Electronic Arts

EA SPORTS is one of the most iconic brands in entertainment – connecting hundreds of millions around the world to the sports they love through a portfolio of industry-leading video games.

EA SPORTS NHL has revolutionized sports gaming for millions of players worldwide. We’ve pioneered award-winning creative technology and experiences to connect players to the speed, skill, and heart of the NHL. The EA SPORTS NHL franchise is founded on passion and new ideas. Located in Vancouver, British Columbia, the team is composed of diverse talent dedicated to creating on-ice experiences that connect gamers around the world through play. If you're a creative pioneer with a passion for your craft, this will be more than a job. It’ll be what you love. 

The Role

Reporting to a Lead Development Director, this Development Director will manage the Character art department at a senior, strategic level, overseeing the day-to-day production of the team. As the DD, you will be the keeper of the project schedule and play an important role in successfully moving the team from one project phase to the next while ensuring a focus on quality, collaboration and communication. You will partner with producers to ensure that they are managing the project on time, to quality, and within budget. You are right for this role if you are passionate about solving difficult and fast-moving problems. Your greatest strengths are building strong relationships, strategic thinking and strong execution. You like to be challenged and thinking about the future excites you.  

This team works hybrid. - 2 days/week onsite at EA Vancouver.

Your Responsibilities

• Build and evolve effective teams; identify resourcing needs, provide challenges and development opportunities to ensure that all employees reach their potential

• Responsible for the full operational aspects of the development, including establishing development framework, reporting, risk management, capacity planning, resource management, and project auditing for one or multiple projects/teams.

• Responsible for the budget for one or more complex projects/teams.

• Work with the project leadership to define the project/team strategy and lead the team in execution against milestones and key deliverables.

• Solve problems, balance priorities, and find creative solutions to achieve results.

• Develop, maintain and publish project and team KPI’s that track project performance. 

• Establish regular communication with the team and key stakeholders to provide project status updates including development results, schedule, and changes.

• Responsible for coaching, mentoring, and career development of your team.

• Foster and support an inclusive and diverse team culture.  

Job Qualifications:

• Proven track record of successful delivery of highly critical projects; preferably in the gaming industry. 

• Track record of significant project and risk management.

• Experience managing a large project, or multiple projects including project auditing. 

• Excellent written and verbal communication and possesses strong emotional intelligence skills.

• Excellent analytical and problem solving skills - able to work on complex problems where analysis of situations requires an in-depth evaluation of various factors.

Required Skills:

• Excellent change management skills, i.e., comfortable with ambiguity and constant change, yet able to set priorities and execute on commitments.
• Strong leadership skills: ability to challenge and influence a variety of stakeholders.
• Self-starter who is able to identify and solve problems.
• Possess passion, energy, enthusiasm to drive results; highly action orientated. 
• Flexible and agile: ability to adapt quickly and be effective in new situations in a highly dynamic environment.
• Able to effectively and quickly build relationships and establish trust, respect, competence and confidence.