Vp/head of Technology, Candy Crush Soda Saga

**Craft**:
**Purpose**
- To build a world
- class technology organisation inside Candy Crush Soda Saga.
- To create, communicate and help to implement Soda’s technology strategy.
- To contribute technical expertise and perspectives to the Soda Core Leadership Team and beyond.
- To partner closely with the Head of Product and Head of Creative to set the direction of Soda, build an organisation that can deliver on it,
- To help to turn Soda into a growing game developed by a healthy and high
- performing team.

**Main responsibilities**
- Partner with the Head of Product on how best to develop and execute on the product strategy - this should be a close collaboration between the Head of Product, Head of Tech and Head of Creative, with the Head of Product ultimately accountable
- Align technical direction across all technical crafts with the product strategy
- Build a technology org and a technology strategy (for both engineering and QA) that helps to deliver Soda’s product strategy
- Coach, challenge and develop Soda’s technology leaders
- Identify, prioritise, and execute on improvements in the major areas of opportunity and challenge in the Soda and King technology stack and technology orgs
- Help to figure out how Soda can increase the speed and quality of what we deliver to players
- Define ways of working within the central tech teams in Soda, and in how your team collaborates with the Shared Tech team, that drive operational and development excellence
- Build productive working relationships with your key partners
- Set Soda priorities and allocations for King shared capabilities, such as Shared Tech
- Develop a creative, productive, collaborative and psychologically safe environment
- Make significant contributions to the overall direction and success of Soda as part of the Soda Core Leadership Team
- Represent Soda’s technology team and plans in discussions with the King and Activision Blizzard senior leadership team, especially with the King CTO
- Act as a role model for the King values and leadership behaviours

**What you will be accountable for**

Together with the Head of Product and the Head of Creative, the Head of Tech is accountable for:

- Speed: Increasing Soda’s speed to market
- Quality: Increasing the quality of (1) the Soda player experience, and (2) the experience of technologists working in Soda
- Growth: Growing Soda net revenue, audience reach, product quality, and team health in line with Soda’s annual goals

**The Head of Tech is also accountable for**:

- Soda’s technical performance
- Soda’s tech strategy
- Alignment and consistency among technical leaders across Soda
- Guidelines and principles for technical work in Soda
- Soda’s contributions to the strategies and operations of Shared Tech

**Valuable skills and experience**
- Track record of executive
- level technical and strategic leadership
- Experience leading large technology organisations that are intertwined with Product
- Strong technical background - early career in Engineering / Development
- Clear communication in all contexts and forms
- Comfortable and conversant in product metrics and strategy
- Able to attract and retain great talent
- Experience in mobile free
- to
- play games

**Leadership qualities**

Traits:

- Focus
- Curiosity
- Humility
- Resilience
- Strong internal drive

Behaviors:

- Willing to take difficult decisions and have difficult conversations
- Build effective networks
- Comfortable with ambiguity
- Create clarity

Beliefs:

- There is always a better way
- Value high
- performing teams
- System view of problems and solutions

**About King**

King is the game developer behind the world
- famous Candy Crush franchise, as well as mobile game hits including Farm Heroes, Bubble Witch and Pet Rescue. Candy Crush is the top
- grossing franchise in US app stores, a position it has held for the last two years, and King’s games are being played by 245 million monthly active users as of Q3 2021. King, which is part of the Activision Blizzard group since its acquisition in 2016, employs nearly 2,000 people in game studios in Stockholm, Malmö, London, Barcelona and Berlin, and offices in San Francisco, New York, and Malta.

**A Great Saga Needs All Sorts of Heroes**

Making games is fun. Especially when you do it with people who share the same idea of what makes a good workplace great. We design games for everyone, no matter where they are or who they are, and we employ all sorts of people from all kinds of backgrounds to bring them to life. Truth is, we simply cannot expect diversity in our players and originality in our games without first nurturing it in our people. A great saga needs all sorts of heroes.

**Making the World Playful**

Making the World Playful is what inspires us to create new experiences and raise the bar. It’s what makes King a place where we can all dream bigger, continue to add innovation to our games, broadening the portfolio and exploring new territories