Product Manager II, Games
The New York TimesThe mission of The New York Times is to seek the truth and help people understand the world. That means independent journalism is at the heart of all we do as a company. It’s why we have a world-renowned newsroom that sends journalists to report on the ground from nearly 160 countries. It’s why we focus deeply on how our readers will experience our journalism, from print to audio to a world-class digital and app destination. And it’s why our business strategy centers on making journalism so good that it’s worth paying for.
Mission Overview & Responsibilities:
The mission of The New York Times is to seek the truth and help people understand the world. Independent journalism is at the heart of all we do, and we focus deeply on how our readers experience our work across a world‑class digital and app destination.
NYT Games aims to be the premier destination for digital puzzle games. It publishes human‑made puzzles daily, including beloved games like Wordle, Spelling Bee, Connections, and the New York Times Crossword. These games are played by tens of millions each week. Our Games business is a key driver of subscription growth and long‑term reader value.
The Subscriber experience team ensures subscribers deepen their daily habit with NYT Games. They do this by clearly connecting and communicating the value of their subscription, giving them experiences they don't want to play without, and creating exclusive features worth paying for. Together, these efforts support the long‑term health of the New York Times subscription business.
About the Role
We're hiring a Product Manager II for the Games Missions in our Player Experience Group to own how subscribers discover, engage with, and build habits around NYT Games.
Your focus is on connecting subscribers to the value they're getting: helping them understand the core benefits, build regular engagement patterns, and experience the full breadth of our game portfolio. You'll design onboarding experiences that turn new subscribers into engaged players, build interventions to re-engage those who show signs of disengagement, and strengthen their connection to the games they love.
You'll join a cross‑functional team with dedicated leads across product, engineering, design, data, QA, and production.
This is a hybrid role based in our New York City office.
Responsibilities:
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You will help accelerate our subscriber growth by optimizing how subscribers experience, discover, activate, engage with, and stay in the platform.
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Design and optimize the onboarding journey to help new subscribers quickly discover value, understand their benefits, and build lasting engagement habits
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Identify friction points and at-risk users through behavioral analysis, then ship targeted interventions to improve activation and reduce churn
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Run experiments to test hypotheses around onboarding, feature adoption, and engagement tactics, then iterate based on results
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Analyze user behavior using cohort analysis, drop-off patterns, and lifecycle metrics to produce data-driven hypotheses and prioritize high-impact opportunities
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Contribute to the roadmap for our subscriber growth and deliver highly relevant, inspiring experiences to drive long-term value for subscribers
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Define success metrics for your initiatives, monitor experiment performance, and partner with a data analyst to build dashboards to track impact
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Own end-to-end product features through their entire cycle: ideation, specification, development, release, analysis, and iteration
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Collaborate with engineering, design, data science, research, and marketing to deliver solutions ranging from small optimizations to multi-surface experiences
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Demonstrate support and understanding of our value of journalistic independence and a strong commitment to our mission to seek the truth and help people understand the world.
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You will report to the Product Director for the Games Mission.
Basic Qualifications:
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3+ years of product management experience at a high-growth consumer tech company or subscription product.
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1+ year of experience optimizing the growth funnel.
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Experience optimizing growth funnel across signup, onboarding, activation, or retention - you've driven measurable improvements to metrics while never losing sight of end-user experience and value delivery.
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Experience A/B testing and using data and insights to inform product development.
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A hypothesis-driven, iterative approach to product development - you know how to build and ship with imperfect data rather than waiting for perfect infrastructure.
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Experience prioritizing and delivering results for multiple projects in a collaborative environment.
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Experience partnering with data, engineering, and design to translate insights into shipped features.
Preferred Qualifications:
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Experience working on subscription business models in consumer products (media, SaaS, gaming, or fitness) with an understanding of subscription mechanics.
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Background in products where engagement frequency and habit formation promote long-term value.
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Interest in games and puzzles! You're an active player who understands what makes these experiences engaging.
REQ-019616
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For roles in the U.S., dependent on your role, you may be eligible for variable pay, such as an annual bonus and restricted stock. Benefits may include medical, dental and vision benefits, Flexible Spending Accounts (F.S.A.s), a company-matching 401(k) plan, paid vacation, paid sick days, paid parental leave, tuition reimbursement and professional development programs.
For roles outside of the U.S., information on benefits will be provided during the interview process.
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