Live Ops Design Manager (Mobile Games)

The team

A Thinking Ape is a remote mobile game studio focused on building social strategy games that people play for decades. This role sits on the Game Design team within our world-class Live-Ops organization, which leads the industry in supporting and growing long running live games. Our designers are hands-on across the full lifecycle of live features and events from ideation and release to iteration and long term improvements. The team isn’t afraid to try new things, take risks, and learn quickly. Decisions are metrics-driven and player-informed, balancing data with deep community insight to deliver meaningful, lasting experiences for our player community. 

The games

Party in my Dorm is a highly successful free-to-play game with a community of over 100,000 dedicated players who love our game. The game has the population of a small city, with a player-driven trade economy, a passionate community and years of layered content. While its themes focus on fashion, relationships, storytelling, and home decor, it’s also one of the most competitive PVP experiences in mobile, surprising many with its depth and intensity of its gameplay.  

Kingdoms at War is a classic free-to-play war game with a passionate, highly engaged community, and a constant cadence of live events. Also loaded with years of deep content this game fuels deep strategic gameplay and rich social dynamics driving players to fight for dominance of their server. The game has very flexible designer building blocks, meaning that there are endless possibilities for player experiences you can create with the design tools alone.

The job

As the Live Ops Design Manager, you’ll guide the planning and execution of live events and content for both Party in my Dorm and Kingdoms at War. Reporting to the Design Lead, you’ll guide a small team of designers to create well-balanced, engaging experiences that keep our communities active and invested while also owning some of the highest-impact design work yourself.  This is a highly collaborative role; you’ll partner closely with the team’s Design Lead, other designers, and work cross functionally with Product, Engineering, Creative and Community teams to identify new opportunities, improve live content structures, and ensure events launch smoothly and perform well. This role blends people leadership, hands-on game design, and operational ownership. It’s ideal for someone who enjoys being part of the strategy and direction, while still being deeply involved in the design details and execution that make live games thrive. 

What you will do:

• Lead the design planning and execution of the live events and content calendar across two of our longest running games
• Collaborate closely with our Product, Creative, Community, and Engineering teams to deliver high quality live events, ensuring they run smoothly
• Design and iterate on new types of events and content, and solve interesting design challenges 
• Analyze event performance using data and player feedback, and translate insights into clear design improvements
• Directly manage a small number of designers, coaching them on core design skills and live ops best practices 
• Coordinate and help resolve live-ops design issues ensuring events remain stable
• Help improve team workflows, documentation, and design tools used by the team to support scalability and long term efficiency
• Stay closely connected to player sentiment, community discussions, and trends in the free-to-play mobile market

Who we are looking for:

• 5+ years of experience related to event and/or content design in free-to-play mobile games (strategy, march battle, life simulation, fashion, home decor, cooking or farming games) 
• Strong understanding of the game mechanics, monetization, and live ops cycles in this genre
• Actively playing and interested in free to play mobile games
• Experience managing event or content schedules and coordinating with multiple disciplines
• Previous experience mentoring or managing junior designers
• Experience owning live launches and responding to real-time issues when they arise
• Strong spreadsheet skills, strong understanding of relevant free-to-play KPIs, and experience working with data and dashboards to evaluate performance and guide decisions. 
• SQL query and/or Looker experience is an asset
• Experience working with customer feedback and growing game communities
• Ability to work occasional flexible hours to support team members in Europe, such as availability during earlier morning hours a few times a week (7-9am PST)
  
  

What’s in it for you 

At ATA you’re offered a flexible, safe, inclusive environment in which you have the autonomy to do your best work, surrounded by a strong team and with the encouragement of supportive leadership that doesn’t just care what you’re doing, but how you’re doing. You’re trusted, respected, listened to, cared for and valued. You take on thought-provoking projects and tackle fun problems alongside people who are equally invested in making meaningful contributions and seeing new ideas come to life. You know how your work aligns with the company’s goals. Your career is given the space and resources to progress. You accomplish things that make you proud. You are compensated competitively, your health and wellbeing are top priorities and you enjoy plenty of perks. At A Thinking Ape, we believe curiosity is a superpower, we make things people truly want, and we pursue gritty ambition with kindness, care, and radical alignment to growth—by thinking, acting, measuring, repeating, over-communicating, and never forgetting to play. You don’t just work for ATA, you are an integral part of ATA.

Location: Remote within British Columbia, Canada.

We’re building a distributed team across the province, working from anywhere in BC! We’ll provide the equipment you need, and support setting up your home workspace. We have a flexible work schedule, three weeks of vacation to start, flexible sick days, and a generous health benefits package.

At A Thinking Ape, we believe in fairness and pay transparency. That’s why we offer a set salary for each role, ensuring that all employees in the same role are compensated equitably regardless of negotiation skills or background. This means you’ll know exactly what to expect from the start, without the stress of back-and-forth negotiations. For candidates located in British Columbia, the salary is CAD $94,000, reflecting our commitment to competitive and fair pay.

Our commitment to inclusion

We build communities. To do this to the best of our abilities, we need a workforce that reflects the diverse player communities we serve. We believe a variety of perspectives and experiences allows us to make better decisions and understand the needs of our players. We work hard to create an environment where everyone, from any background, can do their best work and feel like they belong at ATA.  Please consider applying even if you don't meet every qualification and let us know if you require any accommodations or support during the recruitment process. 

Join our team and play a key role in shaping the future of mobile gaming! See our careers page or our short video to learn more about who we are and why you should join our team.