Director, Insights - VALORANT Gameplay

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 d