Manager, Publishing Operations

We're looking for a Manager, Publishing Operations to lead our project management team and ensure that thatgamecompany's publishing efforts are organized, aligned, and delivered effectively.

This role oversees the project management function across integrated marketing campaigns, live operations, and ongoing publishing initiatives. You'll manage and develop a team of project managers that oversee storefront submissions, ASO, and marketing creative, establish consistent planning and delivery practices, and maintain visibility across the publishing portfolio to ensure priorities, dependencies, resources, and risks are understood.

Working across Brand, Creative, Communications, Community, User Acquisition, Storefront, Game Development, and external partners, you'll help connect the work happening across teams and ensure complex initiatives move forward with clarity and accountability. You'll partner closely with publishing leadership to identify delivery risks, resolve cross-functional challenges, and provide a clear picture of progress, capacity, and upcoming decisions.

We're looking for someone who can move comfortably between the details of individual projects and the broader needs of the organization. You're an experienced project management leader who knows how to coach a team, navigate competing priorities, build effective processes, and earn the trust of creative and operational partners. You understand that good project management isn't about adding layers of process; it's about creating clarity, anticipating challenges, and giving talented people the space to do their best work.

Project Management Team Leadership

• Lead and develop the project management team, establishing clear expectations for project ownership, communication, planning, and delivery.

• Provide coaching, feedback, and professional development to help project managers strengthen their skills and grow in their roles.

• Oversee project assignments and workload distribution, balancing team capacity, project complexity, and organizational priorities.

• Ensure project managers have the context, tools, and support needed to manage their work effectively and independently.

• Establish consistent standards for project plans, milestone tracking, status reporting, risk management, and stakeholder communication.

• Review project health across the team, helping identify issues that require additional support, cross-functional alignment, or leadership intervention.

• Foster a culture of accountability, collaboration, proactive problem-solving, and continuous improvement.

Portfolio Planning & Delivery Oversight

• Maintain an integrated view of publishing initiatives, including launches, campaigns, live operations, and partner projects.

• Ensure project plans align with publishing priorities, realistic timelines, resource availability, and key dependencies.

• Monitor delivery health across the portfolio, identifying schedule conflicts, capacity constraints, and risks that span multiple projects.

• Partner with publishing leadership to assess competing priorities, evaluate trade-offs, and recommend adjustments to scope, sequencing, or resourcing.

• Provide clear, concise reporting on portfolio progress, major milestones, risks, and decisions requiring leadership input.

• Ensure project managers proactively identify and communicate changes that may affect other teams, campaigns, or launch commitments.

• Help maintain a realistic and coordinated view of upcoming publishing demands so teams can plan ahead rather than react to avoidable surprises.

Cross-Functional Coordination

• Serve as a senior operational partner across Brand, Creative, Communications, Community, User Acquisition, Storefront, Production, and other relevant stakeholders.

• Ensure project managers establish clear ownership, timelines, dependencies, and decision-making processes across their initiatives.

• Help resolve cross-functional challenges when competing priorities or unclear responsibilities put delivery at risk.

• Build trusted relationships with functional leads and publishing leadership to improve alignment and decision-making.

• Ensure changes in development, creative production, campaign scope, or business priorities are communicated to the teams affected.

• Support project managers in navigating complex stakeholder relationships and escalating issues at the appropriate time.

Game Development & Publishing Alignment

• Oversee coordination between marketing project management and game development and production teams, and share key information with the publishing team as a dedicated point of contact.

• Ensure publishing plans account for development milestones, content readiness, feature timing, build availability, and other critical dependencies.

• Work with project managers and development stakeholders to assess the impact of schedule or scope changes on marketing deliverables and launch readiness.

• Establish clear escalation and communication practices for development changes that affect publishing commitments.

• Help teams plan realistically around development uncertainty while respecting development workflows and minimizing unnecessary disruption.

Publishing Operations & Process Improvement

• Own the development and continuous improvement of project management practices, tools, reporting, and operating rhythms across the team.

• Establish scalable approaches to integrated planning, risk tracking, dependency management, approvals, and portfolio visibility.

• Identify opportunities to simplify workflows, reduce unnecessary administrative work, and improve delivery predictability.

• Ensure project management processes provide meaningful structure without limiting creative flexibility or slowing decision-making.

• Lead retrospectives and post-launch reviews, translating lessons learned into practical improvements.

• Partner with publishing leadership to evolve the team's operating model as the portfolio and organizational needs grow.

External Partners, Budgets & Resource Management

• Ensure project managers maintain clear scopes, timelines, deliverables, and approval processes with agencies, vendors, freelancers, and production partners.

• Oversee project-level budget tracking, vendor commitments, forecasts, and financial reporting practices.

• Partner with finance and marketing leads to identify budget variances and upcoming commitments.

• Maintain visibility into internal and external resource constraints across projects.

• Surface capacity, budget, and delivery trade-offs early, helping leadership make informed decisions about priorities and available resources.

Launch & Campaign Readiness

• Oversee project management planning for major launches and integrated campaigns from kickoff through post-launch review.

• Ensure launch plans account for creative production, communications, community, user acquisition, storefronts, localization, development dependencies, and external partners.

• Establish appropriate milestone reviews and readiness checkpoints for high-priority initiatives.

• Support project managers in resolving blockers and escalating risks that require broader organizational decisions.

• Ensure post-launch learnings are captured and incorporated into future planning and execution.

What You Bring

• 8–10+ years of experience in marketing project management, integrated marketing, production management, publishing operations, or a related field.

• Demonstrated experience leading, managing, or mentoring project managers, with a strong interest in team development.

• Experience managing complex, cross-functional marketing initiatives with multiple parallel workstreams and dependencies.

• Strong understanding of game development and publishing workflows and how development milestones affect marketing execution.

• Experience overseeing multiple concurrent projects or a portfolio of initiatives, with the ability to identify cross-project risks and resource conflicts.

• Strong skills in project planning, prioritization, risk management, stakeholder communication, and delivery oversight.

• Experience establishing project management processes, reporting practices, and operational workflows that improve team effectiveness.

• Ability to communicate project health, capacity constraints, and delivery risks clearly to senior stakeholders.

• Experience coordinating external agencies, vendors, budgets, and production partners.

• Excellent judgment and the ability to navigate changing priorities, ambiguity, and competing demands.

• A collaborative leadership style that builds trust, encourages accountability, and empowers teams to do their best work.

• Genuine enthusiasm for games and an appreciation for thatgamecompany's creative approach.