DEVELOP/JOBS: Sports Interactive – “Despite having worked at SI for years, I still look forward to work every day.”

Chris Wallace 27th January 2022 Development News

This content was created in association with Sports Interactive as part of DEVELOP/JOBS.

Here at SI we like our talent tenacious, so you can expect to surround yourself with other ambitious individuals bringing their A-game to many disciplines. We know collaboration is the key to continuous improvement and encourage our people to fiercely realise their potential.

Above all, we’re a team; a team with a down-to-earth dynamic that works and plays together. We have fun doing what we do; one of the many reasons we’re one of the best places to work in the UK games business. While we live to create extraordinary games, we know that’s not all you’ve got going on. You can trust that we always keep things in perspective, fostering an environment where work can be more than just a job.

Our culture gives team members the responsibility to optimise their workloads, with in-office, hybrid and global remote working options. We provide a top-class benefits package for full-time team members, including gym membership, private health and dental care, and more. We boast one of the lowest staff turnover rates in the industry.

We’re proud to be an equal opportunities employer and encourage applications irrespective of sex, race, disability, age, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy or maternity, religion or belief. Our studio has disabled access and facilities.

Location(s): Here East, Stratford, London (and almost everywhere else in the world)

Team size: 230

Key projects and hiring areas: Football Manager and other (secret) things

Recruitment contact: Laura Hetherington, Senior Recruiter, laura.hetherington@sigames.com, +44 7818 184547, www.linkedin.com/in/laura-hetherington-a7a49929/

FROM THE TEAM: MARC DUFFY, DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT, HYBID ONSITE/OFFSITE

Whenever I tell people in the business that I work on Football Manager, they often respond with something like “Isn’t it boring to work on the same game every year?” The answer is a very emphatic “no.”

First of all – as the millions of people who play it will tell you – FM is not the same game every year. More importantly, every year that I’ve been on the team (22 and counting) we’ve made significant advances, some of which we’ve revealed and many that we’ve kept ‘under the hood.’

Take the last 12 months. During that time we released FM22 across multiple platforms simultaneously (something we’ve never done before) while also starting work on our women’s football project, formally assessing new third party dev tools and launching a new talent id programme that we call the ‘Developer Academy’.

I’m particularly excited about that last one, as I believe we have a great track record of finding and developing talent and the Developer Academy gives us a formal structure that allows us to build on that. As a part of this process, we’ve also just appointed our first Developer Advocate.

Maybe the most important point I can make is that, despite having worked at SI for years, I still look forward to work every day.

FROM THE TEAM: TINA KEECH, HEAD OF WOMEN’S RESEARCH, OFFSITE

Nowadays, it’s common to see organisations banging on about how inclusive and diverse they are, to the point where it sometimes makes you think ‘Really?’.

When I first interviewed for the role to lead women’s football research for Football Manager, I suspected that SI might just be another one of those organisations; a company that

just wanted to indulge in a little ‘virtue signalling’ by jumping onto the women’s football bandwagon.

Turns out I couldn’t have been more wrong. Six months into this project I can confirm that the studio and the leadership team have shown they truly believe in equality and inclusivity. The decision to add women’s football to FM sends out a very positive message to the world and everything I’ve been involved with so far suggests that the team is serious about getting this right.

On a personal note, I have been given every bit of support I’ve needed in terms of finance and resources to get the job done – or, at least, to get it started (this is a huge project that’s going to take years to complete). Best of all, I have been given exactly the right combination of guidance and autonomy to allow me to make significant progress in a relatively short time.

My initial ‘Really?’ has become a very firm ‘Really!’