Senior Manager, Game Design

As a Game Designer, you will design, tweak, and optimize the player experience. Your analytical skills, player insight, and creativity aid in crafting in- and out-of-game experiences that engage and surprise players. You will collaborate with interdisciplinary teams and work with every tool at hand to innovate and iterate player-focused designs that'll delight millions around the world.

As a Senior Manager of Game Design on League of Legends, you’ll lead a group of passionate designers as we set up League of Legends for its next 10 years, reporting to the Design Director for League of Legends. You’ll partner with discipline leads across the studio to ensure a well managed and staffed discipline, that designers have well supported growth, and that craft execution meets or exceeds our extremely high standards. You’ll make significant contributions to wider Design Department processes and rituals. You’ll also help mentor designers and design managers across League of Legends.

Responsibilities:

• Lead game design for new projects, features, and content on League of Legends, ensuring the vision, strategy, and execution align with player expectations, Riot’s design values, and the game leadership team’s overall product strategy.
• Guide and mentor designers, setting clear goals, providing continuous feedback, and fostering an environment of creativity, innovation, and professional development.
• Ensuring design craft standards are upheld across League of Legends, contribute to Design Department processes and rituals, leveling up our approach to things like recruiting, performance assessment and knowledge sharing
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams—including art, product management, engineering, and publishing—to craft resonant experiences.
• Balance player feedback, data insights, and business objectives to make informed design decisions that deliver on League of Legends’ promise of competitive and rewarding gameplay.
• Represent and advocate for the design discipline both internally to other teams and externally to players.
• Build positive relationships across other teams at Riot in shared gameplay spaces.

Required Qualifications:

• 8+ years of experience in game design roles in game development.
• 3+ years of experience as a leader in a game design organization.
• Experience working as a developer on a PVP game.
• Experience in managing a significant team of designers.
• Demonstrated and substantial experience recruiting new designers.
• Experience working in a “games as a service” environment.

Desired Qualifications:

• Strong knowledge and intimate understanding of the League of Legends game experience and what approaches to design best meet its players’ needs.
• Experience working on MOBA or competitive multiplayer titles, with an understanding of core gameplay loops and player motivations.
• Comfort with data analysis and the ability to leverage insights from user research, telemetry, and other metrics to inform design decisions.
• Experience managing managers.

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!

Our Perks:

Riot focuses on work/life balance, shown by our open paid time off policy and 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.

At Riot Games, we put players first. That mission drives every decision in our quest to create games and experiences that make it better to be a player. Whether you’re working directly on a new player-facing experience or you’re supporting the company as a whole, everyone at Riot is part of our mission. And just like in our games, we’re better when we work together. Our goal is to create collaborative teams where you are empowered to bring your unique perspective everyday. If that sounds like the kind of place you want to work, we’re looking forward to your application.

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. We consider for employment all qualified applicants, including those with criminal histories, in a manner consistent with applicable federal, state and local law, including the California Fair Chance Act, the City of Los Angeles Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance, the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers, the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, and the Washington Fair Chance Act.

Per the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance, the following core duties may create a basis for disqualifying candidates with relevant criminal histories:

• Safeguarding confidential and sensitive Company data
• Communication with others, including Rioters and third parties such as vendors, and/or players, including minors
• Accessing Company assets, secure digital systems, and networks
• Ensuring a safe interactive environment for players and other Rioters

These duties are directly related to essential operations, safety, trust, and compliance obligations within our organization. Please note that job duties may evolve based on business needs and additional responsibilities may be assigned as necessary to maintain operational efficiency and security.