Senior External Development Manager

31st Union • San Mateo, CA

4d

About The Position

31st Union is seeking a senior external development leader to establish and own the studio’s external partnership strategy and operations. In partnership with the Head of Operations and studio leadership, this person will determine which disciplines and work are appropriate to outsource, choose suitable partnership models, and develop business cases for internal-versus-external decisions. The role combines strategic ownership with hands-on production work, including creating and maintaining the pipelines, tools, workflows, templates, review loops, reporting, and onboarding processes used to manage external partners. This is a first-in-seat role; there is no existing external development team to inherit, and building the function and team as the studio’s slate grows is part of the position.

The Senior External Development Manager will lead partner sourcing and selection, RFPs, commercial negotiations, partnership lifecycles, budget and forecasting, and delivery oversight. They will work closely with Production, Art Direction, craft owners, and discipline leads to align external schedules with internal plans, establish creative briefs and quality standards, manage vendor reviews, and ensure feedback is specific and actionable. They will monitor vendor capacity, cost, milestones, risks, and quality, and report trends and performance to studio leadership and publisher stakeholders. The role is based in California for the stated pay range; the posting does not specify a workplace arrangement.

Requirements

• 6 to 8+ years of external development or production experience in the video game industry.
• A track record of managing external development across multiple projects or a full franchise.
• Demonstrated ownership of budgets.
• Experience running RFPs and negotiating statements of work and rates.
• Strong working knowledge of Jira and ShotGrid/Flow.
• Spreadsheet and data fluency sufficient to build reporting independently.
• Familiarity with Perforce or equivalent source control and with how assets are integrated into a live engine build.
• Ability to distinguish vendor skill gaps from brief or process gaps and provide appropriate feedback.
• Understanding of the purpose of style guides and benchmark assets, and of the value of agreeing on technical constraints early.
• Ability to communicate complex creative feedback clearly and diplomatically, including to non-native English speakers, and to manage communication across time zones.
• Ability to collaborate across internal creative and production teams and external partners, explain the rationale behind decisions, and develop partner capabilities.
• Comfort shaping and adjusting processes in a function that is still being established.

Nice To Haves

• Experience establishing an external development or outsourcing function from scratch.
• Experience working with global partners across multiple time zones and cultures, including studios in Eastern Europe, South America, or Asia.
• Familiarity with publisher-side production and cross-studio coordination.
• Hands-on background in an outsourced discipline such as art, animation, audio, engineering, or QA.

Responsibilities

• Partner with the Head of Operations and studio leadership to set and evolve external development strategy, determine what work is viable to outsource, select appropriate partnership models, and identify work to keep in-house.
• Develop internal-versus-external business cases for outsourcing decisions.
• Design, implement, and maintain external development tools, systems, workflows, and operational policies, including briefs, outsourcing packs, asset trackers, review protocols, acceptance criteria, onboarding documentation, and reporting standards.
• Lead RFPs, vendor outreach, portfolio evaluation, and partner selection.
• Negotiate scope, capacity, cost, and delivery expectations with partners in line with project goals and budget.
• Manage partnership lifecycles with internal stakeholders, including contracts and amendments with Legal and Procurement, invoices, renewals, expirations, offboarding, and onboarding.
• Drive IT and information security escalations to resolution so external partners can work productively and safely.
• Manage the studio’s external development budget and forecasting with the Operations team; model cost against capacity and identify cost-efficiency opportunities.
• Review deliverables against contractual criteria before milestone payments are released.
• Work with Production and discipline leads to identify capacity gaps, sequence external work against internal milestones, balance workload, and align external schedules with internal plans.
• Partner with Art Direction, craft owners, and discipline leads to establish creative briefs, style guides, benchmark assets, and quality bars before production begins.
• Build and run vendor review cadences, ensure work reaches the appropriate internal reviewers on time, and provide vendors with actionable direction.
• Establish technical and visual pre-screening processes to protect Art Directors’ review time and help partner teams improve during engagements.
• Build and manage vendor production schedules, monitor milestone health, and mitigate schedule, budget, or scope risks by raising problems early with options.
• Own the external development database and reporting standards; report vendor KPIs, capacity, spend, and delivery trends to studio leadership and publisher stakeholders.
• Grow the external development function into a team as the slate requires, including making headcount recommendations and establishing team structure and career paths.
• Mentor and calibrate team members managing external engagements across disciplines, whether or not they report to the role.

Benefits

• The compensation package for employees in regular roles may include a bonus and/or equity awards in addition to medical, financial, and other benefits; eligibility and plan details are subject to the terms described in the posting.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: No Education Listed