Sr. Manager, Data Engineering - PubSports Insights

Location: Los Angeles, USA

Department: Product Insights

Riot’s Data Engineers harness petabytes of data and state-of-the-art processing technologies to build products that elevate the player experience at massive scale. Turning this data into meaningful insights is a complex challenge, and our engineers meet it by staying deeply player-focused and collaborating across diverse teams to improve the lives of millions of players worldwide.

As a Senior Engineering Manager for Data Engineering within the PubSports vertical, you will lead the evolution of PubSports’ data platform capabilities by operationalizing Riot’s data platform architecture, governance standards, and maturity frameworks. This role is responsible for modernizing PubSports’ data ecosystem and ensuring that data assets supporting player engagement, monetization, and insights are reliable, scalable, and aligned with Riot’s enterprise data platform standards. You will operate within Riot’s emerging Data Platform operating model, translating platform architecture and governance frameworks into production-grade data systems that deliver trusted insights and enable advanced analytics, experimentation, and machine learning. This role will also grow and lead a team of data engineers responsible for delivering durable data products that power analytics, business intelligence, and ML-driven player experiences.

Responsibilities:

• Lead modernization of PubSports data pipelines and architecture 
• Implement and enforce medallion/lakehouse standards 
• Eliminate duplicate or fragmented data workflows 
• Ensure scalable, modular, and reusable system design 
• Drive reduction of tech debt and legacy instability 
• Establish SLIs/SLOs for critical datasets 
• Drive clear dataset ownership and operational accountability 
• Improve data quality monitoring and incident response discipline 
• Align vertical standards with enterprise practices 
• Partner closely with PubSports Product Insights to translate business requirements into durable datasets 
• Accelerate time-to-insight through well-designed curated layers 
• Ensure semantic clarity and standardized business metrics 
• Support analytics, BI, and ML use cases with production-grade data foundations 
• Operationalize Riot’s data maturity and governance frameworks 
• Lead and grow a high-performing team of Data Engineers 
• Drive predictable sprint execution and roadmap alignment 
• Maintain high code quality and review rigor 
• Coach engineers on scalable system design and data modeling 
• Balance speed with architectural integrity 

Required Qualifications:

• 10+ years in data engineering or data platform roles 
• 5+ years leading DE teams in production environments 
• Deep expertise in Spark / Databricks 
• Deep, production-level expertise in a major data engineering programming language such as Python or Scala
• Advanced SQL and dimensional modeling, Orchestration (Airflow or similar), Lakehouse / medallion architecture 
• Proven experience designing and implementing real-time/streaming data pipelines using technologies like Kafka, Flink, or similar platforms 
• Deep Experience in Data quality & monitoring frameworks 
• Working knowledge of cloud-native data services (e.g., AWS/GCP/Azure) and a track record of data platform cost optimization and resource management. 
•  Expertise in data security and privacy engineering, including the implementation of robust access control (RBAC/ABAC) and data masking/anonymization techniques. 
• Proven experience modernizing legacy systems 
• Demonstrated ability to translate business needs into scalable technical solutions 

Desired Qualifications: 

• Experience in gaming, large consumer platforms, or systems leading data modernization or transformation initiatives in a complex environment 
• Track record improving data maturity ( e.g. SLI’s/SLO governance, reliability standards) Experience designing semantic layers or standardized business metric frameworks 
• Background supporting advanced analytics use cases in high velocity product environments 
• Demonstrated ability to influence standards across teams in a matrixed organization

For this role, you'll find success through craft expertise, a collaborative spirit, and decision-making that prioritizes your fellow Rioters, who are the customers of your work. Being a dedicated fan of games is not necessary for this position!

Our Perks:

Riot focuses on work/life balance, shown by our open paid time off policy and other perks such as flexible work schedules. We offer medical, dental, and life insurance, parental leave for you, your spouse/domestic partner, and children, and a 401k with company match. Check out our benefits pages for more information.

At Riot Games, we put players first. That mission drives every decision in our quest to create games and experiences that make it better to be a player. Whether you’re working directly on a new player-facing experience or you’re supporting the company as a whole, everyone at Riot is part of our mission. And just like in our games, we’re better when we work together. Our goal is to create collaborative teams where you are empowered to bring your unique perspective everyday. If that sounds like the kind of place you want to work, we’re looking forward to your application.

It’s our policy to provide equal employment opportunity for all applicants and members of Riot Games, Inc. Riot Games makes reasonable accommodations for handicapped and disabled Rioters and does not unlawfully discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, handicap, veteran status, marital status, criminal history, or any other category protected by applicable federal and state law. We consider for employment all qualified applicants, including those with criminal histories, in a manner consistent with applicable federal, state and local law, including the California Fair Chance Act, the City of Los Angeles Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance, the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers, the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, and the Washington Fair Chance Act.

Per the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance, the following core duties may create a basis for disqualifying candidates with relevant criminal histories:

• Safeguarding confidential and sensitive Company data
• Communication with others, including Rioters and third parties such as vendors, and/or players, including minors
• Accessing Company assets, secure digital systems, and networks
• Ensuring a safe interactive environment for players and other Rioters

These duties are directly related to essential operations, safety, trust, and compliance obligations within our organization. Please note that job duties may evolve based on business needs and additional responsibilities may be assigned as necessary to maintain operational efficiency and security.