About Skillz

Skillz is driving the future of entertainment by accelerating the convergence of sports, video games and media for a booming mobile-first audience worldwide. The company’s platform empowers mobile game developers and players with access to fun and fair competition for real prizes, shifting the paradigm to make esports accessible to anyone, anywhere.

Skillz helps developers build multi-million dollar game franchises by turning content into competitive social gaming properties for the world’s 2.6 billion gamers. The company has already worked with 20,000 game developers, leveraging its patented technology to host billions of casual esports tournaments for 30 million players worldwide.

Last year, Skillz was recognized as one of Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies and CNBC Disruptor 50 (for the second time). In 2018, Skillz was listed as one of Forbes’ Next Billion-Dollar Startups and Entrepreneur Magazine’s 100 Brilliant Companies. In 2017, Inc. Magazine ranked Skillz the No. 1 fastest-growing private company in America.

The company is backed by leading venture capitalists, media companies, and professional sports luminaries, ranging from Liberty Global, Accomplice, Wildcat Capital, Telstra Ventures, and a founder of Great Hill Partners to the owners of the New England Patriots, Milwaukee Bucks, New York Mets, and Sacramento Kings.

Job Overview

The Head of Publishing has a wide ranging charter to positively impact the success of Skillz over the long term. A stickler for detail and a strong process leader, one vector of success for this person will be gauged on their ability to smoothly integrate, onboard, and launch new developer titles into the Skillz stable of mobile eSports games.

The second vector of success will be determined by their systematic approach to optimizing these games for long term, outsized monetization as well as optimizing the Skillz developer community at large.

Skillset Synopsis

We are looking for a results-driven high technology professional possessing exceptional interpersonal communication skills and extensive experience in core game design, game lifecycle management, SDK integration cycles, and project/program management. Finally, you should have experience in building and managing high performing teams.

Responsibilities

Lead a cross-functional team of game designers, project managers, analysts, and producers to evolve the world's first mobile competition-as-a-service platform for iOS/Android game development studios across hundreds of top games
Define process standards and other documentation to create best design and launch readiness practices for the Skillz platform
Must be able to work with Company Executives (internal and external), Product Management, Engineering, Sales and Marketing in regards to game development, documentation, internal and external communication, launch and post launch optimization
Manage a world-class Live Ops team and program designed to drive heightened monetization and deep retention of mobile gaming players across the network of game environments on the Skillz platform
Collect and analyze game data to provide insight into how to optimize the Skillz system and games; maintain a deep understanding of the full revenue funnel, ownership of all changes, and ability to accurately project downstream impact of those changes
Efficient utilization of professional services resources for engagement and/or delivery of agreed solutions within budgeted hours
Demonstrable expertise in managing customer success managers, and program managers

Core Experience Attributes

8+ years of client facing professional services experience or games studio general management experience
8+ years of direct people management
Preference for someone who has worked for a company selling/integrating SDKs to & with a developer community
Proven track record of managing game studio technology/clients
MBA highly desirable
Conversant in agile and (phase gate) product launch methodologies
Technical expertise gained from working with engineering and product teams as they evolve core technologies and systems to support business to business customers worldwide
Highly inspirational leader, irrespective of reporting lines
Ability to provide clear direction and give insight on industry trends