Senior Manager, Experience Design

Electronic Arts Ltd; Vancouver; On-site; CAD 141,000 - 204,000; Full time

Job summary

Electronic Arts is seeking a Senior Manager of Experience Design to lead a multidisciplinary team for EA SPORTS FC, shaping cohesive, immersive player experiences across spatial environments. You will guide concept development, maintain high quality across UI, motion, and interaction design, and partner with Game Design, Art, Engineering, and Research to define priorities.

The role emphasizes leading design strategy, systems thinking, and pushing for innovative, spatially-driven experiences that

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience designing and delivering shipped, player-facing experiences for AAA/high-complexity games.
• Expert understanding of interaction design, information architecture, visual hierarchy, typography, composition, motion, and accessibility.
• A portfolio demonstrating high-quality interactive experiences, mastery of visual craft, exceptional systems thinking, and thoughtful end-to-end design solutions, including problem discovery, detailed design solutions, prototypes, behaviors, and rationale.
• Capability to reframe UI/UX as a broader tool for player interaction, bridge the gap between level design and traditional UX, and guide teams away from menu-centric approaches.
• Ability to design beyond traditional 2D menus and UI transitions, integrating user experience seamlessly into 3D environments and hybrid 2D/3D problem spaces.
• Experience designing unified onboarding, tutorials, or contextual user-guidance systems within complex spatial or interactive environments .
• Experience applying qualitative and quantitative insights, player motivations, and design strategy to inform end-to-end experiences.
• Ability to balance player needs, creative ambition, technical constraints, production realities, and business objectives.
• Strong experience leading concept development and translating broad product and creative opportunities into clear design direction and scalable, production-ready experiences.
• Strong creative judgement and the ability to articulate design strategy, provide actionable critique, and influence partners and leaders across Design, Production, Art, Engineering, and Research.
• Proven ability to push teams to think and design spatially, establishing a high bar for quality and spatial interaction design across cross-functional partners.
• Deep understanding of design systems and experience driving consistency and cohesion across complex products.

Responsibilities

• Lead the Experience Design direction for a major product area within EA SPORTS FC, ensuring experiences are cohesive, intuitive, immersive, accessible, and aligned with broader product and franchise goals.
• Manage and mentor a multidisciplinary Experience Design team across locations, supporting career growth and high performance.
• Establish and maintain a high creative and quality bar across interaction design, UI, visual craft, motion, and the overall player experience.
• Guide teams through complex concept and exploration phases, translating broad creative opportunities into clear direction, priorities, and compelling, executable solutions.
• Challenge teams to think beyond traditional screens and menu-to-menu interactions, considering how spatial design, environments, motion, sound, transitions, and micro-interactions can create a more immersive and integrated player experience.
• Partner closely with Game Design, Production, Art, Engineering, Technical Design, User Research, Brand, and other Experience Design leaders to establish priorities, roadmaps, and creative direction.
• Champion systems thinking and partner with Design System leadership to evolve shared patterns, components, and governance while maintaining consistency across the product.
• Oversee team planning, estimation, resourcing, and delivery while identifying skill or capacity gaps and partnering with leadership on hiring or external support when needed.
• Champion emerging technologies, new interaction models, and design innovation that can meaningfully improve the player experience.

Skills

Spatial design

Interaction design

Information architecture

Visual craft

Accessibility

Design systems

Leadership

Systems thinking

End-to-end design

Motion design

Tools

Maya

Cinema 4D

KeyShot

After Effects

Job description

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.

Senior Manager, Experience Design

EA SPORTS is one of the leading sports entertainment brands in the world, creating connected experiences that ignite the emotion of sport through industry-leading games and interactive experiences.

EA SPORTS FC represents the future of football at EA SPORTS. With more opportunity than ever to innovate and create authentic, immersive experiences for a global community of players, we’re looking for leaders who can help us push the quality and ambition of the experience forward.

As a Senior Manager of Experience Design, you will lead an Experience Design team responsible for shaping cohesive, intuitive, and highly crafted player experiences across EA SPORTS FC. You will bring a strong creative point of view, deep experience designing interactive experiences, and the ability to inspire teams to think beyond traditional interface patterns.

