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Researcher II - R&D Central Research Team
2 years ago
As a User Researcher II on the R&D Central Research team , you’ll report to the Director of Strategic Advisory. You'll be part of the R&D Strategic Research team, partnering with leaders on prototype and early pre-production game projects in the R&D Office. You'll conduct studies and analyses 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 are crafting new games in a player-focused way.
As a User Researcher II in R&D Office, you’ll partner with many teams within R&D to execute playtests across many products, with a focus on early stage games. You’ll use your research background, understanding of the market, 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 to help direct the experience of our new games, systems, and features
- Be an advocate for our players and provide strategic guidance about their wants, needs, and behaviors
- Contribute at the R&D Office level on strategy and operations as part of the R&D Strategic Research team
- Help to drive operational best practices and craft standards for how we use user research in R&D Office
- Construct and perform labs, studies, and surveys - sometimes with novel or complex methodologies - designed to answer business, design, development, and usability questions
- Share your results with game and R&D Office 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 2 years of relevant research experience in game development
- Bachelors degree in Psychology, Anthropology, Human-Computer Interaction, or a related discipline plus 4 years of relevant research experience in game development
- Experience running playtests and usability tests in a variety of paradigms, potentially including 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
- Experience synthesizing and presenting data for maximum impact and understanding
- Experience designing and performing basic survey research
Desired Qualifications:
- Experience conducting games user research during the early stages of the development life cycle particularly incubation, prototype, and pre-production
- Familiarity with basic statistical methods for data analysis (regressions, correlations, factor analyses)
- Familiarity with qualitative methods and analysis
- 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 the experiences of players, this could be the role for you!
Our Perks:
Riot has a focus on work/life balance, shown by our open paid time off policy, in addition to 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.
Riot Games fosters a player and workplace experience that values teamwork embodied by the Summoner's Code and Community Code . Our culture embraces differences as a strength, and our values are the guiding principles for how we approach work. We are committed to putting diversity and inclusion (D&I) at the center of everything we do, and promoting a fair and collaborative culture where Rioters treat one another with dignity and respect. We encourage you to read more about our value of thriving together and our ongoing work to build the most inclusive company in Gaming .
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, including the City of Los Angeles’ Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance relating to an applicant's criminal history.
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