Development Director

Job description

Crytek is looking for an experienced Development Director to lead delivery on a game development project in our Frankfurt office. Reporting to the COO, you will own end-to-end project delivery and the operational model of the project. You will be responsible for ensuring the team is structured, staffed, and run effectively to deliver on time, within budget, and at the required quality level. You will balance the production plan against creative ambition, technical constraints, and business priorities, working with your peers in the leadership team, and define how the team operates: decision-making and ways of working to drive clarity, accountability, and consistent execution at scale. ### Responsibilities - Define and evolve the project’s operational model, including team structures, roles, processes, and pipelines, to ensure alignment with studio goals and optimal performance - Build, lead, and scale a high-performing development team, ensuring clear ownership, proper staffing, and empowerment across all areas of responsibility - End-to-end delivery performance by proactively identifying risks and obstacles, driving mitigation, and ensuring on-time, on-budget, high-quality outcome - Project planning and execution, including roadmap, PBS/WBS, scheduling, and milestone alignment, with a strong focus on player value and business objective - Stakeholder management, including budgeting, team allocation, external partner integration, and alignment on quality expectations (e.g. UX, performance, live ops) - Retrospectives to continuously improve team effectiveness, strengthening cross-functional collaboration, and fostering a culture of accountability and performance ### Requirements - 10+ years leading large-scale game development with full delivery accountability (time, budget, quality), including shipping at least one impactful title from inception to release - Deep expertise in building and operating effective development models (team structures, resource & budget planning, governance, execution), beyond applying standard frameworks (Agile, SAFe, etc.) - Strong leadership capability with a clear history of building, aligning, and holding teams accountable, while improving performance through structures, processes, and ways of working - Excellent stakeholder and leadership management skills, with the ability to create alignment and facilitate decisions at senior and executive levels - Proven ability to integrate and manage external partners, operate effectively within a Core Leadership Team, and deliver outcomes with strong ownership and execution focus - Willingness to relocate to Frankfurt, Germany