Jobs roundup: September 2026 | Natalie Francis appointed studio manager of Massive Entertainment

This games industry jobs roundup covers appointments, promotions and departures announced in September 2026. The changes span studio leadership, game development, marketing, technology, communications and other roles across the sector.

Games industry jobs roundup: studio and development roles

Natalie Francis appointed studio manager at Massive Entertainment

Natalie Francis will become studio manager at Ubisoft’s Massive Entertainment on October 1, 2026. She previously served as chief development officer at Avalanche Studios, head of studio operations and development at DICE, and studio operations director at Electronic Arts.

Francis said she aims to build on the studio’s history and help create an environment where its teams can succeed. Christoph Hartmann, general manager for Creative House 2, cited her experience bringing multidisciplinary teams together and connecting creative direction with business and operational goals.

Image credit: Massive Entertainment

Other appointments and promotions

• Allie Murdock was promoted to senior manager, game production at Riot Games. She previously managed game production on Valorant and was production director at Red Lens Games.
• Kristen Quinn joined Gearbox Entertainment as lead sound designer. Her earlier roles include audio director, contractor and consultant at Bonfire Studios, and audio director at Polyarc.
• Benjamin Liu joined Insomniac Games as lead VFX artist after working as principal VFX artist and acting VFX director at Lightspeed LA.
• Peter Sydow joined Arrowhead Game Studios as head of production. He has worked as a senior producer at Massive Entertainment and PlayerUnknown Productions.
• Ryan Ngoon was promoted to game designer at Blizzard Entertainment. He joined the company in 2023 as an intern and quest designer, then became an associate game designer in 2024.
• Sarah Johnson was appointed art producer at Epic Games. Her previous producer roles include positions at Bungie, Secret Dimension, Hangar 13 and Telltale Games.
• Jameson Durall joined Behaviour Interactive as senior design director on Blight: Survival. He previously worked at Insomniac Games as an advanced senior game designer on Marvel’s Spider-Man 2.
• Matt Dobill was promoted to director of applied AI at Epic Games. He also serves as senior counsel on technology and tools.
• Joe Gabriel joined Unity as senior technical production manager for AndroidXR. He previously led customer and developer success at Niantic Spatial and worked as a senior developer relations manager at Niantic.
• Erik Meurk was promoted to senior software engineer at King. He joined the company as a Unity developer intern in August 2023 and became an associate software engineer in February 2024.
• Stéfanie Grandchamp-Dubé was promoted to lead UX designer at Epic Games. She joined the company as a senior UX designer in 2023 and previously held the same senior role at Behaviour Interactive.
• Jack Anderson joined Rebellion as a VFX artist. He previously worked in the same position at nDreams and Interior/Night.
• Esther Lopez returned to King as principal VFX artist. She joined King as a senior artist in 2014 and became associate principal VFX artist in 2020. In 2022, she moved to Meta as a real-time VFX art specialist in VR-AR. Lopez said she hopes to bring experience from building immersive experiences back to King.
• Tommi Virolainen joined Kokoon Games as a senior game programmer. He previously worked as a tech programmer at Metacore and held senior game programming and development roles at Lightneer.
• Christopher Holtorf was appointed senior quest designer at CD Projekt Red after working as a senior narrative designer at Intrepid Studios.

Executive and business leadership changes

Fandom adds leaders and promotes an engineering veteran

Fandom announced three executive hires and promoted a long-serving employee. Anita Butler became senior vice president of design and user research. She was previously EVP of design and research at Nextdoor, VP of consumer design at Twitter and chief design officer at Strava.

Damon Sicore joined as chief technology officer and head of Fandom Labs. His leadership experience includes Wikipedia and Mozilla, where he led the engineering organization behind Firefox, HTML, JavaScript and CSS. Peter Scanlon became chief marketing officer, bringing executive experience from Google, Mozilla and Monks.

Daniel Grunwell was promoted to senior vice president of engineering and will oversee Fandom’s engineering and infrastructure team. CEO Jay Sullivan said the new leaders bring consumer, platform and design expertise, while Grunwell contributes deep knowledge of Fandom’s communities and operations.

