Description
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.
The Gameplay Development Director (DD) oversees a team that brings together Engineering, Animation, Game Design, Production, and Quality Verification to develop systems, features, tuning, and technology that determine how the game feels, responds, and plays.
As a Gameplay DD, you will directly manage team members across Engineering, Animation, and Game Design, while partnering closely with discipline leaders to support craft excellence, career development, and effective team composition.
You will be accountable for both people leadership and delivery health of your team, establishing clear priorities, translating product goals into executable plans, balancing scope against capacity, managing dependencies and risks, and creating an environment where individuals and teams can do their best work.
Responsibilities
- Lead a multidisciplinary Gameplay team that includes employees from Engineering, Animation, and Game Design.
- Manage the performance, development, engagement, and day-to-day experience of your direct reports.
- Partner with Engineering, Animation, and Game Design discipline leaders to align on employee development, craft expectations, staffing needs, and longer-term capability building.
- Own planning and delivery outcomes for your assigned Gameplay area.
- Translate creative and technical goals into clear, achievable development plans.
- Partner with Gameplay Producers, Designers, Technical Directors, Animation Directors, and Quality Verification leaders to establish priorities and maintain alignment across disciplines.
- Balance current-title support, future releases, and longer-term Gameplay initiatives.
- Monitor team health and delivery performance, proactively identifying risks.
- Lead milestone planning and readiness activities.
- Use player feedback, telemetry, playtesting insights, quality data, and team input to support prioritization and development decisions.
- Lead cross-functional initiatives that require coordination across Gameplay teams, partner organizations, studios, or disciplines.
- Establish and improve team operating practices.
- Provide clear and concise updates to Gameplay leadership.
- Foster a culture of accountability, collaboration, inclusion, transparency, constructive feedback, and continuous improvement.
- Support workforce planning, hiring, onboarding, succession planning, and organizational changes within your area.
Experience
- 8+ years of experience in game development, software development, production, project leadership, or a related field.
- Experience directly managing employees.
- Experience leading multidisciplinary teams.
- Strong understanding of the game development lifecycle.
- Proven ability to manage scope, capacity, schedules, dependencies, quality, and risk.
- Experience translating creative or technical objectives into structured execution plans.
- Demonstrated ability to build effective teams and improve ways of working.
- Experience driving outcomes in a matrixed organization.
- Strong judgment and problem-solving skills.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
- Working knowledge of Agile, Lean, or other iterative game-development and continuous-improvement practices.