Senior Director, Product Management (Small Axe Studios)

About this role

Who We Are

At 2K, we build some of the most iconic and culture-shaping video games in entertainment. In 2023, Small Axe Studios, formally known as 2K Sports Lab, was created as our newest stand-alone studio in Burnaby with an ambitious mission to redefine the future of sports games. We are actively expanding our world-class publishing team to launch 2K’s next major sports franchise with Small Axe Studios. If you thrive on bringing bold, innovative experiences to life with a laser focus on players and sports fans worldwide, we’d love to connect with you.

What We Need

We are looking for a Senior Director, Product Management responsible for partnering with Small Axe Studios on product strategy, feature roadmaps, and management of the live service player experience to enable long-term engagement & revenue growth.

In this critical role, you will work with the studio to architect and execute a multi-year product roadmap, shaping our player engagement, growth and retention strategies. Leading both the product management and data insights teams, you will work closely with studio and publishing collaborators to develop and implement plans that will enable the franchise to become a cultural powerhouse.

What You’ll Do

• Product Leadership

• Multi-Year Product Roadmap: Partner with the studio to drive the design and execution of the multi-year product roadmap, being a strong voice in the vision, direction & evolution of the core game experience.

• Player Lifetime Value: Maximize the end-to-end player lifecycle - onboarding, retention, re-acquisition & monetization - leveraging data to build and continually iterate a live service strategy that consistently grows in-game engagement and player lifetime value.

• Monetization Models: Collaborate with the studio to plan and optimize in-game monetization models, ensuring they are designed to enhance the player experience, increase MAUs, and drive long-term revenue growth without creating player friction or introducing pay-to-win dynamics.

• Content Roadmap: Co-author the daily/weekly/monthly/annual cadence of feature drops, content updates, gameplay optimization, and game resets, ensuring alignment on resourcing, licensing, and development costs.

• Evergreen Engagement & Conversion: Build comprehensive messaging, campaign, and upsell strategies in collaboration with performance marketing and studio development teams to drive ongoing player engagement and conversion.

• Data, Insights & Market Intelligence

• Voice of the Player: Understand and advocate for the player’s perspective at every opportunity, to ensure the development of fair and balanced gameplay experiences that empowers player choice and values their time.

• Telemetry & Analysis: Define telemetry needs, critical metrics, reporting, and analysis needed to develop insights that impact product decisions, ultimately enabling us to improve the player experience and exceed core franchise targets.  

• Landscape Analysis: Leverage market intelligence to deliver insight and thought leadership on the industry landscape, trends, competitor products, and best practices to help us grow and evolve our thinking regarding player engagement strategies.

• Localization Strategy: Develop regional and local market insight, understanding player needs across diverse geographies, recommending localization opportunities across the organization to expand our TAM and deliver a positive ROI.

• Team & Operational Leadership

• Team Leadership: Architect and lead a high-performing Product Management & Analytics organization; mentor a multidisciplinary team of PMs, Data Analysts, and Data Scientists to establish a "best-in-class" center of excellence for franchise-wide player insights.

• Operational Excellence: Direct mission-critical operations to ensure go-to-market readiness; e.g. driving accountability for 1st party submissions and the global legal compliance process.

• Best-in-Class Testing Plans: Orchestrate a comprehensive testing roadmap - from Alpha/Beta execution to release management - leveraging real-time monitoring, dashboards, and community feedback loops to optimize game quality and player satisfaction.

• Regulatory Landscape Expert: Proactively navigate the evolving global legislative landscape to ensure full product compliance, mitigating risk by anticipating and preparing for upcoming regulatory shifts.

• Franchise Evangelist: Develop a deep understanding of our product, becoming the sought-after expert regarding product and live services strategy. Proactively share insights, processes, and lessons learned across studio & publishing teams within the sports game portfolio.

What Will Make You a Great Fit

• AAA Live Service Expertise: 10+ years of experience in product leadership, specifically driving persistent AAA console/PC live service games

• Visionary Leadership: An accomplished team builder with a proven track record of inspiring and empowering high-performing, cross-functional teams.

• Strategic Influence: Expert-level ability to align diverse stakeholders and drive executive-level decision-making through clear, structured communication and collaboration.

• Analytical Decision-Maker: A critical thinker who masterfully balances data-driven insights with player perspectives, business priorities, and resource constraints to solve complex product challenges.

• Sports Passion: A genuine passion for sports paired with an intuitive grasp of how to interpret sports culture into high-impact digital experiences.

Bonus Points

• Early Development: Experience working in the early phases of development (pre-production and production) of AAA and/or Free-to-Play games with live services content.

• Mobile Platform Fluency: Strategic insight into onboarding, scaling and retaining player bases within evergreen mobile games.

• Publishing Partnership: Experience working in collaboration with publishing teams, collaborating on decisions that impact both product and commercial outcomes.

The pay

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