EA SPORTS is one of the leading sports entertainment brands in the world, with top-selling videogame franchises, award-winning interactive technology, fan programs and cross-platform digital experiences. EA SPORTS creates connected experiences that ignite the emotion of sports through industry-leading sports videogames, including Madden NFL football, FIFA Soccer , NHL® hockey, NBA LIVE basketball, PGA TOUR golf, SSX , and EA SPORTS UFC . For more information about EA SPORTS, including news, video, blogs, forums and game apps, please visit www.easports.com.
The Challenge Ahead
A Development Manager (DM) on Madden, is responsible for ensuring the successful delivery of a game feature on time and within budget. The DM oversees the project schedule, hiring, and manages the team to deliver to a high standard
Responsibilities
- Manages a development team which generally consists of Software Engineers, Animators, Artists, and/or Designers. Works across Madden feature development teams with to lock down requirements and specifications.
- Anticipates bottlenecks, provide management escalation, project prioritization, make tradeoffs, balance the business needs versus technical constraints, and drive initial partner deployments.
- Identifies task-related processes to improve efficiency
- Focuses on immediate team and identifies team issues and suggests solutions related to execution goals.
- Ensures each projects setup meets the specifications with Studio.
- 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 project team
- Ensures all have professional development plans. Conducts regular one-on-ones.
What skills does EA look for?
An EA Development 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..A Master’s degree is a plus
- Excellent knowledge of production life cycle, tools, processes and executions planning.
- Experience in a Scrum / Agile software development environment. Scrum Master Certification is desired.
- Proficient with MS Word, MS Project, Excel, PowerPoint, Perforce, and Visio
- 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
EA is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, ancestry, pregnancy, age, sexual orientation, marital status, protected veteran status, medical condition or disability, or any other characteristic protected by law.