Product Manager (Games)

Production-led hybrid role · Mobile Free-to-Play / Live-Ops

Department: Production / Product
Reports to: Studio Head
Level: Mid (3–5 years)
Type: Full-time

About the Role

As our Product Manager (Games), you'll own day-to-day production first and foremost: keeping the team shipping, unblocking development, and driving milestones to completion. On top of that, you'll wear a product hat — owning the roadmap and prioritising what we build — and handle light data work to keep our decisions grounded in real numbers.

This is a role for someone who thrives in a lean environment, is comfortable being the connective tissue between the dev team and stakeholders, and can flex across disciplines. We expect strength first in production, then in product management, and finally in data.

Key Responsibilities

Production (primary)

• Own end-to-end production for our live and in-development mobile/f2p titles — planning, scheduling, and driving milestones to ship on time.
• Run the day-to-day: sprint planning, stand-ups, backlog grooming, and dependency tracking across design, art, engineering, and QA.
• Identify, surface, and remove blockers; keep the team focused and protect them from scope creep.
• Plan and coordinate live-ops cadence — content drops, events, and updates — across the release calendar.
• Act as the central hub between design, art, development, QA, marketing, user acquisition (UA), and customer support.
• Maintain production health: track velocity, risks, and timelines, and flag slippage early.

Product Management (secondary)

• Own and maintain the product roadmap, business goals, and team capacity.
• Work with the product leadership to prioritise features and live-ops initiatives. Prepare PRDs where needed.
• Partner with design and engineering to translate ideas into scoped, shippable work.
• Define what success looks like for features and gather player feedback to inform iteration.

Data & Analytics

• Pull, analyse, and interpret core F2P metrics (retention, DAU/MAU, ARPDAU, conversions, funnel drop-off).
• Build and maintain lightweight dashboards and reports to track KPIs and live-ops performance.
• Translate data into actionable insights that guide roadmap and live-ops decisions.
• Support A/B test setup and read-out at a working level (deep statistical modelling is not required).

Stakeholders & Communication

• Be the primary point of contact for stakeholders on project status, roadmap, and development progress.
• Deliver written and verbal regular updates tailored to leadership, the team, and stakeholders.
• Align expectations across the studio and manage trade-off conversations when priorities or timelines shift.

What We're Looking For

Must-haves

• 3–5 years of experience in game production, with a track record of shipping mobile titles.
• Strong project-management fundamentals: planning, scheduling, risk management, and Agile/Scrum or Kanban in practice.
• Working knowledge of product management — roadmapping, prioritisation, and writing clear requirements.
• Comfort with data: able to pull, read, and interpret F2P metrics and work in spreadsheets and analytics tools.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder-management skills; calm and clear under shifting priorities.
• Genuine interest in games and an understanding of what makes mobile F2P products succeed.
• Able to use AI and other tools to be efficient at work and deliver results.

Nice-to-haves

• Hands-on experience with live-ops on a F2P title.
• Familiarity with analytics platforms (e.g., GameAnalytics, Amplitude, Firebase) and SQL basics.
• Experience with tools like Jira, Trello, Notion, or ClickUp.
• Exposure to monetisation, UA, or game economy design.
• Experience working in a small studio or wearing multiple hats.

Why Join Us

• Real ownership and visible impact in a small, collaborative team.
• A broad, varied role where production, product, and data come together.
• A direct line to leadership and a seat at the table on what we build next.
• The chance to shape how a lean studio ships and grows its games.

Please note: This position is for one of Playdawn's clients, and successful candidates will be hired directly by the client, not by Playdawn.

Our client is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. They are committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive workplace where all individuals are treated with respect and have equal access to opportunities, regardless of race, color, religion, gender, age, disability, or other protected characteristics. They believe that diversity fuels innovation and creativity, and they strive to create an environment where everyone can thrive and contribute to shared success.