Senior Product Manager

NCSoft; Irvine (CA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 170,000; Full time

Job summary

NCSoft in Irvine, CA is seeking a Senior Product Manager to shape the player experience for an upcoming FPS open-world shooter MMO across global markets. You will work closely with NCSoft's development team in Korea and publishing groups worldwide to influence live operations, gameplay systems, and monetization.

The role demands cross-cultural collaboration and data-driven decision making. You will lead cross-functional efforts, define KPIs, and ensure alignment between development and

Qualifications

• 7+ years of product management experience, with at least 3 years in live-service games.
• Experience across live ops, game systems, or monetization in a games context.
• Proven ability to collaborate on a shared product roadmap across multiple stakeholders, including external development partners.
• Strong cross-functional communication skills, comfortable presenting to leadership and aligning with marketing, community, and CS teams.
• Experience working with international or cross-cultural teams, navigating cultural differences professionally.
• Data-driven decision maker with hands-on experience defining metrics and translating data into recommendations.
• Excellent written communication skills, writing crisp briefs, clear specs, and executive-ready summaries.

Responsibilities

• Shape and contribute to the global product roadmap across live ops, gameplay systems, and monetization.
• Represent NC America's perspective in global product discussions and align with development vision.
• Translate global strategy into actionable plans for marketing, community, and live operations teams.
• Define success metrics for live ops and evaluate post-event performance for future planning.
• Coordinate with Community, CS, and Marketing to support live operations end-to-end.
• Identify and escalate risks to timelines or quality across time zones.

Skills

Product management

Live-service games

Cross-functional collaboration

Cross-cultural collaboration

Data-driven decisions

Executive communication

Written briefs/specs

Job description

ROLE OVERVIEW

We are seeking a Senior Product Manager to help shape the player experience for our upcoming FPS open-world shooter MMO across global markets.

This is a senior individual contributor role sitting on the publisher side, working in close collaboration with NCSOFT's development team in Korea and fellow publishing groups around the world. You will contribute to global product decisions spanning live operations, core gameplay systems, and in-game economy and monetization, helping ensure that the game is positioned for long-term success in Western markets and beyond.

This role requires influence through deep product expertise, strong cross-cultural relationships, and the ability to navigate a complex, multi-stakeholder environment where the development org is thousands of miles away. You think globally, communicate clearly across cultures, and bring both analytical rigor and genuine passion for games to every decision.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Global Product Strategy & Roadmap Collaboration

• Collaborate with NC's Korea development team and global publishing partners to shape and contribute to the shared product roadmap across live operations, gameplay systems, and monetization.
• Represent NC America's perspective in global product discussions, advocating for player needs and market priorities while aligning with the broader development vision.
• Translate global product strategy into clear, actionable plans for internal stakeholders across marketing, community, and live operations.
• Track and synthesize competitive landscape, market trends, and player behavior to inform product positioning and prioritization.

Live Operations & Seasonal Content

• Partner with the Korea dev team and global publishing counterparts to plan and execute live events, seasonal content, and in-game campaigns.
• Define success metrics for live ops initiatives and evaluate post-event performance, feeding learnings back into future planning cycles.
• Coordinate cross-functionally with Community, CS, and Marketing to ensure live operations are supported end-to-end from a player experience perspective.
• Identify and elevate risks to live ops timelines or quality, working across time zones to resolve blockers quickly.

Monetization & Economy

• Contribute to the design and ongoing management of the in-game economy, including pricing, item cadence, and value proposition for Western players.
• Partner with the Korea team on monetization strategy, offering a Western market perspective to ensure global decisions land well with NC America's player base.
• Analyze player spending patterns, conversion data, and economy health metrics to identify opportunities and flag imbalances.
• Evaluate new monetization features and systems for player impact, working with dev and publishing partners to refine before launch.

Cross-Cultural Collaboration

• Serve as a primary product contact for the development team in Seoul, building trusted relationships that enable effective collaboration across time zones and cultural contexts.
• Communicate Western player expectations, market nuances, and publishing priorities clearly and constructively to Korean counterparts.
• Participate in cross-regional product syncs, represent NC America's needs in global planning forums, and ensure alignment between development and publishing timelines.
• Navigate the publisher-developer dynamic with professionalism and empathy, understanding when to push, when to align, and how to build consensus across organizational boundaries.

Data, Insights & Player Advocacy

• Own product analytics for your areas of responsibility: defining KPIs and using data to tell a clear story about what's working and what isn't.
• Synthesize player feedback, community sentiment, and support data into product recommendations that influence global development priorities.
• Write clear, concise product briefs, specs, and post-mortems that keep internal and external stakeholders aligned and informed.

QUALIFICATIONS

Required

• 7+ years of product management experience, with at least 3 years in live-service games.
• Demonstrated experience working across live operations, game systems, or monetization and economy in a games context.
• Proven ability to collaborate on a shared product roadmap across multiple stakeholders, including external development partners.
• Strong cross-functional communication skills, comfortable presenting to leadership, aligning with developers, and working alongside marketing, community, and CS teams.
• Experience working with international or cross-cultural teams, with the ability to navigate cultural differences in a professional, collaborative way.
• Data-driven decision maker with hands-on experience defining metrics, analyzing product performance, and translating data into recommendations.
• Excellent written communication skills, able to write crisp briefs, clear specs, and executive-ready summaries.

Nice to Have

• Experience working on the publisher side of a developer-publisher relationship, especially with Eastern development studios.
• Familiarity with FPS or MMO games, either professionally or as an active player.
• Background in economy design or monetization strategy for online games.

WHO YOU ARE

• You're a connector, you build trust with development partners, align global publishing teams, and still have the credibility to push back when it matters.
• You can hold your own in a conversation about game feel, economy balance, and live ops cadence without needing someone else to translate the product details for you.
• You're comfortable with ambiguity. You don't need a perfectly defined scope to make progress, you find the path forward and bring others with you.
• You think in player outcomes, not feature lists. Every roadmap decision starts with the question of what it means for the person actually playing the game.
• You can work across time zones. Calls with Seoul are part of the job and you approach them with energy, not frustration.

LOCATION & WORK ENVIRONMENT

This position is based full-time at our Irvine, CA office. Candidates must be willing to work on-site. Some flexibility may be required for coordination with our development team in Seoul, South Korea (KST timezone).

Irvine, CA pay range$120,000-$170,000 USD