Director of External Development & Partnerships

31st Union; San Mateo (CA); On-site; USD 104,000 - 154,000; Full time

Job summary

31st Union is seeking a Senior External Development Leader in California to own how we work with external partners. You will set the strategy, build the pipelines, and drive the end-to-end outsourcing process for our AAA projects.

This role combines strategic leadership with hands-on production ownership, shaping partnerships, workflows, and quality standards. You will partner with Production, Art Direction, and discipline leads to ensure feedback is actionable and timelines are met.

Qualifications

• 6–8+ years in external development or production in the video game industry.
• Proven track record running external development across multiple projects.
• Experience with outsourcing, vendor selection, and contract lifecycle.

Responsibilities

• Define and own external development strategy with leadership.
• Design and implement pipelines, briefs, and review loops for partners.
• Lead RFPs, vendor outreach, and partner evaluation.
• Manage budgets, forecasts, and milestone payments.
• Coordinate production scheduling with internal teams and partners.
• Define briefs, style guides, and quality benchmarks for vendors.
• Build, mentor, and scale an external development function.

Skills

External development strategy

Vendor management

RFP process

Budget forecasting

Cross-functional collaboration

Jira

ShotGrid/Flow

Perforce

Contract negotiations

Tools

Jira

ShotGrid/Flow

Perforce

Job description

31st Union is seeking a Senior External Development Leader in California to own how we work with external partners. You will set the strategy, build the pipelines, and drive the end-to-end outsourcing process for our AAA projects.

This role combines strategic leadership with hands-on production ownership, shaping partnerships, workflows, and quality standards. You will partner with Production, Art Direction, and discipline leads to ensure feedback is actionable and timelines are met.