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Senior Quality Analyst (Audio)

We’re Criterion, and we love making games!

For more than fifteen years we’ve entertained millions of players around the world with our award-winning games. Our experienced people have expressed their passion for outstanding game feel, AAA audiovisual quality and technical innovation in the Burnout & Need for Speed series and in Battlefield 1, Star Wars X-Wing VR, Starfighter Assault and Arcade for Star Wars Battlefront II and Firestorm for Battlefield V.

We believe that healthy, engaged teams make great games, so we place enormous value on collaboration, fresh ideas, and unique perspectives. We’d love to hear yours! Crunch doesn’t help make a better game. We don’t do it. For the past three years we are very proud to have been recognised by gamesindustry.biz as one of the best places to work in the UK. Let’s talk about how you could be a part of it.

The Challenge Ahead

Criterion Games is looking for a senior quality analyst for Audio to join our team. Reporting to the QA Project Manager, you will support the Audio development team and ensure a high standard of audio testing is being provided across the game.

What a Quality Analyst does at Criterion

As an Audio Analyst, you will perform an important role in ensuring that our games retain their excellence in audio, which Criterion is known for. The job involves playing (i.e. testing) the games’ audio components in a systematic way, analysing the audio systems against the designer’s intentions, setting up test scenarios, identifying/solving problems and suggesting improvements. You will be embedded in the audio team working directly with our engine Frostbite.

Since the Audio Analyst role is directly integrated into the audio department. Our sound designers are among the best in the business and have a good ear for audio quality. The Audio Analyst complements this by focusing more on the technical aspect of the sound: how different audio systems behave, what the performance impact is on different platforms, researching bugs and acting as an intermediary between the audio department and the QA department.

We are looking for someone who has an ear for detail and collaboration. Your responsibilities will include identifying software defects, verifying fixes, building and running test cases, deciding and working on how a situation is handled to support the audio team in varying tasks.

What you will do:

• Primary QA owner for game audio features and systems.
• Determine and maintain the test strategy for audio, ensuring and accurate reporting of status and risk.
• Find and precisely describe audio bugs across the game.
• Make sure that SFX, VO, ambience and music tracks are audible and triggered under the correct conditions.
• Verify that the audio follows the release’s actions (synchronism and coherence)
• Help determine audio targets to the wider QA team ensuring music, VO, SFX and ambience meet the desired criteria.
• Represent QA within the audio development team; be visible, vocal and integrated.
• Help improve to the quality and consistency of audio bug reports across the QA teams.
• Participate in daily audio stand-ups and share updates with the wider QA team.
• Maintain an intimate understanding of the audio features, underlying systems, and associated requirements; proactively share details and changes with the wider QA team.
• Work with our remote test team to ensure high-quality audio service delivery.
• Utilise development tools to guide issue identification upstream and promote defect prevention.
• Interpret data from numerous sources to produce clear, relevant information, driving decisions to improve product quality.
• Provide qualitative feedback.
• Partner with team members across the business to ensure agreement.
• Promote opportunities to improve and improve processes.

This contract role is planned to run until Dec-2021

What you will have:

• Knowledge of the audio design and implementation process.
• An understanding of the technical limitations of videogame audio (e.g. performance, memory budgets, channel counts, surround sound, compression, multi-player audio and the submission build process)..
• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent industry experience in Audio.
• Previous games or software development QA experience (2+ years).
• Knowledge of gaming consoles and their systems..
• Observational skills..
• Passion for audio quality.

Also desirable:

• Experience with applications such as JIRA, Confluence, DevTest, TestRail, Perforce or Git.
• Experience with test automation.
• Experience with telemetry systems.
• Experience with data analysis and visualisation tools, such as Power Bi or Tableau.
• Experience with game engine editors, such as Frostbite, Unreal Engine, or Unity.
• Programming, scripting, or database experience (e.g. C#, Python, JavaScript, T-SQL, MySQL)
• Experience working with Agile methodologies (Scrum, Kanban)

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EA is an equal opportunity employer. All employment decisions are made without regard to race, color, national origin, ancestry, sex, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, genetic information, religion, disability, medical condition, pregnancy, marital status, family status, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. EA also makes workplace accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities as required by applicable law.