About Skillz

If you want to build, own, and see your impact — join Skillz and level up your career.

Skillz is the competition infrastructure platform that powers real-money, skill-based tournaments inside mobile games. We didn't just enter the competitive gaming market — we invented it. Founded in 2012 by entrepreneur and inventor Andrew Paradise, Skillz built the category from scratch: the patented matchmaking, identity, payments, fraud protection, and developer tools that make fair, real-stakes competition possible at scale.

Skillz hosts billions of casual mobile gaming tournaments for millions of players worldwide and is revolutionizing the gaming industry. By fostering social competition within games, the Skillz platform helps developers build multi-million dollar franchises by enabling real-money activity in their games and providing operational support while connecting players through fair, enjoyable, and meaningful competition.

Today, Skillz is part of FIRY — a global holding company operating at the intersection of gaming, AI-powered performance marketing, and developer infrastructure. Alongside RZR, our AI-driven ad network, and Beamable, our backend and LiveOps platform, Skillz sits at the center of a compounding data flywheel that no standalone competitor can replicate. 800,000+ daily tournaments. $7.5 billion in lifetime prizes paid to players. 90 million registered users.

We're a high-conviction team of builders who came from Apple, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Tesla, X, Roblox, Zynga, Samsung, Lyft, EA, Riot, Nexon, Gameskraft, PlayStation, Unity, Scopely, Tinder, Intel, Deloitte, EY, Twitch, DraftKings, Wynn Resorts, and more. We operate like a startup, hold ourselves to high standards, and move fast with purpose. If you want to work on infrastructure that matters — and be part of a team that fights for what it builds — Skillz is the right place.

About the Role

Skillz runs mobile competitions where players go head-to-head in skill-based games for cash and prizes. We have a lot of data on what players do. We need someone to help us understand why: why they stay, why they spend, and especially why they leave.

You’ll build that research capability and lead it. This role reports to the Head of Player Experience and Customer Support. You'll be an an individual contributor to start while you build out a team of 1 - 2 analysts.

What you’ll own

Building the function. You’ll set up intake, prioritization, research standards and an insights repository that teams actually use. You’ll also hire and develop the researchers who run it.
Understanding churn. You’ll combine behavioral data with interviews, surveys and panels to explain why players lapse, spot early warning signs, and test retention ideas before we invest in them.
Running a Voice of the Player program. This includes recurring pulse surveys, player panels and segment-level research across new, core and VIP players.
Testing big changes before launch. You’ll work with Product, LiveOps, Analytics and VIP teams to test features, promotions, prize structures and player economics before they ship.
Turning research into decisions. You’ll make clear recommendations that shape roadmaps and retention strategy, and present them to executives.

What success looks like

By 90 days, intake is running, your research roadmap is agreed with Product and LiveOps leadership, and your first churn study is underway.
By 6 months, the Voice of the Player program is live and teams pull from the insights repository without asking you.
By 12 months, research shapes major roadmap and retention decisions, and your team is hired and working independently.

What you bring

7+ years in user research, player research or consumer insights on consumer (B2C) products, including 1+ years managing researchers or analysts
Experience building or scaling a research function or program, not just running studies inside one
Strong qualitative and quantitative skills, including judgment about which to use and how to combine them, and comfort working with analytics teams on behavioral data