Sr. Esports Production Manager

As a Senior Production Manager on Riot's Esports Events team, you'll be a senior operational leader driving the planning and execution of high-complexity, high-visibility esports productions across EMEA. You will work on flagship events such as LEC Finals, VCT EMEA Finals, or cross-regional tournaments, ensuring operational excellence across multiple vendors, geographies, and formats.

You'll report to Sr. Manager, Esports Event Production EMEA and act as the regional authority on large-scale production delivery, setting standards, innovating workflows, and ensuring alignment with global broadcast teams. You'll lead through influence, mentoring peers, guiding vendors, and acting as a key escalation and decision-making point for production operations.

You'll blend strategic foresight with hands-on operational execution, ensuring every aspect of Riot's physical, broadcast, and hospitality experience meets the highest standards of safety, quality, and fan engagement.

Please note this is a 12 month contract and will be based on site in Berlin. 

Responsibilities
Production Ownership

• Lead planning and operational delivery for Riot's largest regional or international esports events hosted in EMEA.
• Define operational roadmaps and resourcing plans across multiple productions.
• Partner with senior Producers and regional leadership to align on event vision, scope, and budget.
• Represent EMEA in global Content Services alignment — sharing learnings, best practices, and process innovations.

Physical Production Leadership

• Own physical production design and execution for large-scale or multi-venue events.
• Oversee integration of scenic, lighting, AV, staging, led/projection, power, and rigging with broadcast and creative workflows.
• Manage health, safety, permitting, and risk mitigation across venues.
• Partner with Facilities and Event Production on load-in/out logistics, transport, and crew deployment.

Hospitality Strategy & Oversight

• Coordinate hospitality frameworks for players, talent, and VIPs across Tier-1 events.
• Align hospitality and travel schedules with show operations.
• Ensure welfare, accessibility, and inclusivity standards are met for all participants.
• Partner with Player Management and Events teams to maintain Riot's hospitality excellence.

Budget & Financial Leadership

• Own production budgets for Tier-1 events and major seasonal shows.
• Partner with Finance and Global Esports to forecast costs and manage capital investment decisions.
• Ensure cost efficiency through vendor negotiations, scaling models, and reusability of assets.

Vendor & Partner Oversight

• Act as the primary point of contact for senior vendor relationships (major broadcast houses, technical partners, venue operators).
• Guide vendor teams to align with Riot's standards, documentation, and quality expectations.
• Lead contractual and logistical coordination for multi-party productions (vendors, agencies).

Process, Standards & Continuous Improvement

• Contribute to evolving Riot's global production management framework, templates, and tools.
• Identify and implement workflow optimizations for repeatable, scalable broadcast operations.
• Mentor and support other Production Managers, sharing insights and technical/operational expertise.

Cross-Functional Influence

• Represent Production Management in cross-discipline planning (Tech Ops, Creative, Event Production, Product).
• Partner with Creative and Product teams to balance ambition with operational feasibility.
• Act as escalation point for critical on-site and live-event decisions.

Required Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience in live broadcast or large-scale event production, ideally in sports or esports.
• Demonstrated success leading complex multi-stakeholder productions.
• Deep understanding of live broadcast infrastructure, signal paths, and production technologies.
• Strong vendor management, contracting, and financial acumen.
• Proven ability to manage high budgets and negotiate effectively.
• Excellent communication and diplomacy skills, especially under pressure.
• Fluent in English (additional EMEA language a plus).
• Comfortable with significant travel and live-event environments.

Desired Skills

• Experience with global or cross-regional productions.
• Knowledge of remote, cloud, or hybrid broadcast solutions.
• Proven ability to drive operational innovation and standardization.
• Experience working across multiple titles or esports ecosystems.

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

At Riot Games, we put players first. That mission drives every decision in our quest to create games and experiences that make it better to be a player. Whether you're working directly on a new player-facing experience or you're supporting the company as a whole, everyone at Riot is part of our mission. And just like in our games, we're better when we work together. Our goal is to create collaborative teams where you are empowered to bring your unique perspective everyday. If that sounds like the kind of place you want to work, we're looking forward to your application.

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