Director of Development, Minecraft Core

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 As Director of Development, you are a senior leader responsible for turning studio strategy into executable outcomes across multiple disciplines. You own the development operating system: planning, dependency management, production health, risk mitigation, cross-functional alignment, and delivery cadence. You lead delivery across a complex game development organization, ensuring that work moves coherently between design, engineering, platform, production, QA, and live operations. Through strong coordination, transparency, and execution excellence, you enable teams to build high-quality player experiences in a scalable and sustainable way, creating the conditions needed to turn ambitious visions into reality. Key Responsibilities Representing delivery excellence on the Core Leadership Team Accountable for delivery excellence across multiple departments, ensuring the organisation has the clarity, structure, tools, and ways of working needed to execute effectively Owns delivery health across the full development cycle, including planning, progress visibility, risks, dependencies, trade-offs, and escalation paths Connects organisational priorities to execution, translating leadership direction into clear operating rhythms, decisions, and delivery plans Drives alignment across design, platform, engineering, production, QA, and live operations, ensuring teams are working against shared priorities and expectations Establishes scalable delivery models for complex game development, improving how multiple teams plan, collaborate, execute, test and playtest, and deliver together Provides leadership visibility on organisational readiness, delivery performance, key risks, dependencies, and strategic trade-offs. Leading people manager excellence by strengthening the group with the right tools and systems, modeling people management excellence, coaching managers through complex leadership situations, and helping build consistency in how teams are supported Promotes rituals, forums, and practices that strengthen team health, such as manager communities, craft communities, feedback loops, and spaces for learning, reflection, and continuous improvement What you’ll need to succeed Proven experience leading large-scale game or software development organisations Strong track record of delivering complex products and services in a live operating environment Proven e xperience implementing or improving development systems, delivery frameworks, forecasting, and organizational operating models Deep understanding of game development, production, engineering, and cross-functional execution Ability to operate effectively at both strategic and operational levels Exceptional communication, influence, and stakeholder alignment skills