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 balanc e, 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