You will report to the Experience Design Director.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience designing and delivering shipped, player-facing experiences for AAA/high-complexity games, with strong conviction in spatial design standards and experience creating rich spatial UI and navigation mechanics.

• Expert understanding of interaction design, interface design, information architecture, visual hierarchy, typography, composition, motion, and accessibility.

• A portfolio demonstrating high-quality interactive experiences, mastery of visual craft, exceptional systems thinking, and thoughtful end-to-end design solutions, including problem discovery, detailed design solutions, prototypes, behaviors, and rationale.

• Capability to reframe UI/UX as a broader tool for player interaction, bridge the gap between level design and traditional UX, and guide teams away from menu-centric approaches.
• Ability to design beyond traditional 2D menus and UI transitions, integrating user experience seamlessly into 3D environments and hybrid 2D/3D problem spaces.
• Experience designing unified onboarding, tutorials, or contextual user-guidance systems within complex spatial or interactive environments .

• Experience applying qualitative and quantitative insights, player motivations, and design strategy to inform end-to-end experiences.

• Ability to balance player needs, creative ambition, technical constraints, production realities, and business objectives.

• Strong experience leading concept development and translating broad product and creative opportunities into clear design direction and scalable, production-ready experiences.

• Strong creative judgement and the ability to articulate design strategy, provide actionable critique, and influence partners and leaders across Design, Production, Art, Engineering, and Research.

• Proven ability to push teams to think and design spatially, establishing a high bar for quality and spatial interaction design across cross-functional partners.

• Deep understanding of design systems and experience driving consistency and cohesion across complex products.

Responsibilities

• Lead the Experience Design direction for a major product area within EA SPORTS FC, ensuring experiences are cohesive, intuitive, immersive, accessible, and aligned with broader product and franchise goals.

• Manage and mentor a multidisciplinary Experience Design team across locations, supporting career growth and high performance.

• Establish and maintain a high creative and quality bar across interaction design, UI, visual craft, motion, and the overall player experience.

• Guide teams through complex concept and exploration phases, translating broad creative opportunities into clear direction, priorities, and compelling, executable solutions.

• Challenge teams to think beyond traditional screens and menu-to-menu interactions, considering how spatial design, environments, motion, sound, transitions, and micro-interactions can create a more immersive and integrated player experience.

• Partner closely with Game Design, Production, Art, Engineering, Technical Design, User Research, Brand, and other Experience Design leaders to establish priorities, roadmaps, and creative direction.

• Champion systems thinking and partner with Design System leadership to evolve shared patterns, components, and governance while maintaining consistency across the product.

• Oversee team planning, estimation, resourcing, and delivery while identifying skill or capacity gaps and partnering with leadership on hiring or external support when needed.

• Champion emerging technologies, new interaction models, and design innovation that can meaningfully improve the player experience.

Nice to Have

• Experience exploring and applying AI and emerging technologies to accelerate design workflows, expand creative exploration, or create new player experiences.
• Experience with spatial, AR, VR, or 3D design and tools such as Maya, Cinema 4D, or KeyShot.
• Motion design experience and proficiency with tools such as After Effects.

Pay Transparency - North America

COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS

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 RANGES

* British Columbia (depending on location e.g. Vancouver vs. Victoria) *$141,400 - $204,400 CAD

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

For Canada, 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 other incentive programs.

About Electronic Arts

We’re proud to have an extensive portfolio of games and experiences, locations around the world, and opportunities across EA. We value adaptability, resilience, creativity, and curiosity. From leadership that brings out your potential, to creating space for learning and experimenting, we empower you to do great work and pursue opportunities for growth.

We adopt a holistic approach to our benefits programs, emphasizing physical, emotional, financial, career, and community wellness to support a balanced life. Our packages are tailored to meet local needs and may include healthcare coverage, mental well-being support, retirement savings, paid time off, family leaves, complimentary games, and more. We nurture environments where our teams can always bring their best to what they do.

Electronic Arts is an equal opportunity employer. All employment decisions are made without regard to race, color, national origin, ancestry, sex, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, genetic information, religion, disability, medical condition, pregnancy, marital status, family status, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. We will also consider employment qualified applicants with criminal records in accordance with applicable law. EA also makes workplace accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities as required by applicable law.