Lead External Development Manager

2 Months ago • 8 Years +

Job Summary

Job Description

The Lead External Development Manager at Epic Games will oversee a team managing external vendors for high-quality content and development across multiple Epic first-party games. Responsibilities include mentoring the team, sourcing new partners, negotiating contracts, budget management, and ensuring efficient resource allocation. The ideal candidate has shipped multiple AAA titles as an External Development/Outsourcing Manager or vendor-focused Producer and possesses strong communication, leadership, and negotiation skills. They'll work closely with internal teams (finance, legal, procurement) and external vendors, building and maintaining strong relationships while delivering on project needs and timelines.
Must have:
  • 8+ years external development/outsourcing experience (AAA games preferred)
  • Deep understanding of game development process and external developer integration
  • Strong organizational, communication, leadership, and teamwork skills
  • Budget forecasting, management, and cost optimization expertise
  • Experience negotiating contracts and managing vendor relationships
Perks:
  • 100% premium coverage for medical, dental, vision
  • Long-term disability & life insurance
  • 401k with competitive match
  • Robust mental well-being program
  • Unlimited PTO and sick time
  • Paid sabbatical after 7 years

Job Details

WHAT MAKES US EPIC?

At the core of Epic’s success are talented, passionate people. Epic prides itself on creating a collaborative, welcoming, and creative environment. Whether it’s building award-winning games or crafting engine technology that enables others to make visually stunning interactive experiences, we’re always innovating.

Being Epic means being a part of a team that continually strives to do right by our community and users. We’re constantly innovating to raise the bar of engine and game development.

PRODUCTION

What We Do

Whether it’s driving a vision from start to finish or collaborating with teams to inspire and deliver projects of Epic quality, Epic’s production teams take pride in consistently delivering world-class products and experiences.

What You'll Do

In this role, you’ll manage a team of External Development Managers focused on building co-dev capacity to ensure that multiple external vendors deliver high-quality content and development work. Key elements of this role are experience managing relationships with external partners, a strong understanding of best practices for external development, the ability to communicate effectively across multiple teams with exceptional transparency and planning, and a strong knowledge of how to properly structure, organize, mentor, and grow your team and external development efforts as a whole. The ideal candidate has shipped multiple AAA titles as an External Development / Outsourcing Manager or vendor-focused Producer.

In this role, you will

  • Drive the growth of the External Development Management team by providing strong mentorship, guidance, and growth opportunities, and creating or refining processes as the external development space evolves
  • Work with Fortnite leadership to understand, determine, and deliver on external development needs for co-development across all Epic first-party games. Actively source new co-dev partners to build additional capacity as needed
  • Draw on your experience managing AAA games and your deep understanding of development best practices to provide a vision for successful co-dev practices at Epic
  • Collaborate with Epic’s internal finance, legal, and procurement teams to understand industry standard rates for services and negotiate contract terms with external vendors
  • Be accountable for budget forecasting and management - proactively identifying opportunities to streamline costs, make process improvements, and increase efficiency
  • Manage appropriate contracts and invoice approvals, onboarding and handoff to Epic’s internal teams, and resource ramp-up for external teams
  • Drive the processes for tracking all external vendors - sourcing, evaluations, statements of work, and clearly defining expectations, and manage communications, both internal and external, by providing performance feedback to external vendors, while helping maintain strong relationships between external teams and internal stakeholders

What we're looking for

  • 8+ years of experience with external development/outsourcing, preferably for AAA games
  • Demonstrated understanding of the game development process and how multiple external developers can be integrated into a fast-paced and quality-focused project
  • Highly organized, self-driven, goal-oriented, and a great team player, able to work with some of the most talented developers in the industry
  • Strong ability to track, prioritize, and conscientiously follow through on multiple competing elements of work, in a timely fashion, across groups with varying interests
  • Clear and concise communication, leadership, and people skills

EPIC JOB + EPIC BENEFITS = EPIC LIFE

Our intent is to cover all things that are medically necessary and improve the quality of life. We pay 100% of the premiums for both you and your dependents. Our coverage includes Medical, Dental, a Vision HRA, Long Term Disability, Life Insurance & a 401k with competitive match. We also offer a robust mental well-being program through Modern Health, which provides free therapy and coaching for employees & dependents. Throughout the year we celebrate our employees with events and company-wide paid breaks. We offer unlimited PTO and sick time and recognize individuals for 7 years of employment with a paid sabbatical.

ABOUT US

Epic Games spans across 25 countries with 46 studios and 4,500+ employees globally. For over 25 years, we've been making award-winning games and engine technology that empowers others to make visually stunning games and 3D content that bring environments to life like never before. Epic's award-winning Unreal Engine technology not only provides game developers the ability to build high-fidelity, interactive experiences for PC, console, mobile, and VR, it is also a tool being embraced by content creators across a variety of industries such as media and entertainment, automotive, and architectural design. As we continue to build our Engine technology and develop remarkable games, we strive to build teams of world-class talent.

