Senior Director, Central Technology

ArenaNet•Bellevue, WA

2d•Remote

About The Position

At ArenaNet, we’ve always believed that games are art. They have the power to communicate ideas and tell stories. They can change the way we think, reflect our cultures, and move us. As the developer of the award-winning Guild Wars game series, we’re proud to share our passion for the online worlds we’ve created with over 21 million players worldwide. ArenaNet develops and publishes games for every kind of person, which means our games need to be built by every kind of person. We believe the best experiences come from working together, celebrating differences, and helping each of our team members shine. We are looking for a Senior Director, Central Technology, to document, update and/or define and execute the central technology strategy that enables our teams to build, launch, and operate world-class games. In this role, you will oversee the teams and platforms that power game development and live operations across the studio, including platform, security, network operations, build systems, web systems, billing, data engineering, and analytics. Maintain our quality standard of targeting 99.999% uptime and enabling rapid deployment via CI/CD pipelines. This is a hands-on leadership role for someone who can operate at both the strategic and technical level. You’ll partner closely with studio leadership and game teams to understand their needs, translate those needs into a cohesive technology roadmap, and ensure our teams have scalable, reliable, and secure technology that helps them move faster without sacrificing quality. The ideal candidate is a strong technical and people leader who can set long-term direction while staying close enough to the technology to make thoughtful decisions around architecture, infrastructure, tooling, and emerging technologies.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or an equivalent combination of education, training, and experience.
12+ years of experience in technology, engineering, infrastructure, platform engineering, online services, or related technical disciplines.
8+ years of people management experience, including experience leading senior technical staff and multidisciplinary technology teams.
Experience supporting AAA game development and/or large-scale live-service games.
Deep understanding of the technology needs associated with both game development and operating massive live services.
Demonstrated experience defining and executing technology strategy and roadmaps.
Strong technical understanding of areas such as cloud infrastructure, platform engineering, developer tooling, build systems, automation, security, data engineering, and live operations.
Experience building scalable, reliable, and secure platforms and services that improve developer productivity.
Demonstrated ability to improve developer productivity and enable teams to move faster without sacrificing quality, stability, or security.
Strong understanding of both development and operational needs across the lifecycle of a game.
Ability to balance innovation with operational excellence and make sound decisions about when to build, adopt, reuse, or evolve technology.
Experience managing technology budgets, investments, vendors, and licensing or technology agreements.
Strong analytical and decision-making skills with the ability to use data to inform priorities and investments.
Excellent communication and leadership skills with the ability to build strong partnerships across technical, creative, production, and executive teams.

Nice To Haves

A Master’s degree is a plus.

Responsibilities

Define and execute the studio’s central technology roadmap, aligning technology priorities and investments with game development needs and broader studio goals.
Act as a key technology partner to game technology directors and their teams to understand their development needs and deliver technology, platforms, and services that help them build and operate games more effectively.
Manage 6–8 senior technical staff and a broader organization of approximately 20–25 employees across platform, security, network operations, build systems, web systems, billing, data engineering, and analytics.
Maintain, document, and/or establish technical standards and best practices that improve reliability, maintainability, security, automation, and development efficiency across the studio.
Evaluate emerging technologies, including cloud infrastructure, automation, and developer tooling, and determine where they can meaningfully improve how our teams work.
Ensure our technology organization can effectively support the different needs of teams developing new games and teams operating large-scale live services.
Partner with studio leadership to establish and manage technology budgets, prioritize investments, and negotiate major technology agreements, licensing deals, and vendor partnerships.
Build, mentor, and develop a high-performing team while creating an environment of accountability, collaboration, and continuous growth.