Engineering Manager (Unannounced Project)

At ArenaNet, we’ve always believed that games are art. They have the power to communicate ideas and tell stories. They can change the way we think, reflect our cultures, and move us. As the developer of the award-winning Guild Wars game series, we’re proud to share our passion for the online worlds we’ve created with over 21 million players worldwide.

ArenaNet develops and publishes games for every kind of person, which means our games need to be built by every kind of person. We believe the best experiences come from working together, celebrating differences, and helping each of our team members shine.

We are looking for an experienced engineering manager who will move heaven and earth to ensure that each engineer under their care is having the best day at work they have ever had, every day.

The primary function of this role is to listen to each member of your team with extreme empathy. Listen to their concerns, frustrations, suggestions, ideas, goals, stories, and anything else they need to discuss or wish to share. Knowing what will make each person’s life at work better, you will coach them to grow, help them work through issues, provide clarity on the team’s direction, encourage them to share what they’ve learned, and learn from others. You will be there for them for whatever they may need to succeed.

Earning the team’s trust will be your first and top priority, and you will do all that you can to keep that trust once earned. You understand that trust is a priceless treasure that is gained by your actions in support of the team and cannot be assigned through any sort of authority your position may hold. With this trust you will work with your team to build and maintain a culture of safety and fun for all people to work, create, be themselves, and have the time of their lives doing it.

Understanding that hiring decisions are the most important decisions a team can make, you will seek out and hire new members to join our quest who will add to our team dynamics, knowledge base, potential to grow, and library of bad jokes.

You will represent your team as you work with other teams, departments, and partners to help shape the studio and the company itself into a better place for all the people to be human beings while they go about using their skills, creativity, and talent to innovate and create amazing games and experiences for our players.

You will facilitate your team developing meaningful production practices that they own and are invested in, whether that be in engineering teams, cross functional working groups, or as individuals. You are a champion of good engineering practices and will work to give engineers the space they need to produce quality code that can run continuously for years. Often this means being a bridge between engineering and non-technical colleagues to help explain some of the bizarre rituals and practices that we call engineering.

About Our Team

The Engineering team at ArenaNet thrives on a wide array of perspectives, experiences, and interests. We know that the best creations come from healthy and friendly teams. Our work is woven together with the efforts of other disciplines and crafts within game development. We seek out voices and ideas that might be new to us. We are always on the lookout for ways to help each other, both within the Engineering team, and throughout the studio as a whole.

Who We Are Looking For

You, our ideal candidate, have been there before. You know what it’s like to be an engineer on a team shipping AAA games. You know what it’s like to have your code scrutinized in a code review, to ship code that crashes the game, and to introduce a bug that QA has written epic poems about as warnings to their newer generations. You know how it feels to be asked for estimates for tasks you just learned about, you know what it’s like to navigate explaining technical constraints to non-technical colleagues while not making it all sound like bad news. You know what it’s like to be an engineer and you see it as your calling to be a guiding light out of the dark places that engineers sometimes find themselves in so they can bask in the glory of solving problems, innovating, and creating never before seen player experiences.

Fear has no place in the work environment, and you know it! You seek to eliminate it in all its forms through communication, clarity, and trust. You can identify learned helplessness. You are cognizant of contributing to it yourself, and you work to give people space to grow out of it with care and patience.

You are not afraid to admit that you don’t know something, and you cherish having people reporting to you who are experts in areas that you know little to nothing about. You know that everyone brings different experiences, perspectives, thought processes, and skills to the team and you understand that your position is at the cr