Electronic Arts

Role: Development Director

Location: Melbourne, AU

Welcome to Maxis, home to tinkerers, craftspeople, & storytellers. Our drive is to inspire everyone to make a better world through creative play. As the developer of The Sims, we create games and experiences for millions of people around the world and are always looking for new ways to inspire our players. Maxis is a place where you can do what you love and help others grow while doing it; a place where your unique voice can be heard and seen. We put creativity and inclusivity at the core of our work and don't settle for seeing the world only as it is, but strive to build a world as it could be.

As a Development Director with Maxis, you will partner with producers, craft directors and peers to ensure the project is delivered to spec, on time, to quality, and within budget. You will be reporting to the Senior Director.

Role Expectations

• Work with internal and external development teams to guide game requirements and specifications
• Develop roadmaps, schedules and project management schedules
• Define and measure KPIs for project status updates and gate meetings
• Raise project risks to production team and project leadership
• Provide regular status reporting and capacity plan updates
• Run sprint and milestone planning meetings, bug triage meetings, etc
• Lead the full software development cycle through from pre-production through to ship, transitioning into live services including release planning and patching
• Ensure a high-quality product is developed for our players and community
• Establish engagement processes: Ensure all workflows are clearly defined, processes are documented, and onboard staff on expectations of their roles
• Collaborate with development team partners to ensure that project interests and values are represented and maintained through the course of development.
• Coordinate and participate in playtest sessions with development team members
• Travel within Asia (approximately once a month, and ability to stay for 1-2 weeks if needed for project)
• Hybrid or on-site work model based in Melbourne

You have

• Fully fluent in Japanese, both written and verbal
• 3-5+ years Project Management or Project Lead experience. Detailed work in spreadsheets, burndown charts, and JIRA/JaaS and other project management tools.
• 1+ years of People Manager experience.
• Excellent knowledge of production life cycle, processes, and project planning.
• Experience in a Scrum / Agile and waterfall software development environment.
• Some technical and engineering experience allowing you to work with engineers
• Shipped at least 1 AAA titles in large (100+ person) game teams on PC/Mac/Console/Mobile platforms, ideally on multiple platforms.
• Shipped at least 1 Live Service game and have experience with incident management, change management and release planning

Bonus:

• Experience living or working in Japan
• Experience working with simulation games
• Experience working with outsourcing and external partners
• Experience with Unity
• Bachelor's degree in any number of related fields including Computer Science, Game Development, Business, 3D Arts.

Visit us at: https://www.ea.com/ea-studios/maxis