Sr Manager, Technical Game Design

Job Description

As a Senior Manager, Technical Game Design at Riot Games, you will grow and lead a skilled team of Technical Designers on an exciting R&D project focused on immersive combat, deep progression systems, and innovative co-op gameplay. Your extensive knowledge of Unreal Engine and passion for delivering robust, high-quality player experiences will empower the design team to push the boundaries of genre-defining interactive entertainment.
You will partner closely with design leads and engineering leads to translate ambitious creative visions into actionable, scalable technical designs. Through a mix of mentorship and content reviews, you also ensure that local designers are building the game with strong technical rigor. Reporting directly to the Design Director, your leadership will foster collaboration and innovation, directly influencing the gameplay foundations of an ambitious project.

Responsibilities:
• Hire, lead and manage a team of Technical Designers, fostering their growth and technical skill development.
• Collaborate with engineering to define the technical strategy and execution of gameplay systems, mechanics, combat encounters, and player progression.
• Implement content as a vanguard in the most technical areas of design. Building out solutions to design problems that require a deep level of technical expertise and leaving those problems with the ability to teach others how to work in those spaces in the future.
• Develop, advocate, and enforce a system of organizational excellence in content creation that allows for the long-term sustainability of software without being cumbersome to rapid prototyping culture.
• Implement gameplay workflows and tools within Unreal Engine to enable designers and artists to rapidly prototype and iterate.
• Proactively identify technical risks, develop mitigation strategies, and communicate clearly with team leadership and stakeholders.
• Ensure high-quality implementation of complex gameplay systems, promoting performance, scalability, and maintainability.
Required Qualifications:
• 8+ years of professional experience in Technical Game Design or related technical design roles.
• Proven experience shipping high-quality titles using Unreal Engine, demonstrating expertise in Blueprints, scripting, and technical workflows.
• 3+ years of experience managing and mentoring teams, with demonstrated success developing and growing direct reports.
• Experience with C++ and C#
• Deep understanding of gameplay system architecture, online networking, combat mechanics, and progression systems.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills with experience working cross-functionally between engineering, test, production, art, and design.
Desired Qualifications:
• Experience developing multiplayer, online, persistent gameplay systems.
• Familiarity with networked action-based combat systems, player ability systems, and enemy AI design.
• Passion for discovering, understanding, and adapting new technologies that can improve our workflows and sustainability of design teams.
• Experience with technical optimization and performance profiling within Unreal Engine.
For this role, you'll find success through craft expertise and a collaborative spirit that prioritizes the delight of players. We will look at your past studies and experience, but for this role, we also look for dedicated people with a personal relationship with games. If you embody player empathy and care about players' experiences, this is the role for you!

• (Los Angeles Only) Base salary range between $206,700.00 - $289,000.00 USD + incentive compensation + equity + 401K with company match + medical, dental, vision, and life insurance + short and long-term disability + open PTO.

Jobcode: Reference SBJ-k2opeq-18-97-9-174-42 in your application.