Sarah Justmann

Formal Job Title: Program Manager II – Gaming Community  Terms: Contract through October 8th 2027    Target Pay Rate: $62 - $76 / hour Work schedule details: Hybrid in L.A. Department Overview Publishing Operations helps teams turn strategy into plans that can be successfully delivered to players. We force-multiply Game Publishing teams by creating the clarity, coordination, and operating discipline needed to deliver the right player experience at Riot scale. The Role As the Program Manager II for the Community programs, you will lead project and program management for a portfolio of work focused on helping players connect with communities, creators, and content around the game. You will coordinate several interconnected areas of work, including experiences across Riot's client and web platforms, content publishing, influencer and creator programs, and community-focused initiatives. You will bring these efforts together into a clear, integrated plan so teams understand what needs to happen, when it needs to happen, and how their work connects to the larger program. You will support influencer and creator programs by coordinating planning across internal teams, agencies, and other external partners. Depending on the initiative, you may manage agency relationships and delivery plans directly or provide program-level coordination and visibility across work led by partner teams. You will track timelines, milestones, approvals, dependencies, risks, and readiness while ensuring that the right teams have the information and support they need to deliver successfully. This role works with teams across Product, Community, Engineering, Web, Content, Influencer, and Regional Publishing, as well as agencies and other external partners. You will help turn strategic discussions into actionable plans, establish milestones and dependencies, surface risks early, and make sure project owners have the clarity and support they need to deliver. This role is a great fit for an experienced and highly organized program manager who enjoys bringing structure to complex, cross-functional work and helping diverse teams work toward a shared goal.   Responsibilities

• Own the end-to-end project-management plan for the Community programs, including program scope, project portfolio, milestones, dependencies, risks, decisions, owners, and delivery status
• Integrate roadmaps across Riot Client, Riot Web, the Riot content publishing pipeline, influencer programs, and ecosystem incentives into a coherent program plan with clear sequencing and critical paths
• Facilitate internal strategic conversations with Product, Community, Web, Content Operations, Influencer, Ecosystem, Regional Publishing, and other partner teams
• Establish and run the program’s operating rhythm, including planning sessions, milestone reviews, dependency reviews, working sessions, status updates, decision capture, risk reviews, and escalation forums
• Coordinate internal resources and external vendors to ensure projects are appropriately scoped, staffed, sequenced, and delivered; clarify responsibilities, handoffs, inputs, approval paths, and expected outcomes
• Maintain a single, trusted view of program progress while identifying and managing cross-project dependencies, risks, blockers, and decision gaps; bring forward clear options and recommendations when scope, timing, resources, quality, or player impact are in tension
• Maintain production visibility across playtest activations, tracking major milestones, agency and internal handoffs, risks, approvals, and readiness without serving as the day-to-day lead producer for those activations
• Partner with program and craft leads to ensure projects are ready to move through key gates, surface when a project lacks a clear owner or path to delivery, and capture learnings that improve the Community operating model and delivery playbooks

Required Qualifications

• 4+ years of experience in project or program management, production operations, publishing operations, or a similar field
  • Experience working in games, entertainment, technology, or a related industry is a plus
• Experience managing multiple projects or a complex program from planning through delivery
• Strong skills in planning, setting milestones, managing risks and dependencies, reporting status, and leading meetings
• Experience coordinating work across multiple teams and external partners
• Ability to lead discussions, document decisions, and turn unclear problems into clear action plans
• Strong communication skills and the ability to help teams with different goals and backgrounds work together
• Strong follow-through and good judgment, including the ability to identify risks early, raise blockers, and help resolve issues

Desired Qualifications

• Experience supporting game playtests, closed betas, user research, player events, creator or influencer programs, or other community programs
• Familiarity with game clients, websites, content publishing, creator or influencer programs, or regional game publishing
• Experience working with global or distributed teams across different regions and time zones
• Experience managing agencies or vendors in creative, technology, gaming, entertainment, or community-focused environments
• Experience using tools such as Jira, Airtable, Notion, Miro, or similar project-management tools
• Passion for games, player empathy, and an interest in helping build new community and ecosystem programs from the ground up

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