Director, Insights - VALORANT Gameplay

Riot Games; Los Angeles (CA); Hybrid; USD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Open paid time off policy

Flexible work schedules

Medical, dental, and life insurance

Parental leave

401k with company match

Job summary

A prominent gaming company in Los Angeles is seeking a Director of Gameplay Insights to lead and improve the understanding of players for VALORANT. This role requires 10+ years in data analytics and management consulting, along with a drive for player-focused game development. You'll oversee an insights team and work closely with game designers and product managers to guide gameplay decisions. The position offers a hybrid work model from the global headquarters in Santa Monica, CA.

Qualifications

• 10+ years experience in data analytics, management consulting, or related fields.
• 5+ years specializing in either analytics or research.
• 4+ years of experience managing individuals or teams.
• Strong collaborative skills with senior leaders.

Responsibilities

• Oversee gameplay insights team focused on agents, maps, and game balance.
• Develop relationships with game team leadership to define success.
• Deliver insight-backed guidance for core game systems and content strategy.
• Elevate insights usage in development from ideation to post-launch evaluation.

Skills

Data analytics

Management consulting

Product management

Quantitative skills

Collaboration with peers and leaders

Job description

The Insights discipline helps empower Rioters' decision-making to be more data-informed. We're an interdisciplinary group of scientists, consultants, and strategists from all sorts of backgrounds who join together to represent and advocate for gamers around the world. We believe that illuminating the globally diverse experiences, behaviors, and needs of gamers is essential to Riot living up to our player-focused mission. We're a group united by our love of games, science, and helping others succeed.

We’re looking for a Director of Gameplay Insights to help shape the future of VALORANT. This leader will guide how we understand players, measure success, and translate insights into game direction. Your team supports product managers, game designers, and creative leads to inform core gameplay decisions, live balance, and feature development, ensuring that every step is grounded in a deep understanding of players. You’ll lead a talented team of analysts and researchers who merge insights skills with player intuition about what makes great games. You’ll work alongside insights teams in Publishing, Esports, Platform Technology, and Data to connect the dots across the full VALORANT ecosystem - from discovery to retention, from gameplay to fandom. This role reports to the Global Head of VALORANT Insights and offers a hybrid work-from-home and in-office model, with your home base being our global headquarters in Santa Monica, CA.

Responsibilities:

Lead a High-Impact Insights Team

• Oversee an insights team focused on core gameplay: agents, maps, modes, and live game balance.
• Coach and develop managers to lead their own high-impact teams of analysts and researchers.
• Mentor team members to deepen their craft and apply insights directly to gameplay, systems, and content decisions, building credibility as partners to designers, creatives, and product managers.
• Foster a learning culture where player empathy, experimentation, and creative thinking thrive.

Oversee Product Insights for VALORANT

• Partner with game team leadership to define what success looks like for player engagement and long-term growth.
• Deliver insight-backed guidance on core game systems, progression, live balance, monetization, competitive systems, and content strategy.
• Develop and maintain a holistic understanding of VALORANT’s player base through both quantitative and qualitative research and analytics.
• Elevate how insights are used in daily development, from ideation and playtests to post-launch evaluation and iteration.

Elevate the Insights Craft

• Coach and mentor senior analysts to think like quantitative storytellers, from hypothesis framing and model selection to narrative structuring and business impact articulation.
• Partner with data and engineering teams to improve data quality and instrumentation, ensuring reliable, timely insights that move at the pace of development.
• Set and uphold high insights standards, from design to validation, ensuring methods are sound and conclusions hold up under peer review.
• Act as a thought partner to senior Product Managers and devs by pushing back when methods or assumptions are weak, proposing better alternatives, and earning trust by staying grounded in the domain.

Required Qualifications:

• 10+ years experience in data analytics, management consulting, product management, or related experience with applied quantitative skills
• Working knowledge of both analytics and research, with 5+ years specializing in at least one
• 4+ years of experience managing individuals or teams
• Ability to develop strong, open, and collaborative working relationships with peers and senior leaders

Desired Qualifications:

• Experience working on games, with knowledge of development practices and practical considerations involved in making games
• Experience supporting live service games
• Experience with (or demonstrated understanding of) First Person Shooter game dynamics and player needs
• Experience managing other 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.