This job might no longer be available.

QA Project Manager

At BioWare, our mission is to create worlds of adventure, conflict, and companionship that inspire you to become the hero of your story. Our teams drive innovation using cutting-edge tech and tools such as the Frostbite engine and collaborate with thousands of world-class developers across EA’s network of studios. We are passionate about games and their potential as a creative medium to reach and inspire people through emotion, artistry, and engaging storytelling. If you share this passion, this is an amazing opportunity to help shape the next generation of gaming.

BioWare Quality Assurance acts as a quality gauge during development, testing not only the product but the processes we use to create our games.

What a QA Project Manager does at BioWare :

The QA Project Manager and team are accountable for defining and delivering the QA project planning, requirements, and deliverables for multiple BioWare titles. You will collaborate with partner program managers to establish schedules, define budgets and ensure the creation of test coverage and project metrics. A QA PM will play a critical role in defining and implementing critical knowledge transfer and the overall communication process with internal and external game teams. They will work embedded within the Development organization or on a central/shared group, drive continuous improvement of the QA practice across EA and actively knowledge share across the organization, have a strong Quality mindset from a consumer perspective, and be a strong advocate and influencer in game design and implementation decisions.

Role Description:

QA Project Managers must possess both a solid project management background and strong people management skills. Most of your time will be focused on ensuring that project deliverables are being completed on time and within budget while maintaining BioWare’s high standard of quality. Additionally, you will focus on continually improving the operational efficiency and effectiveness of the QA effort by assessing current quality assurance practices and incorporating new QA strategies. You will work on department level initiatives as well as operational efficiency initiatives.

You will also spend time managing a direct staff of project leaders and mentoring/supporting junior level leadership within the department. Monitoring performance and delivering measurable feedback to direct reports is an essential function of this role. Embrace the challenge of mentoring and supporting a team of direct reports, and contributing to the development of their careers. Establishing effective working relationships within the QA department, the QA project team and the outside business partners are critical to success in this role.

Responsibilities include but are not limited to:

• Manages a development team which generally consists of Project Leads, QA Designers, and Analysts.
• Works with BioWare game feature development teams to lock down requirements and specifications.
• Anticipates bottlenecks, provide management escalation and prioritization, make trade-offs, balance the business needs versus technical constraints, and drive partner engagement.
• Identifies task-related processes to improve efficiency
• Focuses on the immediate team and identifies team issues and suggests solutions related to execution goals.
• Provides regular status reporting and capacity plan updates.
• Tracks and implements project improvement plans to drive team efficiency.
• Defines engagement practices and processes: Ensure all workflow is clearly defined, processes are documented, and staff trained in expectations on the workflow.
• Mentors individual contributors within the project team
• Ensures direct reports have professional development plans and conducts regular one-to-ones.

What skills does EA look for?

A QA Project Manager is expected to have at a minimum: 3 years of experience in a software development environment, 2 years Project Management or Project Lead experience, and 1-2 years of leadership experience

• Bachelor’s degree in any number of related fields including Computer Science, Game Production/Development, Business, etc..
• Excellent knowledge of production life cycle, tools, processes and executions planning.
• Experience in a Scrum / Agile software development environment.
• Proficient with MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint
• Experience working on console development would be a plus
• Demonstrated experience in working with broad cross-functional teams.
• Strong negotiation, mediation and conflict resolution skills
• Effective communication skills across all levels of an organization
• Hands on experience with our RPG titles (Anthem, Dragon Age, Mass Effect) is a plus.

What’s in it for you? Glad you asked!

We realize it takes world-class people to make world-class games, we offer competitive compensation packages and a culture that thrives on creativity and individuality.

More about our location: http://www.bioware.com/studios/bioware-edmonton/