Gym Class - by IRL Studios

Compensation

Full Description

Role Summary Gym Class is a top-rated social game on Meta Quest - millions of downloads, 79,000+ reviews, 4.9★. We’re backed by top technology and sports investors including Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Y Combinator, the NBA, the Golden State Warriors, and athlete-investors like Kevin Durant, Andre Iguodala, Lonzo Ball, Danny Green, Zaza Pachulia, and others. We’re building a social gaming platform - where games, identity, community, and content come together to create daily reasons to return. This year we’re scaling VR, expanding the platform to mobile, and evolving our flagship basketball experience into a full live-service game. We’re hiring a Principal Product Leader → GM who will start by shipping the highest-leverage product changes that move retention and revenue (onboarding, live ops, and a deeper meta-game like Career Mode), then turn what works into repeatable systems as we expand the platform and add new games. As the platform grows, your scope grows: from owning the flagship experience end-to-end (activation → retention → monetization → live ops) to incubating the next breakout games and helping shape the broader mobile + UGC roadmap. You’ll ship with a world-class team, to a highly engaged audience with an immediate feedback loop, and deliver company-level impact. WHAT YOU’LL DO • Own flagship outcomes end-to-end: Be accountable for activation → retention → monetization → live ops. Find the biggest bottlenecks, set the plan, align the team, and deliver. • Turn “fun” into “full game”: Package the flagship into a complete live-service experience - tighter onboarding, clearer goals, deeper progression, stronger reasons to return daily/weekly. • Ship a deeper meta-game (Career Mode): Launch a singleplayer Career Mode that creates long-term pull - progression, bot gameplay, milestones, rewards, narrative framing - and connect it to the broader platform (identity/status, seasons, unlocks). • Build the Live Ops engine: Create and run the cadence: seasons, events, challenges, drops, experiments. Ship weekly iterations and drive measurable lifts in D7/D30, depth, and spend. • Strengthen social loops: Improve the social fabric (parties/squads, competitive ladders, leaderboards/tournaments, spectating, community moments) so the game feels like a world, not a match. • Run the product like a business: Make tradeoffs with ROI awareness. Prioritize what moves the metrics; cut what doesn’t. Set standards for quality, pacing, and reliability. • Create repeatable systems as you scale: Turn wins into process that compounds - dashboards, rituals, operating cadence, quality bars, and launch playbooks the whole platform can reuse. • Expand scope into more games: Once the flagship is on a strong trajectory, your scope will expand to additional games on the platform. • Cross-pollinate across mobile + AI + UGC: Advise and influence mobile + AI + UGC efforts with proven retention/monetization/live ops patterns - and as bandwidth opens, take direct ownership where you can create step-function impact. QUALIFICATIONS — you are… • A product shipper (not a committee): You don’t wait for perfect specs - you define problems, make calls, and ship high-quality work fast. • Live-service fluent: You’ve built/operated products with ongoing updates - events, economies, progression, battle passes, ranked seasons, experimentation, and iteration tied to outcomes. • Metrics-native: Comfortable owning and improving funnels/cohorts (D1/D7/D30, conversion, ARPDAU/ARPU, LTV) and using data + player feedback together. • Great taste + systems thinking: You can craft experiences players love, then operationalize them into durable systems that scale across teams and titles. • Cross-functional leader: You can drive alignment across design, engineering, art, analytics, community, and marketing — and keep execution moving without heavy process. • Startup builder energy: You thrive in ambiguity, move fast, raise the bar, and treat the product like it’s yours. Ex-founders very welcome. Nice to have • Shipped/owned live service games, progression systems, economies, competitive ladders, or social platform mechanics. • Experience with social games, UGC ecosystems, products for younger demographics. VR experience is NOT required. • Sports game intuition or deep familiarity with competitive multiplayer communities. Pay and Benefits Salary ranges may be inclusive of several career levels and will be narrowed during the interview process based on a number of factors, including the candidate’s experience, qualifications, and location. Additional benefits for this role include: equity; and medical, dental, and vision benefits; and 401k retirement plan with matching.