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

Epic Games is searching for an experienced Lead External Development Manager to partner with the external development teams on Fortnite. In this role, you’ll manage a team of External Development Managers focused on building co-dev capacity to ensure that high-quality content and development work is being delivered by multiple external vendors. 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 for new co-dev partners to build additional capacity as needed
• Draw on your vast 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 experience with external development/outsourcing and external content and development management required, 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.