Director, Technical Product Management - eSports Tech R&D

Job Description

The last 12 months have been amazing for esports at Riot. We held our most-watched League of Legends Worlds championship, and we ran our first global tournaments for VALORANT, Wild Rift, and Legends of Runeterra. On the back of that success, and in our ever-growing dedication to our mission to be the most player focused company in the world, Riot is doubling down on our investment in the esports and fan experience.

The Esports Tech org is a multi-product organization responsible for all software R&D for Riot's Global Esports pillar. This includes tools and platforms for broadcast (Project Stryker), our esports web properties (lolesports.com and valorantesport.com), our advertising platform (e.g. in-game banners) as well as our player engagement tools such as Pick-em and Drops. Based on the massive and growing success of LoL and VALORANT Esports, Riot is betting big in two key areas: Unleashing Fandom, and Reinventing the Watch Experience. You can read more about that in our CEO's blog, ''Calling the shot: the Next Five Years at Riot Games'' and part of that bet is investing heavily in growing the Esports Tech R&D organization.

In this role you will serve as the Product Management discipline lead across all of the products in the Esports Tech R&D organization. You will direct a team of product managers that are embedded in each of the product areas and who are responsible for bringing products and experiences to market. You will also work together with our business leaders, our product designers, our producers, and our engineering teams to ensure we are building great products that achieve our business strategy objectives.

This role reports to the Head of Technology R&D for Riot Global Esports.

Responsibilities:
• Manage and grow a team of senior managers and senior/principal-level technical product managers
• Grow and develop the skills and capabilities of the people on your team
• Partner with the various business owners across the esports division to understand their goals, objectives and priorities, and work with your team of product managers to translate that into a product development strategy
• Develop a deep understanding of customer motivations, trends and needs in the esports domain as well as the esports foundational technology so you can incorporate that into long term product design thinking
• Identify opportunities to create common user experiences and technical platforms components that can be leveraged across our various esports product businesses
• Build relationships with product management leadership across the company in partner organizations to ensure we have alignment on product design and user experience concepts
• Build connection to the broader Product Management discipline at Riot and represent PM best practices and discipline-wide programs

Required Qualifications:
• 10+ years of experience as a product manager or business leader driving strategy for large scale products.
• 10+ years experience delivering multiple large scale, long duration global projects spanning multiple business units or companies
• 2+ years of senior leadership experience shipping large-scale premium products on multiple platforms with a live service component
• 2+ years of senior leadership experience growing leaders, designing scalable organizations, and building healthy, diverse, and inclusive teams
• Experience leading and pivoting multiple teams/processes/efforts through a significant change in direction or operations
• Strong alignment to servant leadership principles and the value and importance of ensuring psychological safety, healthy feedback culture and conflict management within and between teams
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or a related field, or equivalent experience with strong technical knowledge and problem-solving skills

Desired Qualifications:
• Experience working in med-large size organizations where collaboration across organizational boundaries is critical to success
• Experience leading product strategy and direction with external development teams
• Experience leading product strategy and direction for technical products (tools, APIs, Engines)
• Senior leadership experience in game development, esports, or entertainment industries
• Passion for esports and Riot's games

For this role, you'll find success through craft expertise, a collaborative spirit, and decision-making that prioritizes the delight of players. We will look at your past studies, experience, and your personal relationship with games. If you embody player empathy and care about the experiences of players, this is the role for you!
Our Perks:

Riot has a focus on work/life balance, shown by our open paid time off policy, in addition to other perks such as flexible work schedules. We offer medical, dental, and life insurance, parental leave for you, your spouse/domestic partner and children, and a 401k with company match. Check out our benefits pages for more information.

Riot Games fosters a player and workplace experience that values teamwork embodied by the Summoner's Code and Community Code. Our culture embraces differences as a strength, and our values are the guiding principles for how we approach work. We are committed to putting diversity and inclusion (D&I) at the center of everything we do, and promoting a fair and collaborative culture where Rioters treat one another with dignity and respect. We encourage you to read more about our value of thriving together and our ongoing work to build the most inclusive company in Gaming.

(Los Angeles only) Base salary range between $198,000 USD - $298,000 USD + incentive compensation + equity + 401K with company match + medical, dental, vision, and life insurance + short and long-term disability + open PTO.

It's our policy to provide equal employment opportunity for all applicants and members of Riot Games, Inc. Riot Games makes reasonable accommodations for handicapped and disabled Rioters and does not unlawfully discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, handicap, veteran status, marital status, criminal history, or any other category protected by applicable federal and state law, including the City of Los Angeles' Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance relating to an applicant's criminal history.

Jobcode: Reference SBJ-d82jjq-3-144-116-159-42 in your application.