Hinterland is a growing multi-project studio that prizes its independence and focus on creating high-quality original IP. As a self-publishing developer, our strength as a studio and our ability to deliver delightful experiences to our players depends on the capability of our internal teams to ensure the timely delivery of high-quality content across various platforms to our players around the world. We want our players’ first loyalty to our experiences to be to our studio, and not the platforms we sell and distribute on. This takes a fresh and forward-thinking approach to publishing.
For clarification,
- “Publishing” refers to the set of processes and responsibilities that takes a Deliverable from a Development Team (could be an Update, Episode, Hotfix, or a piece of non-game software), and Tests, Releases, and Supports it post-launch.
- “Platform” refers to building our own slate of community-centric features like a launcher, better community hub, Mod support, and proprietary infrastructure for things like direct-to-consumer selling, DLC planning, etc.
The Director of Platform & Publishing is a new role at Hinterland, focused on a broad range of incentives that touch on the nuts and bolts of build delivery and testing, to high-level business development, to first-party relationships, to distribution strategy, to internal platforms and launchers, and beyond. We are looking for a proven expert on the publishing and distribution of digital games to spearhead internal initiatives, in collaboration with studio-level directors of Operation and Community, including:
- Improving and overseeing the internal Test, Support, and Release process and infrastructure in the studio.
- Guiding the CEO on product distribution and revenue (monetization) strategies in light of emerging business models, with an eye to revenue growth based on fair and ethical consumer-friendly practices.
- Identifying opportunities to strengthen Hinterland’s owned distribution channels, co-existing with our established revenue streams on Steam, Xbox, PlayStation, Switch, etc.
- Working with partners in the Community and Operations teams, and with the project core teams, to create a release schedule that covers major updates and hotfixes for multiple projects in development.
- Helping set up critical infrastructure for online experiences, game launches, mod support, etc.
- Expanding Hinterland’s reach in new and emerging markets (ex. India, South America, etc.)
…and a range of other critical tasks. Being a new role for the studio, we are looking for a veteran publishing expert who can help us shape the direction of this role and department for the future.
The ideal candidate has 7+ years of experience in a leadership role (lead or director-level) at an existing mid-sized publisher or self-publishing developer, and is a veteran in publishing project management or logistics, having shipped several titles across multiple platforms and around the world. Cross-platform experience is essential, as is knowledge about live ops and open-development models (like Early Access).
Communications and relationship-building are critical for this role. Not only will you be a servant-leader to a small internal publishing team, but you will become the primary point of contact for business dealings around publishing for the studio. Therefore you need to be someone who elicits a high level of confidence and trust in your communication, leadership, and dealings with external partners.
Hinterland is a dynamic and growing business, so we are looking for a candidate who brings not only practical experience, but the traits that will allow them to adapt and grow with the company. Not everything we do will be “tried and true”, so we need people who are open to new ideas and fresh thinking.
As part of the studio leadership team, you will work under the direct guidance of the CEO, and in collaboration with your counterparts in Operations, Finance, Community, and People & Culture pillars. Ultimately your goal in the studio is to help improve our ability to deliver great experiences to our players, to strengthen our internal publishing capabilities, and to lay the groundwork for new areas of direct-to-consumer business at Hinterland.
In this role, you will also supervise a team of publishing-focused developers, including in Test, Support, Build production and delivery, and so on, so experience in team leadership is also important to succeeding in this role. You must be a great communicator, a fair leader, and someone who is deeply passionate about shipping incredible experiences to our players.
ABOUT HINTERLAND
Hinterland is an equal-opportunity employer. The studio is comprised of a multi-national, multi-ethnic team. We value a diversity of backgrounds. We also value veteran experience and a strong work ethic that supports the studio’s culture and values. Our work ethic and production methodology is built around a “Getting Stuff Done” paradigm. We embrace a flexible working environment that affords our team members the opportunity to enjoy family time and exercise self-care. We balance this out with very high expectations about the quality of output from everyone on the team. We offer a variety of perks, but do not believe perks are the same thing as culture.
(Also, everyone who joins our team gets a pair of slippers. They are nice slippers.)