Senior External Development Manager

OUR STUDIO

At Housemarque, we believe gameplay always comes first. With technical excellence and compelling narrative, spiced with our trademark neon flair and top-notch audiovisual feedback, we want our players to always feel actively engaged with the worlds we have created for them.

Our latest Award-Winning game Returnal, released on PS5 in 2021, embraces all these qualities. THIS is our DNA!

We value Nordic work-life balance by growing sustainably and ensuring our employees have the time and means to develop personally and professionally during work time.

We were established in 1995 with strong roots in the Finnish demoscene. In June 2021 we joined the PlayStation Studios, after years of partnership.

If you wish to join us for our next journey, apply today!

The Job

As a Senior External Development Manager, you will work with the talented teams behind RETURNAL and SAROS to help drive the next evolution of Housemarque games.

Partnering closely with Production, Directors, Leads, and external development partners, you will lead the planning, execution, and successful delivery of external development for a AAA project. Your focus will be ensuring that our teams have the right resources, expertise, and partnerships in place to deliver high-quality player experiences.

This role combines strategic partner management with hands-on production ownership. You will be responsible for forecasting project needs, managing external development budgets, balancing workload across Housemarque-internal, Sony Interactive Entertainment, and external teams, and identifying opportunities to improve how we collaborate with partners.

As a senior member of the External Development team, you will also help shape how Housemarque approaches co-development and outsourcing, contributing to the continued evolution of our development practices across future projects.

You will report to the External Development Director and work across all disciplines involved in the project.

What will your day-to-day look like?

• Partner with Producers, Leads, and Development Managers to plan and execute co-development and external content production initiatives.

• Build strong relationships with external partners, ensuring clear communication, alignment, and successful delivery of project goals.

• Forecast external development needs, manage budgets, and support long-term resource planning.

• Identify production risks and work proactively with internal and external stakeholders to resolve issues before they impact delivery.

• Improve external development processes, workflows, and ways of working to support effective collaboration across teams.

• Support partner onboarding, contracts, statements of work, due diligence activities, and information security processes in collaboration with Sony teams.

• Mentor and guide project stakeholders on best practices for working effectively with external development partners.

• Contribute to the long-term growth and development of External Development at Housemarque.

What will help you be successful in this role?

• Experience leading External Development, Outsourcing, Co-Development, Production, or Project Management efforts within AAA game development.

• Proven ability to manage external partners and build productive, long-term working relationships.

• Strong understanding of game development pipelines, production methodologies, and project delivery.

• Experience managing budgets and making financial decisions that support both project goals and business objectives.

• Ability to build alignment across stakeholders from different disciplines and levels of seniority.

• Comfortable working with international teams across different cultures and time zones.

• A collaborative approach to solving complex production challenges and driving work forward.

• Experience contributing to the successful shipment of at least one AAA PC or console title as a developer, content creator or as a member of a quality assurance team.

We recognise that no candidate will meet every requirement. If this role excites you and your experience is broadly aligned, we'd love to hear from you.

What we offer to you?

• Competitive salary, benefits, healthcare & Nordic work-life balance

• Tailored immigration and relocation package to help you get settled into Finland

• State-of-the-art studio facilities in the heart of Helsinki

• Freedom, flexibility and openness in a collaborative culture

• Brilliant, diverse and empathetic colleagues to work with

• Exciting and ambitious projects executed with the best tools

• Access to PlayStation Studios collaboration, games and more!

This is a permanent, full-time position based in Helsinki, Finland. We will start interviewing promising candidates from August 2026.

Please note, Sony Interactive Entertainment conducts background checks at the offer stage for all new employees (which may include criminal background checks for some roles) and will need to process personal information to support these checks.

Please refer to our Candidate Privacy Notice for more information about what personal information we collect, how we use it, who we share it with, and your data protection rights.

Equal Opportunity Statement

Housemarque is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer with a commitment to a culture of inclusion and mutual respect for all employees from every walk of life, reflecting the community we make games for. We welcome and encourage applications from all suitable candidates regardless of age, disability, gender, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity, race and ethnicity, religion or belief, and marriage and civil partnerships. We strive to create an inclusive environment, empower employees and embrace diversity.