Senior Tech Lead - Core Technology (EA Sports NHL)

Electronic Arts; Vancouver; Hybrid; CAD 60,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading interactive entertainment company based in Vancouver is seeking a Senior Tech Lead for Core Technology. This role involves overseeing foundational engineering domains, ensuring quality delivery, and driving technical strategy within a diverse team. The ideal candidate will have over 8 years of software development experience, strong C++ skills, and a proven track record in technical leadership, guiding teams towards innovative solutions. This position offers the chance to shape experiences for millions of players worldwide.

Benefits

Vacation (3 weeks per year)

Sick time (10 days per year)

Extended health/dental/vision coverage

Life and disability insurance

Retirement plan and potential bonuses

Qualifications

• 8+ years of professional software or game development experience, including work on large codebases or shipped console titles.
• Strong proficiency in C++ and a solid understanding of modern game engine architecture.
• Demonstrated ability to drive technical strategy and effectively communicate complex ideas.

Responsibilities

• Lead the long-term technical roadmap for Core Technology.
• Own end-to-end delivery for your stream, ensuring quality.
• Build strong partnerships with internal and external technology groups.

Skills

Technical leadership

C++ proficiency

Multi-domain engineering management

Strong partnership skills

Education

8+ years of software or game development experience

3+ years of technical leadership experience

Job description

Description & Requirements

Electronic Arts creates next-level entertainment experiences that inspire players and fans around the world. Here, everyone is part of the story, 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.

At EA SPORTS, we’re building the future of interactive entertainment, and the NHL team is at the heart of that mission. Our team in Vancouver, British Columbia, is a diverse group of talented developers dedicated to solving unique technical challenges to create the most authentic on-ice experience for millions of players worldwide.

Senior Tech Lead – Core Technology

The Senior Tech Lead – Core Technology is the strategic technical leader for the foundational engineering domains of the NHL franchise, overseeing gameplay engineering, rendering, presentation, audio, and 3D art teams. As the extension of the Franchise Technical Director, you are accountable for technical direction, long-term planning, cross-team alignment, and successful delivery across your stream. Your decisions and leadership will shape the experience of millions of players every year. If you are passionate about guiding complex technical initiatives, empowering teams, and shaping the foundation of a world class sports title, this role offers scope, influence, and meaningful impact.

You will be working on a hybrid model, 3 days a week out of our EAV Studio in Burnaby, British Columbia.

What You’ll Do

Technical Leadership & Strategy

• Partner with the Franchise Technical Director to define the long-term technical roadmap for Core Technology, ensuring alignment with franchise and studio objectives.
• Drive multi-year architectural and foundational initiatives across gameplay engineering, rendering, audio, presentation, and art technologies.
• Provide clear technical decision making, evaluate tradeoffs, and ensure risks are identified early and managed effectively.

Delivery & Execution

• Own end-to-end delivery for your stream, ensuring Core Technology features and systems land predictably and with quality.
• Coordinate across engineering, design, art, and production to resolve dependencies and maintain consistent forward progress.
• Provide technical assessments for scope, risk, and feasibility throughout project and milestone planning.
• Build strong partnerships with both internal and external central technology groups, and with other EA SPORTS franchises.
• Ensure Core Technology solutions support requirements across content pipelines, creative workflows, and runtime performance.
• Manage domain tech leads and senior engineers, setting a high bar for technical quality, ownership, and professional growth.
• Foster a culture of openness, collaboration, and continuous improvement within the engineering team.
• Define and champion engineering standards and practices that scale across disciplines and over multiple yearly releases.

Technical Excellence & Performance

• Advocate for performance conscious design, ensuring that Core Technology domains meet CPU/GPU budgets across all supported hardware.
• Guide teams on how to prioritize and address performance risks, providing leadership, not hands-on profiling.

Your Qualifications

• 8+ years of professional software or game development experience, including work on large codebases or shipped console titles.
• 3+ years of technical leadership or engineering management experience, leading multi-domain engineering initiatives or managing tech leads.
• Strong proficiency in C++ and solid understanding of modern game engine architecture, with the ability to evaluate solutions, identify risks, and guide technical decision making.
• Demonstrated ability to drive technical strategy, align teams, and effectively communicate complex ideas across disciplines.
• Strong partnership skills, able to work closely with engineering, design, art, production, and external technology groups.

Preferred

• Experience leading engineering efforts in gameplay, rendering, presentation, audio, or content creation workflows.
• Experience with large scale game engines.

Why Join Us

• Shape the foundational technology powering one of EA’s most iconic sports franchises.
• Lead talented multi-disciplinary teams with real ownership and influence.
• Drive initiatives that will directly impact millions of players every year.
• Work within a collaborative and innovative studio where your leadership will meaningfully shape the future of the NHL franchise.

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

In British Columbia, 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 equity.

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

For British Columbia, 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 equity.

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.