Senior UA Growth Manager

**This is an opportunity to work for a remote-first company. Must be currently living in and legally eligible to work in Canada.**

Location: Remote (BC preferred)
Reports To: President

About Kano

Kano is a successful, founder-led game studio with a 15+ year track record in building free-to-play games with loyal communities. With two product lines – mobile idle games and long-running text-based social RPGs – and a fully remote team of 40, we’re focused on sustainable growth, strong player engagement, and profitable user acquisition.

We’re looking for a Senior UA Growth Manager to take full ownership of new player acquisition at Kano. You’ll be the strategic and hands-on leader driving campaign performance, optimizing spend, and collaborating cross-functionally to deliver results. This is a high-impact role with growth opportunities.

What You’ll Do

Own Paid User Acquisition and Retargeting at Kano

• Lead the full paid UA strategy and execution for multiple titles with ~$3M annual spend.
• Optimize campaigns across Meta Ads, Google UAC, Unity Ads, Apple Search Ads, Ironsource, TikTok, Applovin, and other platforms.
• Manage retargeting campaigns to improve re-engagement and player LTV.
• Collaborate on Custom Product Pages and Custom Store Listings to boost conversion.
• Develop and manage budget pacing, daily optimizations, and channel mix.
• Manage external relationships (ad network account managers, agencies, etc)
  
  

Build a Data-Driven Growth Engine

• Partner with analysts and product owners to interpret campaign performance and cohort LTV across platforms and geos.
• Define UA KPIs (Net ROAS D1/D7/D30/D90, CAC payback, LTV:CAC ratios, etc.) and report regularly to leadership.
• Set up and evolve creative testing roadmaps, audience segmentation, and bidding strategies.
• Analyze incrementality, attribution, and lift across UA and re-engagement campaigns.
• Leverage AI-driven tools and creative automation where useful.
• Partner with the LiveOps marketing team to develop, test, and iterate on static, video, and playable creatives.
  
  

Data Analysis & Attribution Mastery

• Work with tools like AppsFlyer to ensure accurate attribution and deep performance insights.
• Contribute and lead marketing focused analytic event tracking.
• Set up and analyze A/B and multivariate tests across creatives, audiences, and geos.
• Build and maintain dashboards and reporting in internal BI tools and Appsflyer to communicate campaign performance clearly to stakeholders.
  
  

Strategic & Cross-Functional Impact

• Collaborate with product, and analysts to align acquisition with game updates and events.
• Collaborate with analysts to understand LTV by source, geo, platform, and funnel drop-off points.
• Stay ahead of industry trends, channel developments, and competitive activity to find emerging opportunities.
• Provide executive-level insights and recommendations on acquisition performance and growth levers.
• Provide mentorship and guidance to junior members, helping them develop their skills and expand their knowledge.
• Analyze UA performance to surface opportunities for product iteration (e.g., tutorial friction, reward cadence, early funnel drop-off).
• Play our games, and conduct light competitive analysis on top competitors to identify emerging UA, monetization and engagement tactics.

Support ASO, SEO and Organic Growth

• Support ASO and SEO strategy including keyword testing, metadata updates, Custom Store Listings (Google Play), and screenshot/video asset alignment.
• Ensure paid and organic efforts complement each other to drive installs and conversion.

What You Bring

• 3+ years of mobile UA experience, ideally in free-to-play games.
• Mastery of ad networks: Meta, Google UAC, ASA, Ironsource, Unity, TikTok.
• Hands-on with campaign setup, budgeting, creative testing, and performance reporting.
• Strong analytical foundation: confident in reading performance data, working with analysts, and interpreting cohort LTV and Retention curves.
• Experience with performance-based retargeting and campaign optimization across multiple touchpoints.
• Familiarity with MMPs (AppsFlyer, Singular, Adjust), ASO tools, and dashboarding platforms.
• Strong communicator with remote-first collaboration skills.
• Strategic mindset with an eye for detail, experimentation, and iteration.
  
  

Bonus Points

• Experience in idle, sim, or LiveOps-heavy games.
• Prior ownership of ASA + CPPs and Custom Store Listings.
• Proven experience leveraging AI tools for creatives and analysis
• SQL or BI tool proficiency (Looker/Tableau/Quicksight).
• Experience growing into broader marketing or leadership roles.

Why This Role Matters

This isn’t just an ad buyer role. At Kano, you’ll own the full UA lifecycle — from strategy to execution — and have the autonomy to make decisions that drive real business results. This is a growth opportunity for someone who thrives on ownership, strategic thinking, and scaling games profitably.

Salary

($90,000 - $115,000)

The listed pay range reflects the potential earnings for this role. Actual compensation will depend on experience, skills, and alignment with company needs, typically falling toward the midpoint for most candidates

Kano is a remote-first workplace with an in-person attendance requirement 2-6 times a year.

What we offer

• Competitive wages determined by market research 
• Uncapped profit share program
• Health, dental and vision benefits 
• 3 weeks vacation to start
• Paid holiday shutdown in December
• 12 paid Care Days per year
• Yearly Continuous Improvement allowance 
• A results-driven company with a compassionate culture
• Opportunity to work on game projects that are enjoyed by millions of players worldwide!
• Ability to make a difference. Have an idea? Talk directly with leadership about it instead of running through layers of bureaucracy

About Kano

Since inception, Kano has released twelve gaming titles (seven of which are live serviced today), with over 35 million downloads and close to $100M in sales.

Bootstrapped in 2008, and achieving profitability in 2009, Kano continues to grow its team, game portfolio and player base as an independent gaming studio, with hit games like Mob Wars, Idle Distiller and Monster Country. 

Canadian owned and full-remote, we believe in giving small teams of talented people challenging problems and getting out of their way. That’s why we look for the best and brightest to join our team; people who have talent, vision, and commitment.

Check out this article If you'd like to get some insight into our hiring process, our employee manual to understand how and why we do things the way we do, and this fun little video for an intro to the team!   

• 2024 Great Place to Work Certified™
• 2023 Great Place to Work Certified™
• 2022 Best Workplace™ for Mental Wellness
• 2022 Best Workplace™ in Canada - Less than 50 employees
• 2022 Best Workplace™ in British Columbia
• 2021 Best Workplace™ in British Columbia
• 2020 Best Workplaces™ in Canada – Less than 100 employees
• 2020 Best Workplaces™ for Inclusion
• 2020 Best Workplaces™ for Mental Wellness
• 2020 Best Workplaces™ in British Columbia
• 2019 Great Place to Work - British Columbia
• 2019 VIATEC Employer of the Year - Finalist
• 2018 VIATEC Company of the Year (11-49 Employees) - Winner
• 2018 VIATEC Employer of the Year - Finalist
• 2017 VIATEC Company of the Year (11-49 employees) - Finalist
• 2014 VIATEC Employer of the Year - Winner

*Kano is an equal opportunity employer and considers qualified applicants without regard to race, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, genetic information, national origin, age, disability, medical condition, religion, marital status or veteran status, or any other basis protected by law*