Production Director

Location: Here East, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, London, E15 2GW

The gaming studio behind: ⚽ Football Manager. Founded in 1994, Sports Interactive became a wholly owned subsidiary of SEGA Europe in 2006. Based at the Here East technology hub in Stratford, East London, the SI team continues to expand as we bring our titles to an ever-growing audience across an increasing variety of platforms.

To support our growth, we welcome the opportunity to connect with passionate people with the drive to match our ambitions and initiative to realise your individual potential.

Position Overview

We’re hiring a Production Director to lead and elevate how we deliver Football Manager. This is a newly created senior role with a clear mandate to change how the studio manages delivery, improving quality, predictability, and our ability to deliver on time and to budget. This is a critical leadership position, interfacing closely with the senior leadership team, the wider studio, and SEGA’s Development Services teams. You will be responsible for turning creative ambition into high-quality, annually delivered games across a multi-year, multi-SKU roadmap, with deep technical, design, and production interdependencies. This means owning how work is planned, sequenced, staffed, tracked, tested, and ultimately shipped and being clear around what is and is not achievable within an annual cycle. Our yearly multi-SKU release model brings real intensity and pressure. We need someone who stays calm under that pressure, understands the trade‑offs it creates, and can make hard calls early rather than deferring them to later when it’s difficult to change course. You’ll lead a large, multi-layered production‑led organisation, with real authority over delivery standards, operating rhythm, and execution. You’ll work alongside creative and technical leadership across Technology, Design, Art & Animation to ensure ambition and realism stay in balance and that decisions are made early enough to matter.

Key Responsibilities

• Own and evolve the studio’s production strategy, team structure, delivery frameworks and studio output, ensuring it’s on time and to a high-quality level.
• Be a hands‑on mentor to leads and senior producers, focused on building a high‑performing department.
• Drive clarity, responsibility, accountability, and realism across planning and delivery.
• Operate with urgency, but not chaos, in the context of an annual release cycle, managing high expectations and multiple moving parts.
• Partner with creative, technical, and commercial leads to ensure plans are ambitious, but achievable, supporting the games vision and backed by data, not guesswork.
• Work closely with operational roles (e.g., Senior Operational Readiness Manager) to evolve the studio’s approach to planning, forecasting, and risk.
• Drive adoption of best‑in‑class production tools and processes.

Knowledge, Skills, and Experience

• A clear, confident leader who can set standards, not just follow them.
• Deep understanding of what it takes to deliver under pressure, ideally with experience in annual shipping or high‑cadence live service.
• Track record of building and managing large production and QA teams with evidence of improved performance, not just stability.
• Able to work in a fast‑moving, ambitious studio with both legacy complexity and future ambition.
• Comfortable in ambiguity, sharp in decision‑making, and capable of leading a team through change.
• Strong command of production tools (JIRA, forecasting models, dashboards), but focused on what they unlock, not the admin they create.

Benefits of Working at Sports Interactive

• Private Healthcare and Dental Plans.
• A range of Gym Membership options through our Benefits partners.
• Travel Insurance for yourself and your family.
• Subsidised mental health, therapy, and coaching sessions are available.
• Access to our on‑site physical and massage therapist services.
• Free access to games released under the SEGA Europe umbrella.
• Contributory Pension Scheme (up to 7% of annual salary).
• Regular events in collaboration with our partnered football clubs.
• Free onsite evening bar in the Sports Interactive London HQ.
• A well‑stocked breakfast bar with cereals, fruits, teas, and coffees.
• Multiple clubs and societies to join e.g., book club and art workshops.
• A personalised football shirt upon passing probation.
• Trophies & gift cards for length of service milestones.
• Cupcakes sent to you on your birthday.

What is it like to work here?

We approach everything with passion, whether that is making our mark on the gaming and football industries or doing our bit for the world around us. We want to share that outlook with everyone who shows up to work here each day. For us, talent wins games, but teamwork wins titles. Collaboration is the key to constantly topping our best. We believe everyone matters, no matter which part of the business you are in, so we encourage and support our people in driving your own growth and realising your full potential. But, more than anything else, we are a team. A team with a down‑to‑earth dynamic, that has a lot of fun doing what we do. And whether that’s technical tweaks or fine‑tuning our creative process, everything is geared at producing the best game possible for our players. To do that, we need to be tenacious and move quickly and not be afraid of switching things up. It is these principles that have enabled us to produce a game that has defined year after year, and that will continue to push us for many more to come.

We’re also a London Living Wage employer, boast one of the lowest staff turnover rates in the industry and are proud to have won the ‘Best Places to Work’ award by Gamesindustry.biz in large company category in 2023. We are proud to be an equal opportunities employer and encourage applications from any relevant candidate irrespective of sex, race, disability, age, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy or maternity, religion, or belief. SI is proudly a Disability Confident Committed employer, and we are dedicated to ensuring our recruitment process is inclusive and accessible. Our studio has disabled access and facilities but please ensure you advise us if you require any other reasonable adjustments to be made to support you during the recruitment process.

Our Values

• Keep collaborating: Teamwork wins titles - Here, ideas belong to everyone, whatever department you’re part of. Collaboration lets us score more as a team than we could individually.
• Be flexible: We think fast and adapt faster. The football and entertainment worlds never stand still, so we keep progressing and switching things up to stay ahead.
• Stay Tenacious: We don’t overlook the details. Everything we do is about producing the best game possible, in other words, never settle.
• Show Ambition: Let your drive lead the way - Your individual outlook can give everyone the edge. Make the studio’s purpose personal and let your drive lead the way.
• Bring the Passion: Have fun doing your thing - Don’t be fooled, what we do is not a game. Making our players’ passion come to life is our passion.
• Consider the Bigger Picture: Keep things in perspective - We want our impact to be a positive one. From built‑in work/life balance to initiatives covering the most important topics of today, we have what matters in focus.