Development Manager - EA Sports FC

Electronic Arts builds higher levels of entertainment experiences, inspiring players and fans around the world. In this role, you will lead a multidisciplinary team responsible for delivering key areas of the on-pitch experience in EA SPORTS FC.

As a Development Manager, you will report to the Development Director and directly manage team members across Engineering, Animation, and Game Design. You will partner closely with discipline leaders to support craft excellence, career development, and effective team composition.

Your responsibilities will include:

• Leading a multidisciplinary Gameplay team that includes employees from Engineering, Animation, and Game Design.
• Managing the performance, development, engagement, and day-to-day experience of your direct reports.
• Partnering with Engineering, Animation, and Game Design discipline leaders to align on employee development, craft expectations, staffing needs, and team capability.
• Supporting planning and delivery outcomes for your assigned Gameplay area.
• Translating creative and technical goals into clear, achievable development plans.
• Balancing current-title support, future releases, and longer-term Gameplay initiatives.
• Monitoring team health and delivery performance, proactively identifying risks.
• Fostering a culture of accountability, collaboration, inclusion, transparency, constructive feedback, and continuous improvement.

Requirements:

• 5+ years of experience in game development, software development, production, project leadership, or a related field.
• Experience directly managing employees, including goal setting, coaching, career development, performance assessment, and managing performance concerns.
• Experience leading multidisciplinary teams that include two or more of Engineering, Animation, Game Design, Production, or Quality Verification.
• Strong understanding of the game development lifecycle and the collaboration required to deliver player-facing features, systems, content, and technology.
• Proven ability to manage scope, capacity, schedules, dependencies, quality, and risk across multiple workstreams.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to facilitate difficult conversations and communicate effectively with senior leaders and cross-functional partners.

Bonus skills:

• Experience working directly with Gameplay teams or systems such as controls, artificial intelligence, physics, animation, player movement, game balance, responsiveness, or competitive gameplay.
• Experience leading teams within a large-scale AAA game-development organization.
• Experience supporting an annualized sports franchise or another product that balances live-service commitments with future product development.