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Vice President, Operations (Mobile Games)

At NaturalMotion, we make games that wow people. We innovate to create experiences that previously were impossible and that would not exist without us. We take pride in making titles that reach a large audience and in creating communities that last. For the past three years NaturalMotion Studios have been named as one of the Best Places to Work in the UK games industry by gamesindustry.biz.

Hiring Update: The safety of our candidates and team members is our top priority. During the COVID-19 pandemic, our workforce transitioned to working from home, with all interviewing and onboarding being conducted virtually until further notice.

Job Purpose

Reporting to the SVP of NaturalMotion with stakeholders ranging from Senior Leaders (C-Level) in Zynga to Business Unit Leaders in NaturalMotion, this is a commercial and operations driven role with significant business planning and execution-focused responsibilities.

Providing leadership and guidance across a number of the business’ most critical functions, you will provide both strategic and operational leadership to help drive future growth and financial performance of NaturalMotion.

Key Roles & Responsibilities

• Partnering with the Studio SVP and working with the Senior Leadership team, you will help establish, refine and then take responsibility for leading the execution of the overall business strategy and studio operations
• Support and advise each of the business leaders with the NaturalMotion P&L to maximise and grow their contribution to the business
• Validation of operational delivery. Partner with the EP’s through questioning and support to help Identify & resolve issues and provide thoughtful challenges with the product roadmaps. Support production success and high quality QA / submission
• Owning the submission, and execution, of NaturalMotion’s business plan for the quarterly forecasting cycle – pulling together, critically assessing and helping to refine plans from each team and then ensuring delivery against the goals set
• Establish and track annual and quarterly OKRs for NaturalMotion
• Work with the SVP to maintain and track the rolling 3-year business plan, with specific regard to driving business goals and long term staff planning
• Identify and set up partnerships with 3rd Party studios for external development and studio expansion / flexibility as needed
• Direction of central operational business and publishing partners such as HR, Finance, IT, Marketing, Workplace Services / H&S, Corporate Development, Analytics, Technology, ExDev and Legal to ensure alignment, ownership and delivery of the studio goals across all support / team functions
• Continue to build the NaturalMotion brand, fostering our culture and building AAA mobile gaming experiences through industry connections, attending / speaking at events and other internal and external PR events
• Bring our leadership values to life: Drive, Straightforwardness and Trust
• Part of the Studio H&S committee, ensuring wellbeing is a top priority for the business units

Required Experience & Skills

• Held operational leadership and/or general management roles, ideally in mobile and free-to-play Gaming
• Held Senior level roles that touch on running live (Games or Tech) services and product management/development, ideally (but not essential) within US led businesses
• Significant experience of P&L ownership and business financial / forecasting processes
• Strong coaching ability able to support senior / experienced leaders to make key decisions about their products
• Comfortable working with other discipline experts (for example Production, Product, QA and Analytics leaders), to effectively support Game leaders to execute on world-class / AAA Mobile gaming experiences
• Examples of successfully implementing operational best practices to professionalise business processes
• Experience working in both growth environments and established companies, with evidence of having contributed to medium and long-term strategic decision-making
• Track record of building and motivating high-performing teams; with first-class service/delivery ingrained in company culture
• Comfortable and experienced in managing by influence as well as within specific ownership areas
• Experience of working within larger corporate, International or US led businesses
• Strong International experience – worked in international roles and ability to successfully engage with teams from different cultures
• Strong analytical skills, data-driven decision maker

What do we offer?

• Competitive salary, discretionary annual bonus scheme, Zynga stock allocation and Employee Stock Purchase Plan
• Contributory pension scheme
• 25 days holiday, plus public holidays and Christmas shutdown
• Private medical care, dental and healthcare cash plan
• Life insurance, critical illness insurance and income protection
• 6 months fully paid maternity leave or 3 months fully paid paternity leave
• Discounted gym membership and free weekly (virtual) fitness classes
• Annual season ticket loan and cycle to work scheme
• Flexible working hours
• Summer and Christmas parties

We are an equal opportunity employer and we are committed to building a diverse and talented workforce. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, sex, religion, colour, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, medical condition, disability, or any other class or characteristic protected by applicable law. We welcome job-seekers, players, employees, and partners from all backgrounds to join us!

We will consider all qualified job-seekers with criminal histories in a manner consistent with applicable law.