Director, Player Experience Research

Our client, a global leader in interactive entertainment, is seeking a Director of Player Experience (PX) Research to define and lead the future of player insight across a diverse, global portfolio.

This role sits at the intersection of research strategy, player understanding, and business impact. The Director will own the vision for PX Research, ensuring player insight informs decisions across the full lifecycle, from pre-production and early validation through live service and long-term ecosystem growth.

This leader will build and empower a high-performing research organization, partner closely with central Insights teams (Consumer Insights, Data & Analytics, Experience Quality, Fan Care), and drive clarity across emerging priorities such as new player acquisition, Gen Alpha, mobile strategy, and global market expansion.

This is a high-influence, transformation-oriented role, ideal for someone energized by scale, ambiguity, and shaping how research operates across a large organization.

Location: Canada or U.S.

Key Responsibilities

Research Strategy & Impact

• Define and execute a global PX Research strategy that shapes the future of play across platforms, ecosystems, and franchises.
• Ensure research delivers measurable impact on product strategy, portfolio decisions, and player outcomes.
• Translate audience insights (TAM, SAM, SOM) into validated player cohorts that development teams can act on early, even pre-software.

Leadership & Culture

• Lead and develop senior research leaders and ICs across regions and studios.
• Foster a culture of curiosity, speed, and constructive challenge — enabling researchers to influence product direction.
• Balance autonomy with alignment by establishing shared standards, frameworks, and expectations at scale.

Craft, Methodology & Tooling

• Elevate PX research methodologies across qualitative, quantitative, telemetry, and sentiment inputs.
• Advance experimentation, AI-assisted approaches, and integrated tooling to accelerate insight generation.
• Oversee research vendors and external partners, including strategy for emerging markets.

Strategic Focus Areas

• Build research approaches supporting:
• New player acquisition and early playtesting pipelines
• Gen Alpha and future player behaviors
• Player sentiment integration with PX and Data
• Sports research within fast (≈4-month) development cycles
• Mobile PX strategy tied to HD franchises
• Cloud, subscriptions, ecosystems, and eSports
• APAC research strategy (short-term vendor execution + long-term presence)

Cross-Functional Partnership

• Partner deeply with Consumer Insights, Data & Analytics, Experience Quality, and Fan Care to deliver unified, non-siloed insights.
• Deliver executive-ready narratives that connect player understanding to business and portfolio outcomes.
• Support organizational change by bringing clarity, sequencing priorities, and sustaining momentum through transformation.

Qualifications

• Degree in a relevant field (Psychology, HCI, Market Research, Social Sciences, Data Science) or equivalent industry experience.
• 10–12+ years in player research, UX research, or consumer insights, ideally within gaming or digital entertainment.
• 5+ years leading multi-disciplinary research teams at scale.
• Strong fluency across mixed-methods research.
• Demonstrated success influencing senior product and business leaders.
• Experience operating in global, matrixed environments.
• Comfortable shifting from hands-on product work to portfolio-level leadership.
• Deep personal connection to players and the craft of research.

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About Affinity

Affinity Group is a technology and business consulting and services company. We believe in creating long term relationships between clients and consultants that foster a mutually beneficial partnership. Affinity is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. All employment is decided on the basis of qualifications, merit and business need.

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Job Number: 13008