The Recruiting Playbook for Mobile Games Studios
How top mobile studios attract, hire, and retain world-class talent.
The mobile games industry is one of the fastest-moving sectors in entertainment. User expectations evolve weekly, genres shift overnight, and studios are constantly racing to build, scale, and update content that keeps players engaged. In a market this competitive, the difference between a top-grossing hit and a forgotten title often comes down to one thing:
Talent.
But recruiting for mobile games is very different from traditional AAA or PC/console hiring. The skill sets, pipelines, data-driven culture, team structures, KPIs, and recruitment challenges are unique. In this evergreen playbook, we break down exactly how successful mobile studios build strong teams and how you can replicate the same approach.
- Understand the Skills That Make Mobile Development Different
Mobile is its own discipline, and hiring generalists from console/PC often doesn’t translate. The best mobile studios focus on five core areas:
Engineering for Scalability
Unity/C# specialists with live-ops experience Backend engineers fluent in AWS, Azure, Firebase, Photon, PlayFab Experience with rapid release cycles and feature shipping every 1–2 weeks
Performance-Optimised Art
2D/3D artists who balance visuals with device performance Technical artists who understand shaders, optimisation, compression Motion/UI/FX specialists who can work within tight memory constraints
Product + Monetisation-Driven Design
Systems designers who understand retention curves, core loops, FTUE Economy designers (critical for F2P) Product managers who take a data-first approach
Live-Ops and Analytics Talent
Data analysts and BI specialists Growth marketers focused on UA, ASO, and monetisation Live-ops managers who turn analytics into weekly revenue improvements
QA Built for Speed
QA engineers comfortable with rapid iteration Automation specialists Soft-launch testing experts
- Build Teams Around Live-Ops, Not Just Launch
Mobile studios aren’t judged on launch day. They’re judged on:
D1/D7/D30 retention ARPDAU & LTV Monthly content velocity Feature iteration speed
Your hiring strategy must reflect this. The most successful studios build teams focused on:
Pre-production
Prototypers Systems designers Product managers Unity generalists
Launch
Growth marketing Community management Performance QA
Live-Ops
Data analysts Economy designers Content designers Live-ops producers Tooling/back-end engineers
If you only hire for launch, your game will fail by month three.
- Optimise Your Hiring Funnel for Mobile Talent
Mobile candidates move fast, if your hiring process is slow, you lose them. The strongest studios:
✓ Remove unnecessary interview stages
Three rounds max:
Culture/intro Skills-based technical test or portfolio walkthrough Final decision
✓ Use “Same-Day Feedback”
Mobile candidates usually receive multiple offers simultaneously. Same-day feedback increases offer acceptance by 25–40%.
✓ Pay close attention to portfolios and shipped titles
A Unity engineer with:
1–2 shipped F2P titles experience in live environments will outperform a generalist engineer almost every time.
✓ Hire for speed and learning ability
Mobile meta changes constantly, so prioritise adaptability over legacy experience.
- Know What Mobile Talent Really Wants
Salary matters but it’s not always what closes the deal.
Top mobile candidates tend to prioritise:
Flexible/remote options
Mobile talent is globally distributed. Offering remote-first dramatically widens your talent pool.
Clear product roadmaps
Candidates want to join studios with vision, not chaos.
Visible career progression
Especially for:
Senior artists Mid-level engineers Product managers
Stability & transparency
The industry has seen a wave of restructuring. Candidates now vet studios as carefully as studios vet them.
- Competitive Salary Benchmarking: Mobile vs Console
Mobile salaries typically differ because roles are hybrid skill sets (design + analytics, art + optimisation, engineering + live-ops). On average:
Mobile engineers: often 10–15% lower than AAA but with faster progression Mobile product managers: often higher due to analytics and monetisation skills Mobile economy designers: some of the most in-demand roles globally Mobile art: more competitive than AAA due to UI/UX and stylised art demand
Global hotspots:
UK (London, Guildford, Leamington) Spain (Barcelona), Finland, Turkey, Brazil
- Build a Studio Brand Mobile Talent Actually Cares About
What matters most?
Showcase your live-ops culture
Mobile talent wants:
velocity ownership data-driven decision making
Promote autonomy
Small teams = high impact. Mobile devs love this.
Show real retention and performance metrics
If your metrics are strong talk about them. If they’re weak but improving talk about the plan.
Demonstrate that decisions are driven by data
Mobile talent flocks to teams that work like:
Supercell, King, Scopely, Zynga
- Partner With Recruiters Who Understand Mobile Games
This industry is too specialised for generic tech recruiters. A strong mobile recruiter should offer:
✓ Talent mapped by discipline, sub-discipline, and region
Unity, Product, Economy, Live-Ops, UA/Growth, Data, Art, Backend…
✓ Access to passive candidates not found on LinkedIn
✓ Salary benchmarking across global mobile hubs
✓ Fast turnaround for high-volume roles
Especially during:
soft launch global launch late-stage live-ops scaling
✓ An understanding of F2P business models, soft launch pipelines, and analytics KPIs
This is where InGame Recruitment excels it's why studios like King, Scopely, Gameloft, Product Madness, trust our team.
Final Thoughts: Winning in Mobile Means Winning in Talent
The studios dominating the charts today aren’t just shipping great features, they’re building elite teams built for:
iteration optimisation experimentation performance live-ops growth
If you can hire talent who understands that mobile is its own unique beast, you’ll ship better games, scale faster, and create long-term revenue engines.
And if you need help finding that talent? InGame Recruitment has spent years building one of the strongest mobile candidate networks globally across Product, Engineering, Art, Data, Growth, and Live-Ops.