completion of the project
Seek knowledge, develop process improvements, and actively apply them to improve the organization.
Manage a small team of employees; provide challenges and developmental opportunities to ensure that all employees reach their potential.
Provides regular coaching and mentoring for direct reports; ensures the team is trained on the necessary skills, processes, and best practices.
Provide line management to employees across disciplines within a single project team
Maintain regular communication with project teams and coordinate dependencies with external partners
Drive collaboration with other Ex Dev team members and Content teams such as Global Resourcing, Business Operations, and Artworks.

Development:
Proactively assesses and mitigates risk for assigned scope and actively works with product owners and tech leads to resolve problems.
Partner with client DDs, Leads, and TAs to manage scope and quality
Take ownership and see projects through despite obstacles and difficult circumstances while demonstrating a sense of dependability and commitment.
Hold Game Teams, Sports art, External Development, EA Shanghai, and 3rd party vendors responsible for delivering on agreed-upon content; systemize upstream and downstream dependency management and reporting for the External Development team
Help improve all external development processes, including leveraging the best tools, review practices, and collaborative relationships (within and external to Content teams)
Report status at regular intervals, escalate urgent issues promptly
Manage assigned distributed development budgets, including short and long-term forecasts
Identify, assign, and track development and organizational issues to completion.
Solve problems, balance priorities, and find creative solutions to achieve results

Project management:
Establish an overall external development project schedule based on the individual task estimates for content development
Determine the resource requirements to meet the task requirements
Establish a project budget, staffing plan, onsite and training plan, determine task dependencies, and assign tasks to team resources as appropriate
Run stand-ups and sprint planning meetings effectively (or conduct engagement alignment in an alternative, effective, visible manner)
Track work progress and report status back to product owners at a regular cadence

Qualifications:
Ability to recognize and balance priorities focusing on eliminating the root causes of problems
Prioritizing and resolving issues through creative problem-solving skills
Highly developed relationship-building skills and the ability to establish credibility and influence within EA and external development partners
Senior-level influencing skills
Practical communication skills across all levels and organizations
Experience in various project management methodologies
Ability to work in a dynamic and collaborative team environment