Development Director

As a Development Director for the Live Service Systems team at 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.

Responsibilities:

• Collaborate with team members to establish and assign tasks across Engineering, Design, and Experience Design.
• Partner with Producers to navigate priority changes while managing scope and quality to deliver on commitments.
• Track team progress and provide regular status reporting and capacity plan updates.
• Identify risks and lead mitigation across assigned features and systems.
• Determine resource needs to meet task and project requirements.
• Lead Agile ceremonies including stand-ups and sprint planning.
• Manage direct reports in client and gameplay engineering – guide individual development plans, and conduct regular one-on-ones and performance reviews.
• Provide line management to employees across disciplines within the project team.
• Coordinate dependencies with internal teams and external partners.
• Resolve cross-discipline issues by partnering with product owners, tech leads, and craft leads.
• Define workflows and ensure processes are documented and understood.
• Propose creative solutions to team issues across processes, strategy, and communication.
• Develop working relationships with the immediate team and those outside of the immediate team that have an effect on the successful completion of the project.
• Manage hiring for your team; work with craft directors, subject-matter experts, and the recruiting team to define roles and responsibilities, interview candidates, and deliver equitable offers.

Qualifications:

• Minimum of 5+ years of project management or team leadership experience in a software development environment
• 2+ years of applied experience managing direct reports, driving personal career development and work performance.
• 2+ years of experience managing the workload for engineers
• Bachelor's degree in relevant fields or equivalent professional experience.
• An understanding of game development, interdisciplinary dependencies, and associated development risks.
• Effective in a collaborative cross-discipline team environment
• Experience with different project management methodologies, such as Waterfall and Agile

Benefits:

• Comprehensive benefits package, including health care, mental wellness support, retirement savings, paid time off, family leave, free games, and more