Development Director

Requisition Number: 151286

Position Title: DD I

External Description:

We’re Criterion, and we love making games!

Over the last fifteen years we’ve entertained millions of players around the world with our award-winning games. From Burnout & Need for Speed to the critically acclaimed VR mission for Star Wars Battlefront, Criterion have always pushed the boundaries, delivering through technical excellence, world-class game feel and AAA audiovisual quality.

We place enormous value on creative collaboration, fresh ideas, and unique perspectives. Our studio is a healthy mix of industry veterans and newcomers working together to inspire, support, and educate one another. We encourage free experimentation, innovation and exploration very explicitly with regular “off-the-grid” time.

Criterion don’t put people in boxes. Folks here have freedom to navigate their careers the way their hearts take them – we’re not big on labels. Our features are built by teams who choose to work together, actively encouraging cross-discipline crack squads to solve the toughest problems.

The working day has space carved out for everyone to play games – by themselves or together, be they tabletop or videogames, we love them all. Learning from the widest range of experiences makes our own games better.

Over the years, we’ve learned that crunching is flat-out stupid, so we don’t do it.

The Challenge Ahead:

Criterion have recently embarked on their most ambitious projects to date, partnering with DICE on Star Wars Battlefront II and now pushing the boundaries with our own brand-new IP.

We are growing our team with fresh, talented people who can help us take a huge leap forwards.

We are looking for someone passionate about project management who wants to help our teams succeed.

They will be responsible for ensuring a feature team or group of feature teams have credible plans and the teams are set up for success to deliver on them.  They will help the team be effective and efficient striving to deliver a great game experience within budget and on time.

We are hoping to find someone with these passions:

• Coaching and facilitating PEOPLE
• Applying the right development PROCESS to suit the challenge
• A CURIOUSITY to learn more the craft of a Development Manager as well as a passion to learn from others and share
• Generous COLLABORATION: a desire and inherent need to work with others to achieve great things, develop ideas, plans and strategies

What a Development Director does at Criterion:

A typical week could include:

• Leading a daily stand up
• Reflecting team’s progress back to them with appropriate metrics
• Facilitating sizing of remaining work
• Communicating feature progress as context for powerful decisions
• Tracking and communicating budget constraints
• Tracking and communicating risk

Experience and knowledge we are looking for

• Knowledge and experience of project management techniques for example Agile (preferably SCRUM), Kanban etc
• Experience of team coaching and facilitation (Not necessarily in games)

Not essential requirements but certainly helpful qualities and skills

• Experience in delivering games
• Experience working in media or creative industries such as film and TV
• Craft experience in game development such as an artist, programmer etc.

We thought you might also want to know more about our location: https://www.ea.com/careers/careers-overview/guildford

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Community / Marketing Title: Development Director

Company Profile:

We are a global team of creators, storytellers, technologists, experience originators, innovators and so much more. We believe amazing games and experiences start with teams as diverse as the players and communities we serve. At Electronic Arts, the only limit is your imagination.

EEOText:

About Electronic Arts

Everything we do is designed to inspire the world to play. Through our cutting-edge games, innovative services, and powerful technologies, we bring worlds with infinite possibilities to millions of players and fans around the globe.

We’re looking for collaborative and inclusive people with diverse perspectives who will enrich our culture and challenge us. We take a holistic approach with our benefits program, focusing on physical, emotional, financial, career, and community wellness to support our people through every chapter of life. We provide comprehensive benefit packages and support for a balanced life with paid time off and new parent leave, plus free games and so much more. Our goal is to provide a safe and respectful workplace that empowers you to thrive in both work and life.

Electronic Arts 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. We will also consider employment qualified applicants with criminal records in accordance with applicable law. EA also makes workplace accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities as required by applicable law.

Days Open: 144

Can this position be remote?:

EEO Employer Verbiage:

About Electronic Arts

Everything we do is designed to inspire the world to play. Through our cutting-edge games, innovative services, and powerful technologies, we bring worlds with infinite possibilities to millions of players and fans around the globe.

We’re looking for collaborative and inclusive people with diverse perspectives who will enrich our culture and challenge us. We take a holistic approach with our benefits program, focusing on physical, emotional, financial, career, and community wellness to support our people through every chapter of life. We provide comprehensive benefit packages and support for a balanced life with paid time off and new parent leave, plus free games and so much more. Our goal is to provide a safe and respectful workplace that empowers you to thrive in both work and life.

Electronic Arts 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. We will also consider employment qualified applicants with criminal records in accordance with applicable law. EA also makes workplace accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities as required by applicable law.