Manager, Technical Game Design - Teamfight Tactics

Riot Games•Los Angeles, CA

8d•$185,200 - $258,000

About The Position

Technical Game Designers on the Teamfight Tactics team are game designers who also have access to the C++ code base. They apply the team’s engineering principles to technical design work, improve and add to existing design tools to unblock design tasks (sometimes unblocking themselves, in their game design role!), and own gameplay and systems design areas. Their game design expertise lets them dream up and create memorable gameplay experiences for TFT players, and their technical expertise lets them deliver those experiences in a robust, sustainable, and elegant way. As the Technical Design Manager on the Teamfight Tactics team, you’ll manage Technical Game Designers across the project. You'll see to their career progress, evaluate their technical and game design contributions, bring out their best work, and ensure they're delivering on their teams' goals. In turn, you'll report to the Design Director, helping to build the Technical Game Design subdiscipline on the team and for League Studios, and maximizing the TD group’s impact. But: on the Teamfight Tactics team, design managers often take on individual contributions, so you’ll have plenty of chances to exercise your own craft as well.

Requirements

6+ years of experience as a technical game designer, gameplay engineer, or some similar position closely associated with both technical and game design work
2+ years of experience as a manager, team lead, or discipline leader (can overlap with the above requirement)
Craft: Craft interviews for this role will look at both gameplay engineering and game design skills; we’d like to see Senior level craft expertise in one, but not necessarily both
Management: You'll need leadership experience resolving conflict within and across teams and fostering healthy team culture, along with examples of managing other designers with positive results: promotion, performance improvement, and strong delivery to players
High familiarity with Teamfight Tactics, or willingness to rapidly build that familiarity

Nice To Haves

4+ years of experience as a manager or team lead
8+ years of experience as a technical game designer or gameplay engineer
Experience growing both junior and senior designers or engineers - striking the right balance of assistance and autonomy
Experience working on a live service game
Deep engagement with Teamfight Tactics over multiple sets
Experience working in the Unreal Engine

Responsibilities

Manage the project’s technical game designers: help them grow, learn, and perform to their potential.
Maintain a high craft bar: Ensure that the work you oversee meets Riot's demanding craft standards
Advocate for players: Stay in tune with the player experience and know how to understand and incorporate their feedback into roadmaps and feature decisions
Collaborate and build trust: Work closely with other discipline leads and managers to ensure Tech Design is delivering what they need, when they need it; ensure that features can be scoped efficiently so project plans can be built; and foster relationships with teams outside of Teamfight Tactics
Build strong teams: Take an active role in recruiting and onboarding to ensure capable technical game designers join our teams and ramp up quickly