Principal Researcher - League of Legends

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 critical to Riot living up to our player-focused mission. We're a group united by our love of games, science, and helping others succeed.

As a Principal Researcher on the League of Legends development team, you’ll be responsible for helping Riot conduct high complexity research that helps us understand League’s current and emerging audiences and inform/assess what we build for those audiences. You'll conduct a wide range of studies and analyses including (but not limited to) qualitative interviews, global market surveys, segmentation, playtests, usability, and focus groups. You’ll be part of an interdisciplinary Insights team working closely with a diverse group of devs to turn the findings of your research into recommendations and action. Your research background coupled with your deep understanding of data will ensure that you’re an effective advocate for players and can provide strategic guidance about their wants, needs, and behaviors. This role will report to the Senior Manager of Insights (Research) for League of Legends. This hybrid position blends onsite work in Santa Monica, CA with remote flexibility.

Responsibilities:

• Design and execute end-to-end studies using a wide range of qualitative and quantitative methods to uncover player motivations, pain points, and emerging opportunity areas.

• Effectively lead vendor engagements supporting global playtesting, focus groups, and survey work. This included negotiating project requirements with stakeholders, submitting RFPs, reviewing proposals, negotiating pricing, and holding vendors accountable to their commitments.

• Conduct playtests and usability testing to help dev teams quickly iterate on product designs.

• Partner with analysts, researchers, and designers to generate insights and frameworks that will inform the strategic direction of League of Legends.

• Collaborate with a cross-functional development team to define and optimize the League of Legends Player Lifecycle, including new player experience, progression, and matchmaking.

• Communicate research findings through compelling narratives that align stakeholders and drive executive decision-making.

• Champion the player perspective by delivering evidence-based guidance on player needs, motivations, and behaviors, both current players and prospective League players.

• Collaborate closely with game teams, additional researchers, and Insights partners to develop and socialize research-driven frameworks that shape League’s product strategy and help to level up research capabilities at Riot.

• Be an effective advocate for players and provide strategic guidance about their wants, needs, and behaviors.

• Continuously exploring new approaches to research methods and technological advancements like AI to improve the quality and speed of Riot's research.

• Mentor other researchers, helping them learn from your own experiences, and contribute to Riot’s research craft standard

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in Psychology, Anthropology, Human-Computer Interaction, or a related discipline plus at least 9 years of relevant experience (an advanced degree can account for 1 to 2 years of experience depending on Master’s or PhD)

• Broad experience in quantitative and qualitative research methods including conducting interviews, focus groups, online community studies, playtests, usability, and survey research with deep expertise in at least one of these areas

• 3+ years research in the games industry

• Experience conducting research to answer product or portfolio strategy questions

• Experience synthesizing & socializing research results and distilling results into impactful recommendations for product leadership

• Trusted to operate independently regardless of structure and to have owned larger problems/projects/workstreams

• Adept at communicating effectively at all levels: from devs implementing your work to executives defining strategy

Desired Qualifications:

• 3+ years of experience working directly with senior executives (includes clients)

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

• Experience working with game teams through the entire lifecycle of the product (development, launch, and live operations)

• Vendor management experience

• Experience leading complex efforts with multiple collaborators

For this role, you'll find success through craft expertise and a collaborative spirit that prioritizes the delight of players. We will look at your past studies and experience, but for this role, we also look for dedicated people with a personal relationship with games. If you embody player empathy and care about players' experiences, this is the role for you!

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.