Development Manager – AAA Games – Guildford, UK

Project: AAA Games

OPMs client is a well-established developer based in Guildford, who are seeking a Development Manager to work on their latest studio title for the next gen.

The successful candidate will oversee the agile development process and practice ensuring teams are aligned and features are thoroughly planned, tracked, and delivered.

They will join a dynamic team and work across multiple disciplines, with the focus on pushing the boundaries for quality and efficiency to create a genuine AAA experience.

REQUIREMENTS:

• Strong experience as a Development Manager or Lead Producer with at least on project shipped in a leadership role
• Knowledge of production management tools & methodologies such as Scrum / Agile, Hansoft, MS Project or Jira
• Strong communication skills across all levels of an organisation
• Examples of superb project management skills
• Strong critical thinking and problem-solving skills
• High motivation and capacity to learn new skills, use new tools and meet new people
• Passionate about gaming and extensive knowledge of different genres across all platforms
• Strong negotiation, mediation, and conflict resolution skills
• A great ability to think proactively and creatively to overcome technical challenges

RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Working across feature development teams to lock down requirements and specifications and create solid backlog, sprint, and milestone plans.
• Tracking and implementing project improvement plans to drive team efficiency.
• Providing regular status reporting and capacity plan updates.
• Responsible for ensuring the correct burn-down analysis and forward projections for completion are always up to date.
• Focus on the immediate team; identifying team issues and suggesting solutions related to execution goals.
• Anticipating bottlenecks, providing management escalation, project prioritisation, making tradeoffs and balancing the business needs versus technical constraints.
• Identifying task-related processes to improve efficiency
• Defining engagement practices and processes: Ensuring all workflows are clearly defined, processes are documented, and staff are trained in the expectations of the workflow.

Team Management:

• Mentoring individual contributors within the project team.
• Managing a multi-disciplined development team which generally consists of Software Engineers, Artists, and/ Designers across differing levels of seniority.
• Able to craft and evolve teams that consistently deliver results and meet their goals; you keep the team's performance consistent, their motivation high, and their morale higher
• Ensuring adequate equipment, tools and support are provided for team members
• Always leading from the front and representing the project teams in forward planning discussions

DESIRED SKILLS (Nice to have):

• Experience of working in online services

BENEFITS:

• Flexible hybrid working
• Discretionary bonus scheme
• Private Healthcare Plan
• Pension Plan
• Life Assurance
• Employee Assistance Programme – Counselling
• Eye Tests

Interested in finding out more about the studio and project? Apply now or call me directly today on +44 (0) 1206 214 427!

Tagged as: Agile, Development Manager, Scrum