Head of Vanilla Minecraft

Mojang Studios is best known as the creators of Minecraft, but we’re also on a mission – to build a better world through the power of play. 

Why play? Well, play is at the heart of everything we do. It’s the blocky backbone of our games, the core of our development philosophy, and even the origin of our name. From the relentless experimentation of our endlessly inspiring community to the classrooms where Minecraft has become an essential teaching tool, play is the bedrock of our existence. 

About the Role  

In this role, you will lead a multi-disciplinary team that is directly responsible for evolving and shepherding one of the most successful games of all time, Minecraft. This team is responsible for the ‘Vanilla’ Minecraft game (Bedrock and Java Editions) and is the creative engine behind all of Minecraft’s game updates. You will be empowered to set your vision, strategy, and OKR's for the product to drive growth for the franchise. Everyone working on Minecraft in our Stockholm location will report up to you. 

Key Responsibilities  

• Leadership 
• MGE (Minecraft Game Experience) Leadership: As a part of the MGE leadership team, you will work closely with your peers in Redmond to shape the vision for Minecraft. You will establish OKR’s that enable Vanilla + external Creators to succeed. 
• Team Leadership: Collaborate closely with your leaders within engineering, creative, production, business, and data science to foster an empowering, collaborative, and productive work environment. 
• Promote and maintain clarity across your org. Define expected outcomes that generate energy, and delivery results that grow Minecraft's business. 
• Actively participate and drive results as a member of Mojang's Extended Leadership team 
• Vision and Strategy: Accountable for crafting and maintaining the Vanilla vision, strategy, and product roadmap. Lead and manage the development teams to deliver high-quality game updates that drive engagement growth. Partner closely with Head of Creator to realize the Creator vision and strategy. 
• Stakeholder Management: Ensuring transparent and consistent communication with internal and external stakeholders around production status, Vanilla performance, dependencies, and future product plans. 
• Planning Improvement: Continuously evaluate and improve planning across MGE to enhance efficiency and quality. 
• Delivery: Ensure teams are delivering on-time and at quality through exceptional planning.
   
• Management & Team 
• People Management: Build and maintain a high performing team. Identify talent gaps and fill them through coaching and/or hiring. Bring strong communication skills, build lasting relationships, and generate energy capable of motivating and aligning the team to our common goals. 
• ‘Chief culture champion’: Building and maintaining a culture where our teams thrive, and our business grows. You are enthusiastic and deeply knowledgeable about Minecraft. Your passion motivates you and inspires those around you. 
• Innovation: Champion are drive innovation across all of MGE people, process, product, and technology. 
   
• Business Operations and Outcomes 
• Deliver business outcomes: lead our product teams to achieve our business outcomes and grow MGE (Vanilla + Creator). 
• Create clarity through OKR’s with quarterly measurements and revisions 
• Partner closely with marketing and Head of MGE to develop MGE go to market plans 

Additional responsibilities: 

• Spokesperson for MGE, Mojang, Xbox 
• Sponsor and/or lead strategic initiatives within MGE/Mojang 
• Close collaboration with Redmond leaders. Will require some evening calls and travel. 
  
  

What We’re Looking For:

• 10+ years of senior leadership experience in studio operations, production, or business management within gaming or tech.  
• 10+ years as a people manager 
• Ability to think and plan strategically. 
• Strong background in game development. Including agile Live game production frameworks. 
• Experience in implementing and maintaining game development processes, project management, and cross-functional team leadership.  
• Excellent judgement and ability to scale as a leader 
• Track record of managing healthy teams through excellent game development operations in support of creative teams. 
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills, with experience working across time zones and global teams. 
• Strong business acumen, with experience managing budgets, facilitating trade-off through sound judgement and driving operational efficiencies. 
• Passion for fostering an inclusive, high-performance environment where teams do their best work.  

Why Join Us? 

• Be part of one of the biggest gaming studios in the world.  
• Shape studio culture and ensure teams thrive.  
• Collaborate with global leadership to drive impact.  
• Have fun! 

If you’re a senior operations leader passionate about culture, strategy, and enabling great game development, we’d love to hear from you!  

Mojang Studios 

Mojang Studios is a Microsoft-owned game developer. The company was founded in Stockholm, Sweden and has offices around the world, including Stockholm, Redmond, Tokyo, London, and Shanghai. We’re always working on new and exciting ways to expand the Minecraft universe.

Our community is global and incredibly diverse. We keep this in mind when developing anything, as we want people to feel included in Minecraft. And in recruiting, our goal is to make Mojang Studios as diverse as our community. 

We got started as a tiny indie developer, and part of our culture still reflects that heritage. But we’re also proud to belong to Xbox Game Studios, which creates unique opportunities to grow and develop.

To help us achieve amazing things, we have built an equally amazing studio space. Situated right on the water by Söder Mälarstrand, it’s filled to the brim with all the tools, toys and caffeine required to create world-class entertainment.

But in the end, it’s the people of Mojang Studios that make this place truly special. When you join, you’ll find yourself in the company of incredibly bright, warm, and creative individuals – all united and working toward a single goal. Come help us reach it!

Important note on resumes
Please make sure that all the information in your resume is accurate because we will conduct a thorough background check. Any discrepancies will lower your chances of getting to the next interview stage and we’d hate to miss out on an awesome candidate! Double check that any gap years are reflected in your history, and that your education and work experience are completely accurate. Good luck!