Riot Games

Principal Creative Director, Growth Marketing

Riot Games • $150K — $180K *
Consumer Technology
11 - 15 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • Bachelor's Degree or equivalent professional experience.
  • 12+ years leading creative work in advertising, digital marketing, or agencies.
  • Extensive experience in user acquisition and performance marketing creative.
  • Outstanding portfolio demonstrating digital-first creative leadership with measurable outcomes.
  • Deep understanding of the modern UA ecosystem and experience with leading platforms like Meta and TikTok.
  • Proven experience using performance data to inform creative strategies.
  • Experience in directing external agencies and production partners.

Responsibilities

  • Own the creative vision and quality for Growth Marketing across Riot's portfolio.
  • Serve as the expert on modern UA creative trends and best practices.
  • Collaborate with game Growth leads to translate objectives into effective creative.
  • Develop creative strategies optimized for various digital platforms and channels.
  • Leverage performance data and audience insights to guide creative iterations.
  • Build scalable creative frameworks for rapid production and testing.
  • Establish global and localized growth creative approaches for diverse markets.

Benefits

  • Open paid time off policy for work/life balance.
  • Flexible work schedules to accommodate personal needs.
  • Comprehensive medical, dental, and life insurance coverage.
  • Parental leave for both parents and domestic partners.
  • 401k plan with company match to support your retirement savings.
Full Job Description
As the Principal Marketing Creative Director, Growth Marketing, you will define the creative vision for Riot's global Growth Marketing efforts, helping players discover and return to our games. Reporting to the Director of Creative, Marketing Creative Services, you will serve as Riot's resident expert in growth marketing creative, combining deep knowledge of the performance marketing landscape with world-class creative leadership.

Embedded with Riot's Growth Marketing team, you will partner closely with Growth leads across Riot's portfolio to translate each game's strategic objectives into high-performing creative, applying proven performance practices while ensuring the work authentically reflects the game and its community.

You will own Growth Creative direction across Riot's global portfolio, including approaches that enable effective localized creative at scale. You'll partner with each game's Marketing Creative Director at key milestones to align with broader brand positioning and identity, while establishing the guardrails and making the creative decisions needed for the Growth pipeline to operate quickly and autonomously.

Working with Growth strategy partners, you'll build an iterative, data-informed creative practice - using performance signals to guide decisions while applying creative judgment to understand when to follow, challenge, or move beyond the data.

You will lead Riot's external ecosystem of agencies, creators, and production partners - selecting the right partners, setting creative standards, and ensuring they deliver authentic, effective work at the speed and scale Growth Marketing requires.

This role requires exceptional creative judgment, deep fluency in modern UA creative, and the ability to operate independently within a complex global organization. You'll know when to seek alignment, when to drive a decision, and when to make the creative call that keeps the work moving.
Responsibilities:
  • Own the creative vision, quality bar, and operating model for Growth Marketing creative across Riot's portfolio.
  • Serve as Riot's subject matter expert on modern UA creative, maintaining deep knowledge of evolving platforms, audience behaviors, formats, trends, and performance marketing best practices.
  • Partner with Growth leads for each game to translate acquisition objectives, audience insights, and channel strategies into effective creative.
  • Develop creative strategies optimized for paid social, video, mobile, creator-driven channels, and emerging media, adapting creative to the behaviors and conventions of each platform.
  • Use performance data, experimentation, and audience insights to develop hypotheses, guide iteration, and improve creative effectiveness without relying on data alone to determine creative decisions.
  • Build scalable creative frameworks that enable rapid production, testing, learning, and iteration without compromising quality or authenticity.
  • Establish approaches for global and localized Growth Creative, partnering with regional teams to create work that scales while adapting meaningfully to local audiences, platforms, communities, and cultural contexts.
  • Champion creator-driven UA, working with creators and creator-focused partners to develop work that feels native to the communities and platforms where players spend their time.
  • Lead external agencies, creators, and production partners, providing clear briefs, decisive feedback, and creative direction while identifying and cultivating best-in-class partners.
  • Partner with each game's Marketing Creative Director at key milestones to align Growth Creative with brand positioning and identity, establishing clear guardrails that allow the pipeline to operate autonomously between touchpoints.
  • Explore and responsibly apply AI-assisted and emerging creative tools to accelerate ideation, experimentation, variation, localization, and production while maintaining Riot's standards for quality and authenticity.
  • Establish shared standards, learnings, and best practices that allow successful creative approaches to scale across games, regions, and Growth teams.
Required Qualifications:
  • Bachelor's Degree or equivalent professional experience.
  • 12+ years leading creative work within advertising, digital marketing, games marketing, entertainment, or creative agencies.
  • Extensive experience leading user acquisition, performance marketing, or growth-focused creative at significant scale.
  • Outstanding portfolio demonstrating digital-first creative leadership and measurable audience or business outcomes.
  • Deep understanding of the modern UA ecosystem and experience developing creative for platforms such as Meta, TikTok, YouTube, mobile ad networks, and emerging channels.
  • Demonstrated experience using performance data, experimentation, and audience insights to inform creative strategy and iteration.
  • Experience directing external agencies and production partners
  • Experience developing creative for global audiences and adapting approaches across markets, cultures, and platforms.
  • Experience influencing senior cross-functional partners and making creative decisions within complex stakeholder environments.
  • Excellent creative judgment and the ability to operate autonomously while remaining aligned with broader brand and product strategy.
Desired Qualifications:
  • Experience leading Growth Creative for globally recognized gaming, entertainment, technology, or consumer brands.
  • Experience developing creator-led or creator-native performance marketing, including working with creators, talent, or creator-focused agencies.
  • Experience building high-volume creative systems that support continuous experimentation across audiences, channels, markets, and formats.
  • Deep familiarity with creative testing methodologies and the relationship between creative variables and acquisition performance.
  • Experience collaborating with regional marketing teams to develop locally relevant creative within a global creative system.
  • Strong understanding of gaming communities, creator ecosystems, internet culture, and how players discover and engage with games today.

For this role, you'll find success through craft expertise, a collaborative spirit, and decision-making that prioritizes the delight of players. We will be looking at your past studies, experience, and your personal relationship with games. If you embody player empathy and care about players' experiences, this could be your role!
Our Perks:

Riot focuses on work/life balance, shown by our open paid time off policy and other perks such as flexible work schedules. We offer medical, dental, and life insurance, parental leave for you, your spouse/domestic partner, and children, and a 401k with company match. Check out our benefits pages for more information.

About Riot Games

Riot Games is a video game developer and publisher based in Los Angeles, California. The company was founded in 2006 by Brandon Beck and Marc Merrill, and is best known for its flagship game, League of Legends. The game has become one of the most popular esports titles in the world, with millions of players and fans around the globe. Riot Games is committed to creating high-quality, immersive gaming experiences that bring people together and foster a sense of community. The company is also dedicated to promoting diversity and inclusion in the gaming industry, and has launched several initiatives to support underrepresented groups.
Learn more about Riot Games
Size
2,500 employees
Industry
Founded
2006

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