Like what you hear? Come be a part of something Epic!

Epic Games deeply values diverse teams and an inclusive work culture, and we are proud to be an Equal Opportunity employer. Learn more about our Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) Policy .

Note to Recruitment Agencies: Epic does not accept any unsolicited resumes or approaches from any unauthorized third party (including recruitment or placement agencies) (i.e., a third party with whom we do not have a negotiated and validly executed agreement). We will not pay any fees to any unauthorized third party. Further details on these matters can be found .

Similar Jobs

PayPal - Director Exec Development & Onboarding

PayPal

San Jose, California, United States (Hybrid)
3 Weeks ago
Epic Games - Principal Platform Engineer

Epic Games

(On-Site)
5 Months ago
Visa - PCI DSS Compliance Analyst

Visa

Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand (Hybrid)
1 Month ago
Escape Velocity Entertainment - Outsourcing Art Director - Cosmetics

Escape Velocity Entertainment

(Remote)
3 Months ago
TransUnion - Commerce Solutions Client Success Specialist

TransUnion

White Plains, New York, United States (Hybrid)
1 Month ago

Get notifed when new similar jobs are uploaded

Similar Skill Jobs

Qualcomm - CPU Power Management FW Developer

Qualcomm

Bengaluru, Karnataka, India (On-Site)
1 Month ago
PayPal - Lead Technical Product Manager

PayPal

San Jose, California, United States (Hybrid)
3 Weeks ago
Daybreak Game Company LLC - Game Designer I - EverQuest

Daybreak Game Company LLC

San Diego, California, United States (Hybrid)
4 Months ago
WebTech Corporation - Purchasing Agent

WebTech Corporation

Yankton, South Dakota, United States (On-Site)
1 Month ago
WPI - Summer Nurse (LPN/RN)

WPI

Worcester, Massachusetts, United States (On-Site)
2 Months ago
Scale AI - Machine Learning Research Scientist / Research Engineer, Post-Training

Scale AI

San Francisco, California, United States (On-Site)
2 Months ago
NetEase Games - Infrastructure Engineer

NetEase Games

Quebec, Canada (Remote)
3 Months ago
Scopely - VP, GM - Direct to Consumer

Scopely

Culver City, California, United States (Hybrid)
8 Months ago
Ettain Group - Customer Support Engineer

Ettain Group

Richardson, Texas, United States (On-Site)
10 Years ago
Sigma Nest - Accountant

Sigma Nest

Cincinnati, Ohio, United States (Hybrid)
1 Month ago

Get notifed when new similar jobs are uploaded

Jobs in Cary, North Carolina, United States

bytedance - Research Scientist Graduate (LLM Model Evaluation - Seed)

bytedance

San Jose, California, United States (On-Site)
2 Weeks ago
bytedance - Software Engineer-Infrastructure Delivery Platform

bytedance

San Jose, California, United States (On-Site)
1 Month ago
Apple - Senior Software Engineer—Location Intelligence

Apple

Cupertino, California, United States (On-Site)
2 Weeks ago
Alten Technology - Field Engineer

Alten Technology

San Francisco, California, United States (On-Site)
1 Month ago
Trek - Service Technician

Trek

Allen, Texas, United States (On-Site)
5 Months ago
The Walt Disney Company - Sr Software Engineer (Rust Developer)

The Walt Disney Company

San Francisco, California, United States (On-Site)
7 Months ago
Unbroken Studios - Delivery Driver

Unbroken Studios

Phoenix, Arizona, United States (On-Site)
1 Week ago
Illumina - Director, Software Technical Product Management

Illumina

San Diego, California, United States (Hybrid)
1 Month ago
Rippling - Senior Full Stack Engineer (Backend) - Forecasting

Rippling

San Francisco, California, United States (On-Site)
2 Months ago
Lytx,  Inc  - Partner Development Manager, OEM

Lytx, Inc

United States (Remote)
2 Weeks ago

Get notifed when new similar jobs are uploaded

Similar Category Jobs

Looks like we're out of matches

Set up an alert and we'll send you similar jobs the moment they appear!

About The Company

Montreal, Quebec, Canada (On-Site)

Porto Alegre, State Of Rio Grande Do Sul, Brazil (On-Site)

Montreal, Quebec, Canada (On-Site)

Montreal, Quebec, Canada (On-Site)

Montreal, Quebec, Canada (On-Site)

Montreal, Quebec, Canada (On-Site)

Montreal, Quebec, Canada (On-Site)

Montreal, Quebec, Canada (On-Site)

Porto Alegre, State Of Rio Grande Do Sul, Brazil (On-Site)

Porto Alegre, State Of Rio Grande Do Sul, Brazil (On-Site)

View All Jobs

Get notified when new jobs are added by Epic Games

Level Up Your Career in Game Development!

Transform Your Passion into Profession with Our Comprehensive Courses for Aspiring Game Developers.

Job Common Plug