Development Director - The Sims

Electronic Arts creates next-level entertainment experiences that inspire players and fans around the world. Here, everyone is part of the story. Part of a community that connects across the globe. A place where creativity thrives, new perspectives are invited, and ideas matter. A team where everyone makes play happen.

Who is Maxis?

Welcome to Maxis, home to tinkerers, craftspeople, and storytellers. Our drive is to inspire everyone to make a better world through creative play.

As the developer of The Sims, we create games and experiences for millions of people around the world and are always looking for new ways to inspire our players. Maxis is a place where you can do what you love and help others grow while doing it; a place where your unique voice can be heard and seen.

We put creativity and inclusivity at the core of our work and don't settle for seeing the world only as it is, but strive to build a world as it could be.

Role Overview: Quality Assurance - Development Director I

As a Development Director I leading Experiential Quality, you will lead the team responsible for evaluating how features, content, and gameplay experiences are landing from a player perspective.

You will establish the operating model that turns structured player-focused evaluation into actionable product insights, helping development teams understand where experiences are succeeding, where risks are emerging, and where changes could better support player expectations and creativity.

You will partner with other areas such as Development, Production, etc and Quality leaders to translate intended player experiences into clear experiential quality criteria, evaluation approaches, measurable quality signals, and development priorities.

As a people leader, you will develop Quality leaders and specialists, establish clear ownership and accountability, and ensure the team has the skills, structure, capacity, and franchise knowledge required to provide credible player-focused insights throughout development.

Responsibilities

• Lead, develop, and support a high-performing Experiential Quality team by setting clear expectations, creating accountability, and ensuring individuals understand how their work contributes to product and organizational goals.

• Manage and develop team leaders and individual contributors through regular coaching, performance feedback, career development, and growth opportunities.

• Monitor team health, engagement, workload, and organizational effectiveness, identifying issues early and taking action when team structure, responsibilities, or ways of working need to change.

• Generate regular reports on the activities and findings of the local team (in partnership with EQ leadership) to highlight the quality status of the project.

• Ensure the team has the right mix of skills, player perspectives, franchise knowledge, and leadership capability to meet current and future Experiential Quality needs.

• Partner with leadership and Talent Acquisition on workforce planning, hiring priorities, onboarding, and long-term capability development.

• Create an environment where team members can challenge assumptions, raise concerns, share player perspectives, and provide constructive feedback without unnecessary barriers.

Experience

Candidates will be expected to speak to the following levels of practical experience:

• 7+ years of experience in a software development environment 

• 5 years Project Management or Project Lead experience

• 5 years minimum of leadership experience

• Risk management and solutions oriented problem solving techniques

• Experienced with financial management, budget tracking, QA cost estimates and constraints

• Strong personal communicator comfortable communicating across technical and non-technical disciplines with the ability to influence where needed

• Strong understanding analytics and KPIs as a way of tracking product quality

• Excellent knowledge of production life cycle, tools, processes and execution planning

• Experience in a Scrum / Agile software development environment