Senior External Development Manager
About The Position
The Senior External Development Manager is accountable for the end-to-end management of external development partnerships at the project level. This role owns and drives the external development pipeline across all disciplines, ensuring partners deliver assets and content on schedule, within scope, and at the highest quality standards. The Senior External Development Manager establishes and evolves production practices that integrate external partner contributions with internal development teams while maintaining the flexibility to support internal production efforts as project demands shift.
Requirements
- Minimum of 6 years of experience in project management, production, or a related role within the video game industry.
- Deep understanding of game development pipelines and mastery of external development workflows.
- Proven track record of managing multiple external partners simultaneously with significant autonomy.
- Experience with RFP processes, contract negotiation, and budget management.
- Proficiency in production tracking software (e.g., Jira, ShotGrid) and collaboration tools.
Nice To Haves
- Experience working with global vendors across various time zones.
- Familiarity with publisher-side production and cross-studio coordination.
Responsibilities
- Own the full lifecycle of external partnerships, including onboarding, offboarding, contracts, and invoices.
- Lead RFP creation and vendor outreach for new project requirements.
- Negotiate and align vendor scope, capacity, cost, and delivery expectations with project goals and budget.
- Manage IT onboarding and troubleshooting to ensure secure partner access to tools and systems.
- Build and manage vendor production schedules and milestones.
- Track deliverables, monitor milestone health, and proactively mitigate risks related to schedule, budget, or scope drift.
- Drive the continuous improvement of vendor workflows, documentation, and toolchains to increase efficiency and quality.
- Report on vendor KPIs and delivery trends to studio leadership.
- Support internal production efforts across disciplines when the team requires additional capacity, transitioning fluidly between external management and hands-on internal tasks.
- Partner with Art, Production, and discipline leads to define creative briefs and style guides.
- Serve as the primary communication bridge between internal teams and external vendors.
- Mentor studio members and XDev Supervisors on external development best practices.
- Partner with the Director of External Development to maintain the studio-level external database and reporting standards.
Benefits
- bonus and/or equity awards
- full range of medical, financial, and/or other benefits
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Senior
Education Level
No Education Listed
Number of Employees
501-1,000 employees
