Development Director

General Information

Location: Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Worker Type: Regular Employee
Studio/Department: EA Studios - SPORTS
Work Model: Hybrid (On-site Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday)

The Role

Reporting to the Lead Development Director, the Gameplay Development Director (DD) leads a multidisciplinary team responsible for delivering key areas of the on-pitch experience in EA SPORTS FC. Gameplay brings together Engineering, Animation, Game Design, Production, and Quality Verification to develop the 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 the people leadership and delivery health of your team. This includes 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, including setting expectations, providing feedback, supporting career growth, and addressing performance concerns.
• Partner with Engineering, Animation, and Game Design discipline leaders to align on employee development, craft expectations, staffing needs, and longer-term capability building.
• Own the planning and delivery outcomes for your assigned Gameplay area, ensuring that scope, capacity, priorities, quality, and execution are aligned with product and franchise objectives.
• Translate creative and technical goals into clear, achievable development plans with defined milestones, dependencies, ownership, and success criteria.
• Partner with Gameplay Producers, Designers, Technical Directors, Animation Directors, and Quality Verification leaders to establish priorities and maintain alignment across disciplines.
• Balance the needs of current-title support, future releases, and longer-term Gameplay initiatives, identifying trade-offs when available capacity does not support the full scope of work.
• Monitor team health and delivery performance, proactively identifying risks related to staffing, workload, dependencies, quality, decision-making, or execution.
• Lead milestone planning and readiness activities, maintaining visibility into feature completion, tuning, defect trends, validation plans, dependencies, and ship risks.
• 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, including planning, status reporting, risk management, dependency tracking, decision-making, and development reviews.
• Provide clear and concise updates to Gameplay leadership on progress, risks, mitigation plans, staffing needs, and decisions requiring support.
• 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.
• Balance strategic planning with hands-on leadership, personally driving critical initiatives and helping the team resolve complex delivery or people challenges when needed.

Experience

• 8+ years of experience in game development, software development, production, project leadership, or a related field, including experience leading complex teams or programs.
• 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.
• Experience translating creative or technical objectives into structured and achievable execution plans.
• Demonstrated ability to build effective teams, improve ways of working, and create clarity in complex or ambiguous environments.
• Experience driving outcomes in a matrixed organization through influence, collaboration, and stakeholder alignment.
• Strong judgment and problem-solving skills, with the ability to balance product, delivery, people, and organizational considerations.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to facilitate difficult conversations and communicate effectively with senior leaders.
• Working knowledge of Agile, Lean, or other iterative game-development and continuous-improvement practices.

Bonus Qualifications

• 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.
• Experience managing employees from different crafts or job disciplines.
• Experience using player feedback, telemetry, playtesting, and quality data to inform development decisions.
• Experience leading teams through finaling, launch readiness, live issue response, and post-launch updates.
• Experience working with globally distributed teams and stakeholders.
• Knowledge of EA SPORTS FC, football, and the broader sports-gaming landscape.
• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent professional experience.

Compensation and Benefits

Pay Range: $122,300 - $170,700 CAD (based on location within British Columbia).

Benefits Package:

• Vacation: 3 weeks per year to start.
• Sick Time: 10 days per year.
• Family Support: Paid top-up to EI/QPIP benefits up to 100% of base salary (12 weeks for maternity, and 4 weeks for parental/adoption leave).
• Health Coverage: Extended health, dental, and vision.
• Insurance: Life insurance and disability insurance.
• Retirement: Retirement plan for regular full-time employees.
• Additional: Certain roles may be eligible for bonus and other incentive programs.
• Wellness: Holistic approach covering physical, emotional, financial, career, and community wellness; may include mental well-being support, complimentary games, and more.

About Electronic Arts

Electronic Arts creates next-level entertainment experiences that inspire players and fans around the world. The company values adaptability, resilience, creativity, and curiosity, nurturing environments where teams can bring their best to their work. EA is an equal opportunity employer and makes all employment decisions without regard to race, color, national origin, ancestry, sex, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, genetic information, religion, disability, medical condition, pregnancy, marital status, family status, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.