Founded in 2010 by the original creators of the Call of Duty Franchise, Respawn was created with the philosophy that when talented people have creative freedom, they'll make extraordinary games that achieve the unexpected. Our shipped titles include critically acclaimed multi-platform games Apex Legends, Titanfall, Titanfall 2, Star Wars™ Jedi: Fallen Order and Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond. You can learn more about our studio and values at respawn.com/studio.
We are seeking a Sr. Director of Experience Design to manage and lead the Apex Legends XD team. The position will report to the Game Director and have ownership of several key initiatives across the studio leveraging candidate’s expertise and experience to help create and foster incredible experiences for Apex Legends. You will use your understanding and passion for designing player-first experiences to add to the creative execution and business success of the game.
You’ll be leading a team of UX designers, UI artists, and UI scripters, and manage the XD leadership team across all three disciplines. You’ll collaborate with all other disciplines to ensure a cohesive game experience and partner closely with the tools and tech teams to own and improve the XD teams’ pipeline and toolset. You will manage and develop the long term vision for Experience Design while execute that vision each season in a live service environment.
Your Responsibilities
- Lead your Experience Design team to create innovative and intuitive user experiences across a wide range of game features.
- Collaborate with Directors, Leads, and other Senior leadership stakeholders to align on high-level creative goals and product vision.
- Work closely with UX Researchers and Consumer Insights teams to identify player motivations, pain points, and develop strategies to improve the experience for players.
- Collaborate with a multidisciplinary team of Producers, Game Designers, Artists, and Engineers to work within technical constraints and tight timelines to solve large-scale design challenges.
- Lead the Experience Design team throughout the entire product life cycle, from pre-production planning and research, production, alpha, and post-launch content.
- Work with production, design and product to ensure Apex Legends launches on time and to quality every season while maintaining team health and sustainability while driving innovation
- Lead your team to develop visual and interaction design concepts with static and motion mock-ups, interactive prototypes, wireframes, UI architecture flows, and a variety of other design artifacts.
- Work closely with Producers, Development Directors, and other stakeholders on estimate and schedule work.
- Define the Experience Design organizational structure and processes to set your team up for success.
- Manage, evaluate, mentor, and otherwise empower Experience Design team members to do their best work.
Your Qualifications
- 8+ years of experience in the games industry.
- Leadership experience working in a Game UI Team.
- Expert knowledge of Adobe products such as Photoshop, After Effects & Illustrator.
- Excellent experience of game development methodologies (e.g. Agile/Iterative) and trouble shooting ability of UI Issues.
- Ability to resolve complicated design challenges and limitations with a willingness to provide guidance for best practices of implementing UI Art.
- Expert eye for interpreting reference, mock ups, sketches, and specialised concept art.
- Have an expert grasp of the technical aspects within user interface creation in gaming.
COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS
The base salary ranges listed below are for the defined geographic market pay zones in these locations. If you reside outside of these locations, a recruiter will advise on the range and benefits for your specific location.
EA has listed the base salary ranges it in good faith expects to pay applicants for this role in the locations listed, as of the time of this posting. Pay offered will be determined based on numerous relevant business and candidate factors including, for example, education, qualifications, certifications, experience, skills, geographic location, and business or organizational needs.
BASE SALARY RANGES
• British Columbia (depending on location e.g. Vancouver vs. Victoria):
º $193,600 - $271,700 CAN Annually
• California (depending on location e.g. Los Angeles vs. Sacramento):
º $220,500 - $311,100 USD Annually
Base salary is just one part of the overall compensation at EA. In the US, we offer a package of benefits including paid time off (3 weeks per year to start), 80 hours per year of sick time, 16 paid company holidays per year, 10 weeks paid time off to bond with baby, medical/dental/vision insurance, life insurance, disability insurance, and 401(k) to regular full-time employees. Certain roles may also be eligible for bonus and equity. For British Columbia, we offer a package of benefits including vacation (3 weeks per year to start), 10 days per year of sick time, paid top-up to EI/QPIP benefits up to 100% of base salary when you welcome a new child (12 weeks for maternity, and 4 weeks for parental/adoption leave), extended health/dental/vision coverage, life insurance, disability insurance, retirement plan to regular full-time employees. Certain roles may also be eligible for bonus and equity.