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 a Senior User Researcher on the China studio Insight team, you will report to the head of China Studio Insights team. You will be part of the strategic research team, partnering with leaders on games in the early stages of development as well as live games within the China studio. You will conduct studies and analysis to inform the direction, experience, systems, and features of Riot’s new games. You will also contribute to the vision for how playtesting will be used and performed for new games. Your scientific skill set coupled with your audience insight will ensure that we have a deep understanding of global players, how to best understand them, leveraging user research, and ultimately make games in a player focused way.

As a member of China studio, you’ll partner with many teams within China studio to execute playtests and audience research across many products, with a focus on early stage games. You’ll use your research background, understanding of the market, audience, and familiarity with game development to contribute to the success of our teams. You are a master at building research activities and will support from initial game direction all the way through post-implementation evaluation.

Responsibilities:

Drive user research efforts on game teams in partnership with production & design

Leadership on high complexity, ambiguous problem spaces to help direct the experience of our new games, systems, and features.

Contribute at the China studio level on strategy and operations as part of the China studio insight team

Construct and perform labs, studies, and surveys - sometimes with novel or complex methodologies - designed to answer business, design, development, and usability questions

Share the results with game and China studio leadership in clear, illustrative presentations that drive meaningful change

Mentor other researchers, helping them learn from your experiences

Required Qualifications:

Education background in ONE of the following categories:

Advanced degree in Psychology, Anthropology, Human-Computer Interaction, Cognitive Science, Human Factors or a related discipline plus 6 years of relevant research experience in game development

Bachelor's degree in Psychology, Anthropology, Human-Computer Interaction, or a related discipline plus 8 years of relevant research experience in game development

Experience running playtest and usability tests in a variety of paradigms, including and not limited to moderated testing, unmoderated testing, focused feature-specific testing, holistic and longitudinal testing, and more complex or constrained testing paradigms

Trusted to operate independently regardless of structure, owns larger problems/projects/workstreams

Ability to work collaboratively with others

Familiarity with qualitative methods and analysis

Experience synthesizing and presenting data for maximum impact and understanding

Experience designing and performing basic survey research

Fluent in Chinese and English, and can promote collaboration across different languages and cultures

Desired Qualifications:

Experience conducting games user research during the early stages of the development life cycle particularly incubation, prototype, and pre-production

Familiarity with audience research including methods for identification and definition

Familiarity with basic statistical methods for data analysis (regressions, correlations, factor analyses)

Experience leading complex projects with multiple collaborators and work streams

Experience managing vendors

Experience working with leadership at the “team of teams” level on strategic and operational problems

For this role, you'll 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!