External Development Planning & Operations Manager; Apex Legends

California
United States of America

Role

Worker Type Regular Employee

Studio/Department Work Model Hybrid

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.

Job Title:

External Development Planning & Operations Manager (Apex Legends)

Work Model:
Hybrid

Respawn Entertainment Founded in 2010, Respawn was created with the philosophy that when talented people have creative freedom, they’ll make extraordinary games that achieve the unexpected. Respawn Entertainment is the Academy Award‑winning studio behind Apex Legends, Titanfall, and Star Wars™ Jedi titles. Join us to help shape the future of one of the world’s leading live service franchises.

Reporting to the Head of Content Strategy and External Development, you will oversee the operational planning and coordination of external development across the franchise. That means we turn vertical team needs into vendor staffing plans and ensure that we properly scope, staff, track, and financially manage every external engagement. You'll sit at the center of coordination between vertical teams, vendors, finance, and the Head of Content Strategy and External Development, keeping our use of external partners predictable and efficient.

The role starts with the tracking, contracts, and financial accuracy that external development runs on, and grows into demand planning and capacity strategy over time.

• Manage the external development budget tracker across all verticals, keeping spend data accurate, current, and trusted as the single source of truth.
• Create and submit work orders and purchase orders, validate vendor invoices against approved staffing plans, and coordinate invoice processing with finance partners.
• Track spend against forecasts and flag variances, risks, and opportunities to optimize external spend.
• Maintain centralized visibility into vendor capacity, allocation, and cost, and produce the data inputs that drive quarterly and annual planning cycles.
• Be a coordination point between vertical teams and vendors through planning and setup, chasing the information needed to keep plans accurate and documenting clean handoffs to team ownership.
• Grow into demand and capacity planning, translating team requests into structured staffing plans across role types, timelines, and budgets.

• Proficiency managing operational budgets and tracking spend against forecasts across multiple cost centers or stakeholders. Public sector, agency, or production backgrounds all translate well here.
• Hands‑on experience administering vendor or contractor relationships, including raising work orders and purchase orders, validating invoices, and coordinating payment with finance.
• A track record of coordinating across teams or departments to keep shared budgets, schedules, or plans accurate and current.
• Strong spreadsheet skills in Excel or Google Sheets. You can develop trackers with formulas and pivot tables that other people can actually rely on.
• Working knowledge of procurement or accounts payable workflows, including POs, invoice reconciliation, and spend categorization.

Experience turning team requests into resourcing or capacity plans with clear timelines and budgets.

The ranges listed below are what EA in good faith expects to pay applicants for this role in these locations at the time of this posting. If you reside in a different location, a recruiter will advise on the applicable range and benefits. Pay offered will be determined based on a number of relevant business and candidate factors (e.g. education, qualifications, certifications, experience, skills, geographic location, or business needs).

Pay is just one part of the overall compensation at EA.

In the U.S., 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…