About Sandsoft:

Aligned with Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030, Sandsoft Games is dedicated to the country’s socio-economic diversification by growing the regional video game industry and offering careers whilst creating fun and positive game experiences for players, with a special focus on the MENA region, whilst impacting worldwide.

Through a passion for games, Sandsoft Games aims at bringing closer continents, cultures, and people.

About Riyadh Studio:

At Sandsoft, we do things differently.

Our Background. We are a new, dynamic games company based in Saudi Arabia focused on publishing, developing & investing in high quality, core mobile Free to Play and Play & Earn game experiences and studios across the world. Our seasoned team is composed of passionate game makers with vast experience in developing, publishing and leading some of the most highly successful game franchises ever released including FIFA, Candy Crush, Need for Speed, Angry Birds, World of Tanks and more. And we are backed by the resources of one of the largest, most successful and prestigious corporations in the Middle East (Ajlan &Bros).

We Value Independence. We create the best possible, small teams we call ‘Tribes’ and give them the freedom and independence to work together in pursuit of creating the highest quality games with high reliability and competition at the heart of the experience. Each Tribe has the freedom to pursue this goal as they see fit. It’s up to them to decide what is best for Sandsoft and for our players.

We Defer to Trust. We trust each other, even when we disagree. In this environment, you will work with your colleagues who will trust you to do what makes sense and give you the autonomy to do what is right for Sandsoft as only our game teams can make the decision to launch or shut down their project.

Everyone is a Game Maker. Everybody in our development team is first and foremost, a Game Maker and you will be no different. We encourage our people to use their talents where they have the most impact. We ask and give feedback proactively to inform our decisions. So while you are a master of your own discipline, you are also a key stakeholder and your role and voice is critical when it comes to concepting and designing Games.

Role Overview

This is a unique role (akin to a COO at Studio level) in which you will get the opportunity to help define production and operations across a highly ambitious new studio from the ground up. We are looking for a season leader who will be the operational and executional partner to each of our game teams helping to manage the full loop of the game’s life cycle by identifying, managing risks and driving successful resolution to complex production challenges end-to-end execution and delivery of our mobile first games. 

Your responsibilities include talent development, organisational evolution, budget management and adoption of new production best-practice for our internal game teams and external outsourcing partners. 

The Production and Operations Lead would report directly to the Head of Studio.

 

Responsibilities:

• Partnering with our game tribes to deliver their vision supporting the what and how driving the creation, implementation and enforcement from prototyping, development and product roadmaps, development frameworks and risk mitigation systems.
• Identify and provide solutions to any discrepancies, service gaps and risks in the game. Collaborate with all stake-holders to understand all games related issues and resolve them.
• Track production status ensuring the game is within the timeline and up to quality to support launch of new games and features by efficiently consolidating the resources, allocating manpower and budgeting effectively.
• Provide operational leadership across disciplines; Manage, coach and develop staff to ensure growth, expand the talent base and build a succession bench supporting career development across disciplines.
• Manage budgets and control costs across the studio including Live Ops strategy & execution, global marketing coordination, platform and commercial partnerships, and financial controlling.
• Exemplify emotional intelligence and maturity with behaviours to build an inclusive and diverse culture that provides continuous feedback, support and empowerment.
• This will be one of the most collaborative roles. You will partner closely with multiple stakeholders: game designers, data analysts/engineers, marketers, community managers, player support, legal, and finance.

 

Requirements:

• Minimum 10 years of extensive production and leadership experience within game development. Think Player-first; play the game and understand the strengths, weaknesses and opportunities with the player experience.
• Experience with being operationally hands-on planning and operating at a multi-year, strategic level within an organisation.
• Experience building and managing teams at scale in a leadership position using state-of-the-art production tools, practices, and standards.
• Proven track record in Budget and P&L management on several successful mobile F2P titles launched/live in Core F2P Genres from prototype to live operations.
• Outstanding communication and people management skills.
• Experience selecting outsourcing vendors and managing such relationships.
• A deep passion for games and obsessed with improving the player experience.
• High level of emotional intelligence.
• Ability to make decisions based on both qualitative gut feel and quantitative reasoning.
  
• Entrepreneurial mindset with desire to be operationally hands-on.
  
• Ability to operate clearly in an ambiguous environment with strong ability to influence.
• Creative mindset and ability to think outside the box.
  
• High level of written and oral communication skills in English.