Sr. Development Manager, LiveOps QA

About this role

<p>Scopely is seeking a<strong> Senior Development Manager </strong>to join our Barcelona studio as a key driving force within our Central Studio Operations team.</p> <p>In this high-leverage individual contributor (IC) role, you will own, optimize, and scale the operational frameworks that ensure our diverse portfolio of world-class games release smoothly, efficiently, and at the highest quality standard.</p> <p><strong>What You’ll Do&nbsp;</strong></p> <p>You will act as an internal driver and strategic partner to our game studios. Drawing on deep, hands-on experience in the LiveOps lifecycle, you will lead the design and deployment of our global LiveOps Quality OS. You will ensure every event, campaign, and content update, from initial production and testing to live deployment and post-launch monitoring, gets the attention it needs from a Quality Assurance perspective and meets the highest bar for player experience, stability, and performance.</p> <p>The ideal candidate is an operational mastermind who thrives on influence without authority. You are equally comfortable talking dev pipelines with engineers, discussing risk mitigation with LiveOps and Product leaders, and driving strategic alignment with external vendors.</p> <ul> <li>Drive Strategic Alignment: Partner directly with Game Team Leadership and Executive Producers to align release practices and quality standards with Scopely’s global business objectives</li> <li>End-to-End LiveOps Quality &amp; Performance: Review the operational rigor of live service releases. Ensure robust processes are in place across the full LiveOps lifecycle (from campaign/event configuration and QA/testing to live deployment, telemetry validation, and real-time performance monitoring)</li> <li>Architect the Release OS: Define, iterate, and champion the adoption of standardized, modern release frameworks and deployment processes across all titles. Focus heavily on risk mitigation, live-environment stability, and real-time incident monitoring to prevent player-impacting downtime</li> <li>Influence Without Authority: Act as a central change agent, guiding cross-functional studio teams across global locations to adopt modern quality operations principles</li> <li>Optimize External Partnerships: Manage strategic relationships with trusted external QA and development partners. Design service level agreements and workflows to ensure external teams operate as seamless, high-performing extensions of our studios</li> <li>Lead Modernization &amp; AI Initiatives: Champion the strategic integration of automation, AI-driven testing, and modern tooling into the studio release pipelines to aggressively drive down time-to-market</li> <li>Risk &amp; Root Cause Analysis: Conduct continuous post-mortems and root-cause analyses on release bottlenecks, turning data insights into actionable, studio-wide process improvements</li> <li>Advocate for Operational Excellence: Act as the primary spokesperson for central operations, clearly communicating release risks, deployment health metrics, and strategic improvements to executive stakeholders</li> </ul> <p><strong>What We’re Looking For&nbsp;</strong></p> <ul> <li>LiveOps &amp; Games Experience: Proven track record of managing live-service games on mobile. Strong hands-on experience leading campaigns and events through the entire lifecycle, from initial concept and implementation to testing, release, and live performance monitoring.</li> <li>The Power of Influence: A proven track record of driving massive process changes and operational improvements across matrixed organizations without direct line-management authority.</li> <li>Production &amp; Operations Acumen: Strong background in Technical Program Management, Release Engineering, or Technical Production. You understand CI/CD pipelines, build distribution, and deployment risks.</li> <li>Vendor &amp; Partner Management: Extensive experience collaborating with, evaluating, and maximizing the value of large-scale external partners and vendors.</li> <li>Systems Thinking: The ability to look at a highly complex, multi-studio ecosystem, identify systemic inefficiencies, and engineer elegant, scalable solutions.</li> <li>Master Communicator: Exceptional interpersonal skills with the ability to translate technical risks into clear, business-focused narratives for executive leadership.</li> <li>LiveOps Backends &amp; Remote Config: Hands-on experience with systems like Azure PlayFab, Unity Gaming Services, Firebase, or proprietary internal LiveOps dashboards desirable.&nbsp;</li> <li>Analytics &amp; BI Tools: Proficiency with product analytics platforms (Amplitude, Mixpanel, or GameAnalytics) and BI visualization tools (Tableau, Looker, or Excel/Google Sheets) desirable.&nbsp;</li> <li>Production &amp; Operations: Experience managing workflows in JIRA and using build distribution tools (TestFlight, Google Play Console, Firebase App Distribution) desirable.</li> <li>Degree level education or equivalent experience.</li> <li>Passion for mobile and console/PC games, with proven experience working on games as a live service.</li> <li>Experience with LiveOps QA</li> <li>Ability to generate impact and make progress through influence&nbsp;</li> <li>Experience managing a portfolio of projects or in a central capacity&nbsp;</li> <li>Proven ability to oversee and manage projects with complex setups&nbsp;</li> <li>Strong accountability in observing deadlines and engagements</li> <li>Minimum 5 years of experience in a game development environment with proven experience in management.&nbsp;</li> <li>Very strong interpersonal and communication skills (both written and verbally) and ability to collaborate with senior management&nbsp;</li> <li>Ability to identify risks and changes needed and to execute solutions, with appropriate sense of urgency.</li> <li>Strong and demonstrated knowledge of project management, software development methodologies, QA best known practices</li> <li>Proficient with se