Senior Manager, Creative Direction

About the role

Riot Games was established in 2006 by entrepreneurial gamers who believe that player-focused game development can result in great games. In 2009, Riot released its debut title League of Legends to critical and player acclaim. As the most played video game in the world, over 100 million play every month. Players form the foundation of our community and it's for them that we continue to evolve and improve the League of Legends experience. You are the primary architect and public steward of the game's creative soul for Wild Rift, synthesizing the outputs of Art, Audio, Narrative, and Visual Design into a singular, world-class voice that defines the League of Legends experience on mobile. You bridge the gap between high-level brand aspiration and production reality, aligning internal Riot teams, Publishing, and global partners like Tencent to ensure every player touchpoint feels cohesive, immersive, and unmistakably Wild Rift. You do not just manage a team; you build the "North Star" frameworks that empower a multi-disciplinary apparatus to make fast, high-quality decisions at scale.

Key facts

What you'll do

Define and socialize the Creative Direction Artifacts, including Tone Maps, Pillar One-Pagers, and Visual Design Systems, that serve as the source of truth for both creative and non-creative stakeholders across the Wild Rift portfolio.

Synthesize Art, Audio, Narrative, and UX into a singular, world-class voice, bridging the language gap between these specialists to ensure they work in concert toward a unified player experience on mobile.

Act as the Creative Connective Tissue, aligning the creative vision with Tech, Production, and Publishing teams while contextualizing technical or budgetary constraints into creative opportunities that elevate the player experience.

Partner with Tencent and regional leads to ensure hyper-local authenticity across maps, skins, and celebrations while safeguarding the global brand lane and maintaining consistency with the core League of Legends identity.

Maintain strategic altitude by establishing effective work-systems and rituals that provide enough scaffolding for the team to move fast, while leaving ample room for individual creative interpretation and problem-solving.

Champion systems-oriented leadership by building scalable creative playbooks and rituals that align disparate disciplines - Art, Tech, Production, and Publishing - behind a single North Star and enabling efficient quality checks.

Collaborate with other Riot Creative Directors to shape the future of the League of Legends ecosystem, memorializing experiments and validating winning concepts for the global audience through data and player feedback.

Elevate the Wild Rift creative standards by translating abstract concepts into concrete bumper-guardrails and matrices that unlock team speed and quality without sacrificing expressive depth.

Exercise expert-level stakeholder management to nudge strong, divergent opinions toward a shared outcome while remaining firm on the world-class bar for content quality and player delight.

Navigate the nuances of international intellectual property with cultural fluency, balancing western design sensibilities against the needs of a global, multi-cultural player base in fast-growing markets.

Develop a deep understanding of mobile platform constraints and transform them into a creative throughline that pushes the boundaries of storytelling, performance, and accessibility on devices of varying capability.

Champion rigorous playtesting and player research insights to iterate on creative concepts, ensuring that every narrative beat, visual motif, and audio signature resonates authentically with the Wild Rift community.

Requirements

10+ years of proven track record of leading massive, multi-disciplinary creative teams within gaming, with a history of delivering high-quality content on demanding schedules.

5+ years of proven experience managing and mentoring diverse creative team members across Art, Audio, Narrative, and UX, fostering an environment of trust and accountability.

You have a future-facing pulse on culture, including fashion, music, and animation, and can anticipate player trends before they achieve mainstream adoption.

The ability to translate abstract concepts into concrete bumper-guardrails and matrices that unlock team speed and quality while preserving creative flexibility.

Expert-level stakeholder management; you can navigate complex org structures, align competing priorities, and drive decisions without direct authority.

Experience navigating the nuances of international intellectual property, specifically in balancing western design sensibilities with the needs of a global, multi-cultural player base.

A deep understanding of the constraints of mobile platforms and the ability to find the creative throughline that respects technical and business limitations.

A track record of building and maintaining cohesive creative systems that scale across regions, teams, and disciplines, ensuring consistency without stagnation.

Strong written and verbal communication skills in English, with the ability to synthesize feedback from diverse cultural and professional perspectives.

Commitment to the player-first ethos that defines Riot Games, demonstrated through actions that prioritize long-term community health over short-term gains.