Lead External Development Manager

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

This role is open to multiple locations across North America and Europe (including CA & WA).

Pay Transparency Information

The expected annual base pay range(s) for this position are detailed below. Each base pay range is relevant only for individuals who are residents of or will be expected to work within the specified locale. Compensation varies based on a variety of factors, which include (but aren’t limited to) things such as skills and competencies, qualifications, knowledge, and experience. In addition to base pay, most employees are eligible to participate in Epic’s generous benefit plans and discretionary incentive programs (subject to the terms of those plans or programs).