Associate Engineering Director | Activision Blizzard Media

Associate Engineering Director | Activision Blizzard Media

Requisition : R026563

Your Role Within the Kingdom

Do you want to lead teams that turn ambiguous business goals into clear, scalable, and reliable technology outcomes?

As an Associate Engineering Director, you will lead multiple teams responsible for mission‑critical platform and delivery systems, operating at scale in a cloud‑native environment. Your impact will come not from domain‑specific expertise, but from your ability to build high‑performing teams, bring technical clarity, and drive operational and execution excellence across complex, cross‑functional initiatives.

This role is ideal for an engineering leader who thrives in fast‑moving environments, values strong fundamentals, and takes pride in predictable delivery, system quality, and team health.

About Activision Blizzard Media

Activision Blizzard Media is the gateway for brands to the #1 cross‑platform gaming company in the western world, with hundreds of millions of players across over 190 countries. Our legendary portfolio includes iconic mobile game franchises such as Candy Crush™, esports opportunities like the Call of Duty® and Overwatch® Leagues, and some of the top PC and console gaming franchises such as World of Warcraft®, Call of Duty®, and Star Craft®.

Responsibilities

Lead High-Performing Engineering Teams

• Build, lead, and sustain high‑performing teams and managers with clear ownership, accountability, and trust.

• Create an environment where engineers can do their best work through focus, prioritization, and strong execution discipline.

• Coach and develop engineering leaders, helping them grow technical judgment, delivery confidence, and people leadership skills.

Bring Clarity to Ambiguous Business Objectives

• Translate unclear or evolving business goals into concrete technical strategies, roadmaps, and execution plans.

• Help teams navigate trade‑offs, define scope, and make sound decisions under uncertainty.

• Act as a technical and organizational anchor, ensuring alignment between product intent, engineering execution, and operational reality.

Drive Technical & Architectural Excellence

• Provide technical leadership and oversight across distributed systems and cloud‑based services.

• Ensure architecture decisions balance simplicity, scalability, maintainability, and time‑to‑value.

• Promote strong engineering fundamentals: clean design, testability, observability, and operational readiness.

Operational & Execution Excellence

• Establish and continuously improve execution practices, delivery predictability, and operational hygiene.

• Ensure teams plan realistically, manage dependencies effectively, and deliver with high quality.

• Lead by example in incident management, post‑incident learning, and continuous improvement.

• Use metrics and signals to guide decisions without creating unnecessary process or overhead.

Cross‑Functional Collaboration

• Partner closely with Product, Data, Commercial, and Platform teams to ensure shared understanding and aligned outcomes.

• Communicate clearly with both technical and non‑technical stakeholders, setting expectations and building confidence in delivery.

Skills to Create Thrills

• 8+ years of proven experience leading multiple teams or managers in a complex engineering organization.

• Strong organizational skills and time management with the ability to prioritize effectively at scale.

• The ability to simplify complexity, create clarity, and guide teams through ambiguity.

• A solid technical foundation that enables you to ask the right questions, challenge assumptions, and support sound architectural decisions.

• A strong passion for operational excellence, reliability, and continuous improvement.

• Excellent communication skills and a collaborative leadership style.

• Deep ad‑tech or domain‑specific experience is not required. We value leaders who can learn domains quickly and apply strong engineering and organizational fundamentals.

What Success Looks Like

• Teams deliver predictably and with high quality, even as priorities evolve.

• Engineers understand why they’re building something and how success is measured.

• Systems are stable, observable,…