Senior Manager, ML Engineering

About AI Foundations (AIF)

AI Foundations (AIF) designs and operates Riot’s production execution layer for models, agents, and AI-native workflows.

The organization has three teams: ML Platform (model hosting, inference, lifecycle tooling), ML Bots (game-agent runtime and training), and Production AI (AI developer workflows, tooling, and vendor management), plus a small leadership staff.

Together, these teams serve every game studio and central team at Riot that wants to use AI.

About the Role

As the Senior Manager, ML Engineering for AI Foundations, you will lead the group’s engineering managers and a set of senior ICs, owning the organization’s mid-term (~1 year) technical and capability roadmap.

You will be accountable for coherent engineering practice across the three sub-teams, for the group’s combined delivery against strategic commitments, and for building the kind of engineering culture that attracts and retains strong ML talent.

This is a servant-leadership role on a team full of servant leaders.

You succeed when frontline managers have the context they need to lead, senior ICs have room to focus, and teams across Riot can adopt AI with confidence.

You will partner with peer leaders in game studios and central teams to understand their AI adoption challenges and feed those patterns back into the platforms and tools your teams build.

You will report to the Director of AI Foundations.

What You'll Do

• Own the group’s mid-term (~1 year) capability roadmap and 1+ year technical strategy; balance investment across custom platforms and tool adoption based on where Riot gets the most value
• Track adoption and impact metrics; re-prioritize based on usage data and partner feedback
• Ensure coherent technical direction across sub-teams; connect local tech strategy to Riot’s broader AI direction. Contribute to architecture discussions, code when it helps, and support design cross-team decisions
• Set a high bar for craft, operational rigor, and continuous learning; codify and share best practices for production ML (serving, MLOps, observability, responsible AI) so lessons from one team benefit all
• Establish shared operational practices including cross-team on-call; maintain high ML system and model quality; ensure adherence to Responsible AI standards including fairness, explainability, and safety
• Manage MLE team leads and senior ICs; coach managers to maintain a high performance bar and build growth plans
• Develop ML engineering leaders; mentor ICs into management or senior technical roles; drive promotions at the Staff and Principal levels
• Align staffing against AIF priorities, development goals, and career paths; own headcount requests (FTE and contractor). Partner with the talent team; set staffing priorities for technical roles in AIF; work with hiring managers around Riot to improve hiring practices for AI-related roles
• Work with AIF leadership to establish operational and tooling budgets, including training, travel, and conference investment
• Build alignment with game studios, central tech teams, and vendor partners; identify and de-risk dependencies. Manage AI vendor relationships (evaluation, integration, ongoing partnership) in coordination with AIF leadership
• Make the transition from Tech Research to production repeatable, with clear handoff practices so promising research reaches players and Rioters
• Advocate for AI-native workflows within AIF and across Riot; ensure stakeholders know what AIF is building, why, and how to engage. Make grounded build-vs.-adopt recommendations
• Encourage teams to share what they learn — write-ups, demos, reusable components — so others across Riot can adopt AI more easily

Benefits

• Healthcare: Medical, dental, and vision plans that cover you as well as your spouse/domestic partner and children.
• Family Care: Life insurance, parental leave, plus short and long-term disability.
• Open Paid Time Off: In addition to holidays, a 2-week end of year break, and a 1-week mid-year break, Rioters are trusted to take the time they need throughout the year.
• Retirement: Riot matches retirement contributions so you can continue to play games long after you retire.
• Play Fund: Riot’s annual play fund allows Rioters to broaden their knowledge of the games that matter to players and the community.
• Donation Matching: Riot matches donations of time and money to nonprofits to double down on support.