Electronic Arts

We are EA 

And we make games – how cool is that? In fact, we entertain millions of people across the globe with the most amazing and immersive interactive software in the industry. But making games is hard work. That’s why we employ the most creative, passionate people in the business. 

The Team 

Global Operations are the trusted operational partner that plan and deliver EA content across all channels, platforms and business models to our global network of players.  Within Global Operations, the Planning team plays a crucial role in translating EA's content plans into operational plans that can be effectively executed by our dedicated teams.  Our team comprises two core competencies: Readiness and Planning Management, with a singular focus on building and managing operational delivery plans that ensure our content is delivered with exceptional quality across all platforms and channels. 

Our objectives are: 

• Flawless Execution - Taking pride in quality through repeatable, effective, efficient, dependable requirements, planning, alignment and execution 

• Owning the Dynamics - Building maximum feasible flexibility and speed into our plans and processes and the way we work, while influencing the inbound requirements to maximise successful outcomes. 

• Mutual Success - We win as a team through proactive co-operation, communications and visibility of the status and challenges with our stakeholders and partners. 

 The Roles Responsibilities and Individual capabilities  

The Senior Planning and Readiness Manager is a critical leadership role within the Operations group. You are the owner of your franchise(s) activity, leading a team of planning and readiness experts. In addition, you are the P&R Functional senior leader for your location with direct and indirect reports and responsibilities for the local team.  You will also be responsible for the Franchise Readiness strategy and the alignment, communication and selling of these strategies, approaches and plans within the execution teams and studios as appropriate.  You will be a strong, driving partner of the Ops Franchise Directors to ensure that the ultimate Franchise requirements and expectations that are agreed are deliverable within acceptable risk parameters or have clear, communicated back-up plans or dependencies.  

The Senior Planning and Readiness Manager is the Owner of our franchise execution from the point it transitions from a concept to a live/active status. Once a franchise is in Active status this person is the lead “Go To” partner for all Development and our Internal Execution groups and as appropriate in partnership with Franchise Directors for Commercial aspects. This role will drive execution activity, ensure accurate status reporting and lead/coordinate agile responses to emergent risk and opportunity.  

You will be capable of working and delivering under pressure in a fast-moving, complex environment, engaging with partners at all levels and driving successful delivery by bringing teams together and leading coordinated activity resulting in flawless delivery of our franchises.  

The role requires an operational expert, experienced in delivering high quality results through building strong relationships , strategic and executional expertise, managing through influence and hands on leadership.  

The Role requires excellent people leadership – Across direct, indirect and cross functional teams, equally comfortable in operating standard run procedures, proactive risk mitigation or opportunity management. Additionally, direct and timely leadership of the troubleshooting and solutioning of operational issues is essential.  

The Role requires the ability to communicate clearly and concisely at all levels and present and represent at senior management levels.  

The role will be responsible for a portfolio of titles that will be allocated throughout the year based on factors such as the title plans, timings, studios, complexity, time zones and changes within the year.

The Senior Planning &  Readiness Manager collaborates closely with development teams to guide them through the publishing process. The role fosters close relationships with development teams, technical teams, operational teams and Commercial franchise teams to ensure their releases are achieved as scheduled, using shared best practices.  

High Level Summarised Leadership and Management Requirements/Behaviours 

• Leading a geographically dispersed group of Planning, and Readiness resources. 

• The construction and maintenance of effective alliances with the leaders of our functional teams. 

• An expert in building and maintaining solid information networks. 

• Comfortable managing cross functional planning activity and leading both direct and indirect teams. 

• Demonstrate a high level of political sensitivity and acumen. 

• Capable of operating within an agile and changing environment and delivering the required tactical change management activity to support this. 

• Possess a calm considered approach to conflict resolution between teams whilst also promoting an open group culture and empowered activity. 

• Ability to quickly assess specific delivery requirements and apply the required autocratic or consensual leadership style. 

High Level summarised Site Leadership role/Behaviours 

• Acting as the P&R functional lead for the Vancouver site (5-6 employees) with a mix of direct and indirect reports. Partnering the Franchise Director and Executional Ops teams leads to build a strong Ops team identity, purpose and engagement locally.  

• Lead by example in the areas of work ethics, integrity, and alignment with organizational goals to achieve consistency across the group. 

• Building and maintaining a cohesive high performing team. 

• A positive and leading advocate of our operations team “Can do” culture. 

• Possess/develop a knowledge of local norms and challenges to achieve the best team management results. 

• Be flexible in approach and help the team navigate through uncertainty. 

Key Duties & Responsibilities  

• Accountable for the overall operational readiness of a portfolio of active titles including all operational components such as digital assets, pricing, age ratings, release countries, codes and packaging.  

• Partner with the Portfolio Franchise Directors to translate incoming franchise requirements and commercial plans into a comprehensive operational plan. Owning the quality and executability of the resulting Project Plan and Map that reflects this.  

• Partner with the Senior Planning Managers to create a holistic perspective of the planning task, incorporating both external requirements and operational capability, flagging gaps and leading for early resolution through the appropriate teams.  

• Forge trusting relationships with internal operational teams who own deliverables as a single cohesive unit, aligning on priorities and ensuring smooth execution.  

• Cultivate strong, collaborative relationships with studio development teams by fostering effective communication channels and proactively addressing any potential issues.  

• Own the software schedule from an operational perspective, collaborating with studio development teams to provide agile scenarios and leverage experience to influence towards optimal outcomes.  

• Partner with Studio Finance teams to ensure financial and revenue recognition is fully adhered to as appropriate.  

• Collaborate with wider cross-functional teams such as quality, legal and customer services teams  

• Own internal operational launch readiness, including coordinating pre-launch testing, ship room management and launch activities.  

• In conjunction with operational leads, be collectively responsible through partnership for the effective time critical actions included in the schedule being completed on time and in full.  

• Contribute towards the proactive communication of operational readiness and progress of delivery plans to stakeholders and partners across the business.  

• Proactively Identify potential risks and challenges that may impact the successful delivery of projects and develop robust mitigation strategies to address them.  

• Foster agreement and adherence to a unified approach across the Readiness Management function, ensuring consistency for executional teams.  

• Drive continuous improvement in delivery processes and practices to increase efficiency and quality through open and engaging retrospectives with key teams.   

• Establish and manage key performance indicators (KPIs) for Global Operations, generating valuable insights and improvements using metrics.  

• Stay updated on industry trends and best practices in operations, leveraging this knowledge to enhance the capabilities of the team.  

• Be the operational escalation point of contact for issues and risks within the assigned portfolio  

Core Skills and Knowledge Required  

• A proven and experienced People leader with demonstrated track record of local, international, cross cultural and cross functional leadership – Direct, indirect and influence.  

• A proven Change Agent capable of leading strategic planning and executional deliverables and negotiating and influencing for their successful alignment and engagement. 

• Proficiency in agile project management, demonstrating the ability to quickly adapt and prioritise tasks in response to shifting business requirements and complexity.  

• Strong ability to positively influence others and manage through leadership, influence and engagement, while effectively navigating senior-level interactions.  

• Excellent negotiation skills and comfort in engaging with stakeholders at all levels.  

• Proven ability to establish and nurture strong, trusting professional relationships across multiple teams.   

• Demonstrated capacity to work independently and autonomously, across different time zones and cultures.  

• Exceptional communication skills, both written and verbal, enabling effective communication across various channels and with stakeholders at all levels.  

• Proficiency in data analysis and utilisation, leveraging data to drive performance improvements and inform decision-making processes.