Production Director - Overwatch | Irvine, CA

Team Name:

Overwatch

Job Title:

Production Director - Overwatch | Irvine, CA

Requisition ID:

R028253

Job Description:

The Overwatch team is seeking an experienced and visionary Production Director to lead production strategy and execution for one of Blizzard Entertainment's flagship franchises. 

As Production Director, you will serve as a key leader responsible for shaping how Overwatch delivers exceptional experiences to millions of players worldwide. You will drive organizational effectiveness, operational excellence, and execution across multiple development initiatives while partnering closely with Game Leadership to help define and achieve the franchise's long-term goals. 

This role requires a strategic leader who can scale organizations, develop leaders, build sustainable development practices, and align teams around a shared vision. You will be responsible for empowering a large cross-disciplinary organization while ensuring the franchise can successfully deliver ambitious content plans, live-service initiatives, gameplay innovations, and future growth opportunities. 

The ideal candidate combines deep production expertise, exceptional leadership capabilities, and a passion for building world-class teams and player experiences. 

This role is anticipated to be a hybrid work position, with some work on-site and some work-from-home. The potential home studio for this role is Irvine, CA.

 

Responsibilities:

• Establish and drive the production vision, strategy, and operating model for the Overwatch franchise. 

• Lead and develop an organization of production leaders, managers, and producers while fostering a culture of accountability, collaboration, innovation, and continuous improvement. 

• Partner with senior game leadership to define franchise priorities, strategic initiatives, resource investment plans, and long-term development goals. 

• Drive operational excellence across multiple development teams and initiatives, ensuring alignment between creative vision, business objectives, and execution realities. 

• Influence and guide organizational design decisions to ensure teams are structured effectively to meet evolving development needs. 

• Oversee portfolio-level planning, forecasting, prioritization, dependency management, and risk mitigation across interconnected workstreams. 

• Establish scalable production frameworks, development methodologies, and operational processes that enable sustainable delivery at Blizzard quality. 

• Partner with discipline leaders to develop staffing strategies, succession planning efforts, and organizational growth initiatives. 

• Ensure leadership teams have clear visibility into delivery forecasts, operational risks, staffing considerations, milestone readiness, and business impacts. 

• Champion data-informed decision making through production metrics, delivery insights, forecasting, and organizational health indicators. 

• Foster strong partnerships across Design, Engineering, Art, Product, QA, Publishing, Operations, Analytics, and external partners. 

• Lead organizational change initiatives and help teams successfully navigate shifting priorities, evolving player expectations, and development challenges. 

• Support the successful delivery of live-service content, gameplay features, seasonal initiatives, major releases, and long-term franchise investments. 

• Champion a healthy, inclusive, and sustainable development culture that enables teams to perform at their highest level. 

 

Minimum Requirements 

• 15+ years of game development, production, or operational leadership experience, including significant leadership responsibility within AAA or live-service organizations. 
• Proven track record leading large-scale production organizations supporting AAA game development. 

• Demonstrated success managing managers, directors, senior leaders, and large cross-functional teams. 

• Extensive experience driving organizational strategy, operational excellence, and execution across highly complex development environments. 

• Deep understanding of AAA game development processes, production methodologies, and live-service operating models. 

• Experience partnering with executive leadership to define strategic objectives and execute against multi-year franchise goals. 

• Strong expertise in organizational design, resource planning, capacity management, budgeting, and workforce forecasting. 

• Demonstrated success scaling teams and development organizations through periods of significant growth and change. 

• Experience overseeing multiple concurrent initiatives with significant business, operational, and player impact. 

• Exceptional communication and leadership skills with the ability to influence senior stakeholders across diverse functions. 

• Strong analytical and problem-solving capabilities with experience leveraging metrics and insights to drive decisions. 

• Proven ability to successfully manage ambiguity while creating clarity and alignment across large organizations. 

• Deep understanding of live-service game development, seasonal content delivery, player engagement strategies, and post-launch operations. 

• Experience supporting development across all phases of production, from incubation and pre-production through launch and ongoing live operations. 

• Passion for gaming and creating exceptional player experiences. 

