Sr. Director of Strategic Planning & Business Management, World Wide Customer Experience

Requisition Number: 152966

Position Title: Senior Director, BM&O

External Description:

#WeAreEA and we exist to inspire the world to play. EA values creativity, pioneering, passion, determination, learning, and teamwork. We mean things like acting with curiosity, speaking up with original ideas, and committing to each other as one team.

 

We’re looking for all the best kinds of people to make great experiences for our players. The best people want a job that inspires them, while giving them room to enjoy their lives. And we want to give them that. We celebrate diversity and inclusion by creating a place where you can come to work and be yourself.

 

Sr. Director of Strategic Planning & Business Management, Worldwide Customer Experience (WWCE)

 

The global gaming audience has never been bigger, and no other company can deliver EA’s portfolio of amazing games and services, across multiple platforms, to players across the world. It is an exciting era in games and an exciting time at Electronic Arts – particularly in our WWCE organization where we are on a mission to make EA known for taking care of players by delivering signature help experiences that drive engagement in our games, services, and the Player Network. We’re players taking care of players and people talking to people – whenever, wherever, and however they need us.

 

As a member of the WWCE leadership team, the Sr. Director of Strategic Planning & Business Management reports to the VP of Worldwide Customer Experience and plays a key role in our organization’s transformation.

 

The Sr. Director is responsible for facilitating development of WWCE strategies and business plans aligned to EA’s strategy; leading our approach to executive alignment and investment; and enabling the WWCE organization with experience design, business process, portfolio and project management, and business governance to support delivery of the WWCE vision. They lead their teams to partner across WWCE to deliver clear strategic roadmaps, create actionable and measurable business plans, support plan execution, report on plan performance, and enable leadership steering.

 

Through collaboration with WWCE teams, the Sr. Director enables player, employee, and product success by helping teams identify their roles in the transformation to deliver signature help experiences and define and prioritize initiatives. They synthesize input from WWCE teams and business partners across EA into a cohesive strategic plan, and they represent the WWCE organization in key EA forums inspiring customer experience thinking across the broader EA strategy.

 

So how does the Senior Director of Strategic Planning & Business Management help create great experiences for players? By focusing on:

 

• Strategic Planning
  • Develop and facilitate a strategic planning framework for the WWCE organization that engages leaders and strategic thinkers across WWCE and our business partners to develop a robust and comprehensive set of strategies to deliver a signature help experience
  • Deliver and maintain a multi-year roadmap for the signature help experience aligned with EA’s Player Network strategy, and deliver supporting detailed roadmaps for service delivery, employee experience, the WWCE technology stack, and EA’s games and services
  • Partner with HR and the WWCE leadership team to build a global talent management strategy to attract, develop, and retain an energetic and ambitious workforce
  • Work with the EA Corporate Strategy team and other key functions across the company to share key EA strategies with WWCE, align WWCE strategies to EA priorities, and contribute CX thinking and WWCE plans to the broader EA strategic vision
  • Develop clear and compelling narratives for WWCE strategies and support the VP in presenting strategic plans to senior leadership across EA to drive buy-in, alignment, and investment
• Business Planning & Reporting
  • Translate strategic plans and roadmaps into annual business plans that align the organization against tangible goals and create clear accountabilities
  • Own and lead the business governance framework (including our QBR/MBR process and leadership summits) to manage the business to the plan and enable leadership steering
  • Manage executive performance reporting for WWCE and evolve reporting to cover our entire value chain and impact on the success of EA’s business
• Experience Design
  • Create visual storyboards and journey maps for signature help experiences that bring them to life and drive alignment across leadership and project teams on experience details
  • Enable our Programs, IT, Digital Platform, and Studio teams to create aligned Business Requirement Documents and Technical Requirements Documents that deliver the expected help experiences across WWCE owned systems and channels, EA games, and the Player Network
• Business Process Management
  • Champion and drive business process improvement; mature cross-functional business processes that improve how we work and drive increased organizational effectiveness
  • Implement change management best-practices and mature change management efforts
• Portfolio and Project Management
  • Manage and mature the governance framework used to evaluate, prioritize, greenlight and steer programs, projects, and initiatives
  • Mature portfolio management processes – including resource planning and management, budget management, risk management, and ROI tracking – to enable optimization of our portfolio
  • Improve Portfolio and Program Management System capabilities and usability to increase adoption and productivity
  • Level up project management capabilities and increase bandwidth of the project management team to support a broad portfolio of people, process, and technology initiatives to deliver the signature help experience
  • Develop a strong partnership with the IT project management team to support WWCE technology programs

 

Candidates should be:

 

• Team Player: Fosters a collaborative work environment, promotes diversity, is inclusive, works well with peers across different functions and builds strong relationships.
• Influential communicator: Influences effectively with clear and persuasive presentation and writing; develops and presents compelling strategic narratives to executive audiences.
• Intellectually curious: Has a naturally curious mind and a desire to frame and solve business problems.
• Creative: Finds out-of-the-box/non-traditional ways of problem solving and applies innovative thinking when approaching and defining solutions.
• Self-starter: Self-directed/motivated individual with the willingness and ability to personally jump in, roll up their sleeves and get to work in either a strategic or executional capacity when needed. 
• CX focused: Seeks out great experiences as a customer and assesses customer experiences with a critical eye; is interested in and maintains insights into emerging CX trends.
• Analytical/Systematic thinker: Takes a well-ordered and logical approach to analyzing situations/problems/information, organizing work and planning actions.
• Conceptual/Strategic thinker: Identifies and sees the relationship among key issues while understanding the big picture. Makes plans according to EA’s vision and strategy while aligning shared vision into achievable strategic objectives.
• Proactive/Forward thinker: Anticipates and plans to deal with future events, trends, problems or opportunities.
• Gets it done: Takes action, is results oriented, and thrives on achievement.
• Efficient: Is a highly resourceful and organized person that evaluates everything and implements new ways of doing things faster and
• Coach and mentor: Is an experienced people manager who is effective at developing talent.
• Positive attitude: Has a can-do attitude; finds the bright side in stressful situations and is willing to learn from them.

 

Educational Background or Professional Experience Required:

 

• MBA preferred
• 15+ years of related experience: strategic plan and roadmap development; business planning and budget management; portfolio, resource, and project management; business process improvement; business performance tracking and reporting
• Experience coordinating business strategy development, building execution roadmaps, creating annual business plans and budgets, and developing compelling narratives to drive alignment and investment
• Ability to articulate clear and meaningful goals that focus people’s efforts to deliver results
• Experience developing and improving business process – Six Sigma, BPI, or other business process certification preferred
• Experience implementing best practices for program and project governance
• Knowledge of emerging and established CX practices
• Strategic acumen coupled with tactical excellence
• Strong leadership competencies and people management skills; ability to build and motivate a team
• Preference given for candidates with experience in the customer experience or interactive entertainment industries

 

Compensation and Benefits

 

We love to brag about our great perks like comprehensive health and benefit packages, tuition reimbursement, 401k with company match and, of course, free video games. And since we realize it takes world-class people to make world-class games and player experiences, we offer competitive compensation packages and a culture that thrives off of creativity and individuality. At EA, we live the “work hard/play hard” credo every day. In addition to all of this, we offer a discounted onsite gym, Stepping Stone School onsite, and free popcorn every Tuesday!

 

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Community / Marketing Title: Sr. Director of Strategic Planning & Business Management, World Wide Customer Experience

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: 172

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.