Managing LiveOps at Scale: Inside Respawn's Build & Release Team with Julie Banta

24/06/2025 51 min
Managing LiveOps at Scale: Inside Respawn's Build & Release Team with Julie Banta

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Episode Synopsis

Guest: Julie Banta, Director of Engineering, Build & Release at Respawn EntertainmentSummary:In this episode of Player Driven, Greg sits down with Julie Banta, Director of Engineering at Respawn, to explore the underappreciated world of build and release operations. From her unlikely start in finance and insurance to helping manage one of the world’s top live service games, Julie shares her unique journey, the role of real-time feedback in LiveOps, and how a great team culture can make or break success.They discuss: What Build & Release actually does in a live service game like Apex Legends Navigating fast-turnaround bug fixes and cross-platform coordination How to connect your past experiences to break into the gaming industry Leadership, burnout, and the importance of a people-first team The need for diversity and inclusivity in both dev teams and the games themselvesTimestamps: 07:00 – From finance to EA: career pivots and transferable skills 16:00 – The pressure and complexity behind LiveOps launches 29:00 – Fast feedback loops and using Reddit as a QA tool 40:00 – How Julie leads her team with empathy and trust 46:00 – Women in gaming and why representation matters 54:00 – Advice for indie devs and those breaking into the industryLinks: Connect with Julie on LinkedIn Learn more about Respawn and Apex Legends More episodes at playerdriven.io/podcast

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