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Business Development Associate, External Development Intelligence (XDI)

Electronic Arts Inc. is a leading global interactive entertainment software company. EA delivers games, content and online services for Internet-connected consoles, personal computers, mobile phones and tablets.

XDI's purpose is to accelerate development by identifying the world's best external partners, ensuring successful engagements, and sharing industry knowledge.

As part of EA Create, we search the globe for trusted and talented external partners to work with EA Studio game teams and central technology teams. We are a central team that owns EA’s due diligence evaluation process and risk management process. We support multiple disciplines, including co-dev, porting, art, animation, cinematics, UX-UI, engineering, and audio.

Key Responsibilities:

• Partner evaluations and due diligence reporting using XDI’s risk management framework.
• Supporting strategic partner portfolio management including regular check-ins and on-site assessments with established partners to ensure ongoing trust and viability.
• As a key partner in EA’s Game Development Framework we support a portfolio of internal game teams and central tech teams by consulting on external development strategy, recommending partners, providing partner risk assessments, and occasionally helping with issue resolution.
• Collaboration with a broad cross section of central teams including Legal, Security, Audit, Global Strategic Sourcing, Finance, Compliance, and other central roles to ensure clear process and program management of EA’s requirements for working with external partners.

Team Related:

• The XDI team works in a mostly distributed fashion. We have members in Redwood Shores (California), Stockholm (Sweden), Vancouver (British Columbia), Orlando (Florida) and Shanghai (China)
• We interface with team members and partners around the globe. Our work is primarily conducted using Zoom, email, Slack, and project management tools.
• Early morning or evening calls and travel (when possible) are a reality for this role as we interface with global partners and teams. That said, our team is encouraged to strive for work life balance and to proactively manage capacity in a way that supports this goal.
• Candidates with a strong preference for an in-person team dynamic may not thrive in this role as much communication and collaboration is now done remotely.
• Our team members know that our team doesn’t start and stop with XDI. It’s important to expand our network (both within EA and externally).
• Our team members are self-directed with an ability to quickly surface the right information at the right time to those who need it.

Business Partnerships:

• XDI manages EA’s Strategic Partner portfolio. As an associate, you will be a supporting point of contact for a subset of this portfolio. You will assist in evaluating development and operational risks, issue resolution, and have a high degree of integrity when it comes to conducting oneself with outside key partners.
• You will share critical knowledge about our partners with XDI, other Business Development groups, and teams across the company to ensure those working with our partners access the information they need to make key decisions.

Experience & Capabilities:

• Our team strikes a fine balance between advocacy for our partners, both internal and external, and conducting risk evaluations to ensure EA’s IP is protected. Candidates have to be able to do both.
• Ability to think and act globally. We interact with EA teams and external partners from all over the globe. We expect our team members to conduct themselves with high integrity and embrace cultural differences, value diverse opinions, and do their part to promote an inclusive development environment.
• Demonstrated business acumen: this role requires objective decision making, and excellent collaboration ability with diverse teams and partners.
• Lifelong learner who is inquisitive and enjoys knowledge acquisition as much as knowledge sharing. Should have a degree of comfort with public speaking, delivering presentations/panels, and facilitating brainstorming sessions.
• Game development experience is highly desirable.
• Experience in centralized departments such as studio operations, publishing, licensing, program management, business development are highly transferable for this role.
• You will be expected to travel on-site to visit your partners on occasion and while often you will travel with other XDI team members or EA game team members there are times you will be asked to travel alone. Must have a degree of comfort with business travel and everything that comes with it (expense reports, airports, time zone changes, etc). On average, XDI team members do one international trip (1 week+/- duration) and 2-3 short domestic trips a quarter.

XDI Team Values:

• Collaborative team players.
• Ethical, fair, objective decision makers.
• Support and solution focused.
• Think and act globally.
• Work life balance is key to our success.
• Self-directed with inner drive.
• When the going gets tough, the tough get going!
• Influence without ego.
• Passion and enthusiasm.

Reporting:

This role reports to a Manager of External Development Intelligence, as part of the EA Create organization.