Image credit: Fandom

Additional leadership appointments

• Jonathan Knight became chief games officer at The New York Times. He previously served as SVP and head of games, leading the acquisition and integration of Wordle.
• Chase Shi returned to Scopely as VP and head of game product. He left the company in 2020 as a senior product manager, later becoming director of product management at Jam City and working on Diablo at Blizzard Entertainment.
• Jonathan Marcelino was appointed director of product for Monopoly Go at Scopely. He previously founded and led hybrid-casual game studio Ritmo Games as CEO.
• Berkay Özer became head of studio at Fomo Games. He joined in 2022 as a product specialist and later became product team lead. After leaving in 2025, he joined Loom Games as product manager.
• Brian Trunk was appointed senior vice president of Route to Market for the Americas at Asmodee. He has been a partner at Asmodee for more than a decade and spent 17 years at Wizards of the Coast, most recently as vice president of commercial, digital games revenue and the Wizards Play Network. He also held vice president and general manager positions covering EMEA, LATAM and APAC.
• Wille Miljas was promoted to director of product marketing at Rovio. He had served as central marketing director after joining in 2024 as marketing lead. Earlier roles include head of marketing at Good Shepherd Entertainment and Redhill Games, and senior marketing manager for planning and strategy at Next Games.
• Magda Marcinkowska joined CD Projekt Red as production manager in marketing. She previously served as acting publishing operations director at Techland.
• Amir Satvat joined 1Up Ventures as a general partner. He previously worked as business development director at Tencent Games and founded Always Supporting the Games Community (ASGC), a resource that helps people find jobs in the games industry. Satvat said he was drawn to the role’s focus on community, smaller studios and supporting people’s work in games.
• Giles Derrington joined Take-Two Interactive as director of global affairs UK. He previously led public affairs in the UK at TikTok.
• Jess Pearce was promoted to senior people partner at Kepler Interactive. She joined as a people advisor in 2022 and moved into a people partner role in 2024.
• Shreya Godha was promoted from associate producer to producer at PlaySimple Games.
• Kelly Ekins joined Epic Games as director of communications. She previously worked at Unity as senior director of global PR for its Games and Made with Unity Program. Before joining Unity in 2018 as marketing lead for media and entertainment, she was studio lead for game marketing and communications at Warner Brothers Games Montreal.
• David Scarborough joined Blizzard Entertainment as senior manager of EMEA communications. His previous roles include senior account director at Brands2Life, head of communications at Inflexion Games, and senior positions at Improbable and Koch Media/Deep Silver.
• Tamara Feiman was appointed CEO of Tripledot Studios’ Lion Studios. She previously served as publishing general manager and joined Lion in 2020 as EMEA business development lead. Feiman highlighted the contribution of Lion’s teams and partner studios to its growth.
• Heather Sangria joined Sega of America as community manager. She previously worked as a contract social strategist and community lead at One More Game, and as digital strategy and community manager at Undead Labs.
• Emily Rose Chen was promoted to senior product manager for Call of Duty at Activision Blizzard. She previously served as a product manager and joined the company as a financial analyst in 2020.
• Scot McCarron was promoted to senior director of product management for Call of Duty at Activision Blizzard. He previously directed product management for the franchise and joined Activision in 2018 as product marketing manager for emerging franchises.

Departures and other industry moves

Lasse Seppänen announced he is leaving Supercell after seven years. Since joining as a producer in 2019, he held senior roles including head of game production services and general manager for Supercell London. He plans to remain in the UK and start an independent studio in 2027, focusing again on creating new game IP.

Ilari Kuittinen stepped down as Housemarque co-founder and managing director after 31 years at the studio. He co-founded the company with Harri Tikkanen in 1995, following the merger of Bloodhouse and Terramarque. The leadership transition was planned in advance: Sami “Haxu” Hakala took over as managing director on July 1, while Kuittinen continued supporting him and the leadership team to maintain operational continuity.

Linh Lai became an accounting assistant at Newzoo after completing a six-month internship. She said the internship helped her understand how accounting processes work individually and how they connect across a business, and she plans to develop her finance knowledge and contribute to more efficient processes.

games industry jobs roundup updates can help readers follow how studios and game businesses are building their teams. For practical tracking, note both the new position and the person’s previous role: career histories often show the experience behind a promotion or appointment.