• Experience developing games for PC, console, and cross-platform ecosystems. 
• Bachelor's degree or equivalent professional experience. 

 

Extra Points 

• Experience leading production strategy for a globally recognized live-service franchise. 

• Experience supporting free-to-play business models and large-scale player ecosystems. 

• Experience managing globally distributed teams across multiple regions. 

• Strong understanding of player engagement, retention, content strategy, and franchise growth initiatives. 

• Experience building and leading organizations through transformational change. 

• Experience partnering closely with executive leadership on franchise planning and investment decisions. 

• Strong understanding of modern development technologies, live-service operations, and production systems. 

• International business or development experience. 

• Passion for Overwatch and a deep understanding of competitive multiplayer games and player communities. 

Your Platform

Best known for iconic video game universes including Warcraft®, Overwatch®, Diablo®, and StarCraft®, Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. (www.blizzard.com), a division of Activision Blizzard, which was acquired by Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), is a premier developer and publisher of entertainment experiences. Blizzard Entertainment has created some of the industry’s most critically acclaimed and genre-defining games over the last 30 years, with a track record that includes multiple Game of the Year awards. Blizzard Entertainment engages tens of millions of players around the world with titles available on PC via Battle.net®, Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, iOS, and Android.

Our World

Activision Blizzard, Inc., is one of the world's largest and most successful interactive entertainment companies and is at the intersection of media, technology and entertainment. We are home to some of the most beloved entertainment franchises including Call of Duty®, World of Warcraft®, Overwatch®, Diablo®, Candy Crush™ and Bubble Witch™. Our combined entertainment network delights hundreds of millions of monthly active users in 196 countries, making us the largest gaming network on the planet!

Our ability to build immersive and innovate worlds is only enhanced by diverse teams working in an inclusive environment.  We aspire to have a culture where everyone can thrive in order to connect and engage the world through epic entertainment. We provide a suite of benefits that promote physical, emotional and financial well-being for ‘Every World’ - we’ve got our employees covered!

The videogame industry and therefore our business is fast-paced and will continue to evolve. As such, the duties and responsibilities of this role may be changed as directed by the Company at any time to promote and support our business and relationships with industry partners.

We love hearing from anyone who is enthusiastic about changing the games industry. Not sure you meet all qualifications? Let us decide! Research shows that women and members of other under-represented groups tend to not apply to jobs when they think they may not meet every qualification, when, in fact, they often do! We are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment and strongly encourage you to apply.

We are committed to working with and providing reasonable assistance to individuals with physical and mental disabilities. If you are a disabled individual requiring an accommodation to apply for an open position, please email your request to [email protected]. General employment questions cannot be accepted or processed here. Thank you for your interest.

We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status, among other characteristics.

 

Rewards

We provide a suite of benefits that promote physical, emotional and financial well-being for ‘Every World’ - we’ve got our employees covered!  Subject to eligibility requirements, the Company offers comprehensive benefits including:

• Medical, dental, vision, health savings account or health reimbursement account, healthcare spending accounts, dependent care spending accounts, life and AD&D insurance, disability insurance;
• 401(k) with Company match, tuition reimbursement, charitable donation matching;
• Paid holidays and vacation, paid sick time, floating holidays, compassion and bereavement leaves, parental leave;
• Mental health & wellbeing programs, fitness programs, free and discounted games, and a variety of other voluntary benefit programs like supplemental life & disability, legal service, ID protection, rental insurance, and others;
• If the Company requires that you move geographic locations for the job, then you may also be eligible for relocation assistance.

Eligibility to participate in these benefits may vary for part time and temporary full-time employees and interns with the Company.  You can learn more by visiting https://www.benefitsforeveryworld.com/.

In the U.S., the standard base pay range for this role is $136,880.00 - $253,260.00 Annual. These values reflect the expected base pay range of new hires across all U.S. locations. Ultimately, your specific range and offer will be based on several factors, including relevant experience, performance, and work location. Your Talent Professional can share this role’s range details for your local geography during the hiring process. In addition to a competitive base pay, employees in this role may be eligible for incentive compensation. Incentive compensation is not guaranteed. While we strive to provide competitive offers to successful candidates, new hire compensation is negotiable.