Senior Manager, Game Design - League of Legends, Seasons

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 development 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 be responsible for leading the League of Legends Seasons mission. 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 the Seasons mission, ensuring the vision, strategy, and execution of all seasonal live service updates align with player expectations and Riot’s design values.
• Guide and mentor a team of 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 seasonal experiences that keep players engaged throughout the year.
• Drive the end-to-end design pipeline for seasonal content, from early concepting to post-launch iteration, ensuring a smooth and efficient workflow that meets high-quality standards.
• 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 team based 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.

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.

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.