Senior Manager, Creative Direction - Wild Rift

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.

We’re looking for humble but ambitious, razor-sharp professionals who can teach us a thing or two. We promise to return the favor. Like us, you take play seriously; you’re passionate about games. We embrace those who see things differently, aren’t afraid to experiment, and who have a healthy disregard for constraints.

That's where you come in.

As the Creative Director for Wild Rift, you are the primary architect and public steward of the game’s creative soul. Your mission is to synthesize 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 are a visionary who bridges the gap between high-level brand aspiration and production reality. By aligning internal Riot teams, Publishing, and global partners like Tencent, you ensure that every player touchpoint—from the UIUX, core In-game and around-game experience to the latest cinematic—feels cohesive, immersive, and unmistakably Wild Rift. You don’t just manage a team; you build the "North Star" frameworks that empower a multi-disciplinary apparatus to make fast, high-quality decisions at scale.

Responsibilities

• Define the Creative Vision of the product and lead the team forward: Partner with the EP to ensure parity and consistency between Product Strategy and Creative Direction. Author "Creative Direction Artifacts" (Style Guide, Art Pillars, Craft Guidelines and Visual Design Systems) that serve as the North Star for the creative team and the source of truth for various stakeholders while boldly leading the way forward with vision and hands-on craft.
• Discipline Integration: Synthesize Art, Audio, Narrative, and UX into a singular, world-class voice. You bridge the language & craft gap between craft specialists on your team and across all disciplines to ensure the team works in concert toward a unified player experience.
• The Creative "Connective Tissue": Align the Creative vision with Tech, Production, and Publishing. You will contextualize technical or budgetary constraints (e.g., performance budgets on low-end devices) and transform them into creative opportunities that elevate the player experience.
• Global Co-Creation: Ensure synchronized content and player experience starting with Wild Rift and across the greater League of Legends brand and the world-building of Runeterra. Partner with Tencent and regional leads to ensure hyper-local authenticity (maps, skins, events) while safeguarding Riot’s global brand, always building conviction through player data while validating what works for global audiences.
• Strategic mindset balanced with creative problem-solving: Understand how to uphold the strategic goals of the product while instituting effective work-systems and rituals that provide enough scaffolding for the team to move fast. Support the team in affording individual creative interpretation and craft excellence that sets a high quality bar for the game, while always being willing to step in and “shot-call” when needed for creative problem solving.
• Comprehensive Leadership: You will be counted on as a key leader of the creative team, not only in terms of your ability to set direction and provide bespoke feedback, but also in your ability to collaborate and coordinate with other groups and leaders within Riot to shape the future of the League of Legends ecosystem. You have a track record of building scalable creative "playbooks" and rituals that align disparate disciplines on the game team, while driving collaboration with other Riot CDs to shape the future of the League of Legends ecosystem.

Required Qualifications

• 10+ years of proven track record of leading massive, multi-disciplinary creative teams within gaming.
• 5+ years of proven experience managing and mentoring diverse creative team members across Game Art (Concept, 3D, Tech-art, Animation, VFX), Audio, Narrative, and UI-UX as well as deep craft experience in at least one of these areas.
• You have a "future-facing" pulse on culture (fashion, music, animation) and can anticipate player trends before they hit the mainstream.
• The ability to translate abstract concepts into concrete "bumper-guardrails" and production frameworks that unlock team speed and quality.
• Expert-level stakeholder management; you can nudge strong, divergent opinions toward a shared outcome while remaining firm on the "world-class" bar.
• Experience navigating the nuances of international IP, 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" between technical capabilities and aesthetic output.

Desired Qualifications

• Genre affinity for games in the mobile free-to-play space, especially MOBAs.
• Fluency in English and Mandarin
• Professional experience establishing creative vision and strategy, including 1 shipped title as Creative Director or Art Director
• Deep knowledge of the League of Legends IP
• Background in design, narrative, or art

• (Los Angeles Only) Base salary range between $185,200.00 - $258,000.00 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 $185,200.00 - $258,000.00 USD + incentive compensation + equity + 401K with company match + medical, dental, vision, and life insurance + short and long-term disability + open PTO.