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Creative Director

Creative Director - The Sims 4

At Maxis, we excel at outrageous thinking. It’s the fuel that inspires the best games in the world. We’re innovators and great storytellers. But it’s not just about amazing your peers – it’s about amazing yourself and our fans. Take risks. Collaborate with brilliant minds and dare to dream big. Together, we can change the way millions play every day.

As the Creative Director for The Sims 4, you’ll work with a large (but tight-knit) team of enthusiastic industry craftspeople from all walks of life. Your job will be to use your passion, knowledge, and leadership to inspire the team, provide and communicate vision, inspire creativity and develop incredible experiences that surprise and delight millions of gamers around the world..

The Sims 4 has an extremely unique player base attracting a large young female skewing audience. We are looking for someone with deep insights on how to create the best experience for our players.

Duties and Responsibilities:

• Champion the creative direction for The Sims 4 on an ongoing basis, inspiring the team through progressive creative design and leadership.
• Collaborate with leadership and brand to determine creative direction for our games.
• Promote and pitch ideas to the Executive team and create excitement and enthusiasm.
• Understand new trends driving player expectations and behaviors.
• Understand how user-generated content and experiences are shaping products in the market.
• Partner with consumer insights to break down and understand the underlying motivations, and then driving solutions to problems and opportunities.
• Sensitivity to mass-market appeal, and the ability to innovate within it.
• Rally and create visible wide-spread support for direction.
• Oversee core design vision and implementation, working directly with designers, producers, programmers, artists, and development.
• Provide guidance and mentorship to peers and junior design staff, assisting them in the resolution of complex problems and growing their skills.
• Represent the game in both internal and external communications. This includes delivering presentations and taking responsibility for internal reviews with team members, partner companies, and handling external interviews with the media.
• Be accountable for the quality targets and the results achieved.

Recommended Skills and Experience:

• 10+ years experience in a creative role within the gaming/entertainment industry.
• 5+ years of experience leading game teams and defining game design and narrative direction.
• Experience designing, launching and evolving a live service.
• Broad, in-depth knowledge of game design. Additional areas of expertise in tech, art, business, etc. are a plus.
• Experience inspiring an organization irrespective of reporting lines; a vocal champion of the work that knows when to defend the work and when feedback will make the idea stronger.
• Can promote the vision for the studio and its projects both within EA. Experience with public speaking, a plus.
• Welcome feedback and criticism, and enjoy working in a collaborative, iterative, and agile process.
• Ca break down complex problems into consumable and relevant pieces for others.
• Can conceptualize and implement game concepts using various technologies.
• Experience working with research departments to establish tests and interpret data to improve design.
• Experience of taking major AAA PC games from concept to completion.
• Experience working with licensing partners is a plus.
• Experience developing games that support User Generated Content is a plus.
• A passion for games. Just as important, a keen desire to make a game with an impact at an industry level.