Director, Data Engineering - Player Lifecycle & Personalization

Riot's Data Engineers harness petabytes of data and state-of-the-art processing technologies to build products that elevate the player experience at massive scale. Turning this data into meaningful insights is a complex challenge, and our engineers meet it by staying deeply player-focused and collaborating across diverse teams to improve the lives of millions of players worldwide.

As a Director of Data Engineering within the PubSports organization, you will define and lead the data strategy supporting Player Lifecycle & Personalization across Riot.

This role is responsible for building the data products, data foundations, and organizational capabilities that enable player understanding, segmentation, personalization, experimentation, analytics, and AI-driven experiences. You will partner closely with Product, Insights, Data Science, AI, and Engineering leaders to ensure Riot has trusted, scalable, and reusable data assets that support player engagement and long-term growth.

In addition to owning Player Lifecycle & Personalization, you will lead the modernization and evolution of PubSports' data ecosystem, driving adoption of Riot's data platform standards while establishing a long-term strategy for player intelligence and engagement data.

Responsibilities:

• Define and execute the data strategy for Player Lifecycle & Personalization across Riot.
• Establish trusted player data products, data models, and intelligence capabilities that support engagement, retention, personalization, experimentation, and AI-driven experiences.
• Partner with Product, Insights, Data Science, and AI leaders to translate business needs into scalable data capabilities and platforms.
• Lead modernization of PubSports' data ecosystem and improve data quality, governance, observability, and operational accountability.
• Drive standardization of player data, business metrics, and semantic definitions across teams.
• Build and grow a high-performing organization of managers, senior engineers, and technical leaders.
• Define long-term investment priorities and roadmap for Player Lifecycle & Personalization data capabilities.
• Communicate strategy, priorities, risks, and outcomes to senior leadership and stakeholders.

Required Qualifications: 

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or a related field, or equivalent experience.
• 12+ years of experience in data engineering, data platforms, analytics engineering, or related disciplines.
• 5+ years of people leadership experience, including experience leading managers and senior technical leaders.
• Experience leading data engineering, machine learning engineering, data platform, analytics engineering, or customer intelligence organizations.
• Experience building data products and data capabilities that support lifecycle management, personalization, customer intelligence, loyalty, CRM, or similar domains.
• Strong leadership experience building teams, developing managers, and delivering through others.
• Experience defining strategy and operating effectively in ambiguous environments.
• Deep understanding of modern data platforms, data products, governance, and data quality practices including Agentic DE AI platforms
• Proven ability to partner across Product, Analytics, Data Science, Engineering, and executive leadership teams.

Desired Qualifications:

• Master’s degree in Computer Science or a related field, or equivalent experience.
• Experience with large-scale data platforms in gaming or adjacent consumer products.
• Familiarity with large-scale experimentation platforms and cross-surface measurement.
• Experience with autonomous AI coding platforms, modern data platforms, including transformation frameworks and governance or metadata tooling (e.g., Devin, Databricks, Atlan).
• Experience leading platform-focused engineering organizations.
• Experience leading and scaling distributed or remote teams.
• Experience supporting machine learning, experimentation, and AI-driven products.
• Experience leading data modernization and organizational data maturity initiatives.
• Gaming industry experience is a plus but not required.

For this role, you will find success through craft expertise, a collaborative spirit, and decision-making that prioritizes the delight of players. We will be looking at your past studies, experience, and your personal relationship with games. If you embody player empathy and care about players' experiences, this could be your role!

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. 

• (Los Angeles Only) Base salary range between $251,700.00 - $351,900.00 USD + incentive compensation + equity + 401K with company match + medical, dental, vision, and life insurance + short and long-term disability + open PTO.
• (Los Angeles Only) Base salary range between $251,700.00 - $351,900.00 USD + incentive compensation + equity + 401K with company match + medical, dental, vision, and life insurance + short and long-term disability + open PTO.