Mass Effect boss Michael Gamble is looking for a production director for the next game in the series: 'They’ll report to me and it’s gonna be awesome'

I'm not entirely confident that Mass Effect 5 will ever see the light of day. Between the Andromeda debacle, the dismantling of BioWare after Dragon Age: The Veilguard missed whatever expectations EA had for it, and the upcoming acquisition of EA by Saudi Arabia, the environment just doesn't seem entirely conducive to another big sexy space adventure.

But the wheels are continuing to turn. The most recent sign of progress comes from Mass Effect executive producer Michael Gamble, who's looking for help getting the new game done. "Hi, I’m hiring a very important senior leadership role," Gamble wrote on X. "They’ll report to me and it’s gonna be awesome."

The post includes a link to a job listing for a production director on the next Mass Effect game. Before you get too excited, this is a high-level position (pay range is $187,000 - $259,400 CDN plus benefits), so you're not going to get any details about the game itself except that it will be the next chapter of "one of the highest-rated and most celebrated series in video game history." Except for the last chapter, I suppose.

But if you're curious about what it is a production director actually does, here's the lowdown:

• Act as a strategic bridge between creative intent and development execution, translating high-level vision into a clear direction that enables teams to deliver at AAA quality.
• Provide leadership across the full development lifecycle, anticipating needs, setting executional direction, and ensuring teams are positioned to succeed at each phase.
• Build and sustain strong coalitions across creative, technical, production, and partner teams, fostering alignment and shared ownership of outcomes.
• Break down complex creative and technical goals into understandable, actionable components, ensuring teams understand both the why and the how behind their work.
• Identify and mitigate risks early, drive resolution of cross-team challenges, and make informed tradeoffs that protect quality, schedule, and long-term franchise health.
• Represent the project and production organization in communications with studio leadership, EA partners, and external stakeholders, including press as needed.
• Establish and reinforce clear objectives, transparency, and accountability across teams to maintain alignment and momentum

It goes without saying but just to ensure everyone's on the same page here (and maybe save Mike some unnecessary rejection emails), this is not an entry-level gig. You'll need at least 10 years of game-dev experience "including senior-level leadership on multiple large-scale AAA titles," expertise in the RPG and action RPG genres, and "strong executive presence with an influence-based leadership style," among other things. So that lets me out, then.

What matters here is not the likelihood that I might one day get a real job, though, but that EA is hiring—and more pointedly, that it's hiring for a role that will usher Mass Effect 5 from concept to reality. The fact that the team doesn't already have someone like that indicates that work is still in the very early stages, but that they're looking for someone to take the job means EA is, at least for now, serious about moving ahead with it. I call that good news.