Studio QA Director

Creative Assembly is looking for a QA Director to join us and head up our QA function across our studios and teams. This role will be based at our headquarters in Horsham, in the heart of West Sussex.

This is an excellent opportunity for an existing QA Director with a wide range of development knowledge, QA capability, and past experience with servicing and releasing of live games is needed, along with seasoned leadership and the ability to bring out the best in the QA teams and leadership groups.

In this role, we are looking for someone who has extensive experience in transitioning a studio to further integrate their quality assurance into the development process for games and lives games alike. We are also looking to uplift our automation and machine learning tools to bring even more efficiencies and to ensure our talented technicians are focussing on the human-assessable qualities of our games.

Flexible working at Creative Assembly includes hybrid, fully remote within country of employment for eligible roles, and in-studio. We recognise that there is no one-size-fits-all approach and empower our teams to define the working patterns which work best for them, which may mean different things for different teams and roles and at different times.

This role is Hybrid and has an expectation of at least 2 days per week in our Horsham studio. This role cannot offer fully remote working. Further details can be discussed during the recruitment process.

Key Responsibilities 

As an experienced QA Director you will organise and structure the QA teams and leaderships groups to cover the many requirements of our titles, some of which, are operating as a live service. You will bring knowledge of contemporary approaches and best practices including embedded QA and auto testing.

As the head of the QA function, you will:

• Have the ability to stay focused on the goals set and maintain control of the bigger picture within the team
• Implement changes to improve our approach to releases and live services
• Working closely with the QA Managers and Development Directors, to form, monitor and action QA strategy and aims
• Closely support the QA leaderships and development teams to achieve all agreed project quality goals and maintain a co-development approach with our partners
• Attend regular project direction meetings and events to collaborate and influence towards best QA practice
• Coach, mentor, develop and organise the QA team, empowering staff to achieve their full potential.

Knowledge, Skill, and Experience 

Essential

• Extensive experience in QA Director role working on a wide range of video games development from pre-production to release and post release support, including FPS or similar service-based games title
• Change management experience
• Strong experience and skills with coaching, mentoring, and developing a modern QA team
• Proven experience with hiring and maintaining strong QA teams including setting resourcing strategy, managing QA budgets and all associated forms of QA planning
• Strong experience with automated testing
• Knowledge of current state of machine learning as applied to testing and quality assurance
• Understanding of developers’ challenges to design processes for integration with QA
• Strong all-round experience with modern games technology and platforms
• Existing experience working with Live Operations, Live QA and customer support team methodology and process
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills with the ability to relay important information proactively
• A passion for video games and a desire to be part of the creative and collaboration process involved in developing video games.

Desirable

• Strong technical skills
• Strong knowledge of modern FPS and multiplayer titles
• Existing experience using JIRA, TestRail and Perforce
• Existing experience with BI reporting software, such as Microsoft Power BI.

About Creative Assembly

It’s an exciting time to be a part of our craft-led studio as we push boundaries, creating deep and detailed experiences that last. 

Our teams are diverse from across the world, from trainees to industry veterans who constantly challenge us and make sure we are striving for the best within our games and our studio life. We are united through our shared values of Quality, Focus, Teamwork, Respect and Trust and we win awards for our culture and our people-centric approach, having won a Best Place to Work Award for six consecutive years. We invest in our people, the studio, and our projects. We are a company that’s secure and safe – you don’t need to worry about job security at CA.

We’ll give you the creative freedom, tools, support, and development to achieve your potential. 

Our studios are based in Horsham, UK and Sofia, Bulgaria, including several bespoke state-of-the-art audio suites and a dedicated motion capture facility. 

We offer many benefits to support you and your family including:

• Flexible working: hybrid, fully remote within country of employment for eligible roles, and in-studio working
• Work from Anywhere for a temporary period each year (restrictions apply such as VISAs)
• Enhanced holiday allowance, maternity and paternity breaks, flexibility with our core hours, and no-notice holidays
• Bespoke relocation package for you and your dependents, with support throughout the process from our dedicated Relocation Specialists
• Private medical and dental insurance, life insurance, permanent health insurance, critical illness cover and free health care screening
• Generous holiday allowance plus full studio closure over the Christmas and New Year period, and all UK Bank holidays
• Annual discretionary studio bonus
• Join our award-winning education and social responsibility programme; the Legacy Project, as an industry ambassador to mentor and educate others
• Defined career development pathways and personalised training support including SEGA Dev Day, internal masterclasses, prestigious creative workshops, on-site training with renowned specialists and global conference attendance
• Opportunity to join our Diversity and Inclusion Network – an employee-led group
• Season ticket travel loans and cycle to work scheme with free bike servicing and discounted car valet service on site
• Free games and merchandise plus access to our extensive games library
• Free breakfast in the studio every day - toast, bagels, pancakes, cereals, yoghurts, fresh fruit, smoothies, juices, milkshakes and more in our fully stocked kitchen
• Wellbeing support with an employee assistance programme and onsite confidential sessions
• In-studio heavily subsidised massage therapy
• Discounts for home technology, travel insurance, corporate gym membership, cinema tickets, holidays, trips out and Ikea vouchers, and many local businesses including estate agents
• Studio parties for you and your family; such as our Summer Festival, Christmas Party plus a separate Children’s Christmas Party. We also have Cinema days and wrap parties for game releases
• Studio community activities such as life drawing, creative writing, Pilates, Walking Challenges, Couch to 5k, basketball, game and movie evenings, board game club, 5-a-side football, CA Choir, Sword fighting (yes, sword fighting) and loads more.

Our studio sites have disabled access. We are an equal opportunities employer and encourage applications from suitably qualified and eligible candidates regardless of sex, race, disability, age, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy or maternity, religion or belief.