Are you a product and engineering leader who thrives at the intersection of game development, technology and business performance?

We're looking for a hands‑on Head of Product Development to take ownership of both Product and Engineering across a portfolio of successful mobile games. This is a unique leadership role for someone who can define strategy, write specifications, review architecture, analyse metrics, contribute code and lead teams through direct involvement rather than management layers.

About The Role

As Head of Product Development, you will own both product and engineering direction across a portfolio of live mobile games.

This is not a traditional management role. We're looking for a player‑coach who remains actively involved in product decisions, experimentation, architecture and technical delivery while leading a high‑performing multidisciplinary team.

You will combine commercial awareness, product thinking and technical expertise to drive game performance, development efficiency and player engagement. Success in the role requires balancing strategic leadership with hands‑on execution across product, engineering and AI‑driven development practices.

What You’ll Own

Product Strategy & Performance

- Define and evolve product strategy across a portfolio of live mobile games.
- Own roadmap direction, prioritisation and product decision‑making.
- Develop and validate product hypotheses through experimentation.
- Write and review product requirements for high‑priority initiatives.
- Monitor key product and commercial metrics, including retention, engagement, monetisation and experiment performance.
- Use data‑driven insights to inform product decisions and investment priorities.

Engineering Leadership & Architecture
- Own technical architecture across game clients, backend platforms and internal tools.
- Establish development standards, engineering processes and code quality expectations.
- Ensure systems remain scalable, performant and maintainable.
- Oversee release processes, live operations support and development workflows.
- Drive continuous improvement across technology and engineering practices.

AI & Automation
- Champion AI adoption across engineering and product functions.
- Identify opportunities to improve development velocity through automation and AI‑assisted workflows.
- Implement solutions supporting:
- Product documentation
- Research and analysis
- Testing automation
- Analytics workflows
- Internal development tools

- Drive efficiency gains through process improvement and intelligent tooling.

Hands‑On Delivery




- Contribute directly to product development and technical execution.
- Participate in architecture reviews and technical design discussions.
- Conduct code reviews and provide technical guidance.
- Lead critical product initiatives through active involvement rather than delegation.
- Support debugging, optimisation and problem‑solving across the portfolio.

Team Leadership & Culture
- Lead and develop a lean, interdisciplinary product development team.
- Support engineers and product specialists through mentorship and coaching.
- Build a culture of ownership, accountability and continuous improvement.
- Encourage experimentation, learning and rapid iteration.
- Establish clear expectations and high‑performance standards.

Cross‑Functional Collaboration
- Work closely with monetisation, analytics, user acquisition and research teams.
- Enable efficient experimentation and testing processes.
- Align product initiatives with broader business objectives.
- Support data‑driven decision‑making across the organisation.
- Ensure seamless collaboration between product, engineering and commercial stakeholders.

What we’re looking for

Essential Experience

- Significant experience in software engineering, including leadership responsibilities.
- Experience within mobile gaming, gaming technology or mobile product environments.
- Proven track record owning both product and technical decision‑making.
- Experience leading multidisciplinary development teams.
- Strong background in live‑service product development.
- Experience operating in data‑driven environments focused on experimentation and optimisation.

Technical Expertise
- Strong understanding of mobile game development and architecture.
- Experience with Unity and C# development.
- Knowledge of backend systems and client‑server architecture.
- Experience implementing scalable engineering processes and workflows.
- Strong software architecture and systems design capabilities.
- Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines, testing frameworks and release management.

Product Expertise
- Strong understanding of product strategy and mobile game performance metrics.
- Experience working with retention, monetisation and engagement KPIs.
- Ability to define and evaluate experiments.




- Experience translating business goals into product execution.

Leadership Qualities
- Leads through action and example.
- Strong ownership mentality.
- Comfortable operating with autonomy and accountability.
- Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills.
- Ability to balance strategic thinking with hands‑on execution.
- Passion for building both products and teams.

Strongly Preferred

- Experience scaling successful mobile games.
- Background as a founder, co‑founder or early‑stage leader.
- Experience with ad‑monetised or hybrid‑monetised games.
- Experience building internal development tools and automation systems.
- Familiarity with analytics platforms and experimentation frameworks.
- Experience integrating AI tooling into development workflows.
- Knowledge of LiveOps operations and mobile game economies.

Success In This Role

- Product and engineering teams execute efficiently and deliver measurable results.
- Product decisions are consistently informed by data and player behaviour.
- Development workflows become faster and more scalable through automation.
- Technical architecture supports long‑term growth and maintainability.
- Product performance improves through experimentation and iteration.
- Teams operate with clear ownership and accountability.

Working Environment

You’ll join a highly collaborative and entrepreneurial environment where ownership, experimentation and continuous learning are encouraged.

This is a role for someone who enjoys solving complex challenges, moving quickly and having direct influence over both product direction and technical execution. You’ll work alongside experienced professionals who value transparency, accountability and a relentless commitment to improvement.

Why Join?

- Own both Product and Engineering across a live mobile games portfolio.
- Significant autonomy and influence over strategy and execution.
- Work with real products, real players and real data.
- Build and optimise AI‑enabled development workflows.
- Lead a high‑performing, lean team.
- Opportunity to shape the future direction of a growing gaming business. xqbhyrx
- Competitive compensation and strong career growth potential.

Location: Barcelona, Spain
Si sus habilidades, experiencia y cualificaciones coinciden con las de esta descripción del puesto, no demore su solicitud.
Employment Type: Full‑time
Salary Range: Up to €140,000 EUR per annum

If you’re a hands‑on leader who can move seamlessly between product strategy, engineering execution and business impact, we’d love to hear from you.

#J-18808-Ljbffr

📌 Head of Product Development (Barcelona)
🏢 Skillsearch
📍 Barcelona