Game Economy Team Lead (Solitaire)

Description

At Papaya, we create mobile games that bring joy to millions of players around the world. As one of the fastest-growing mobile gaming companies in the world, we specialize in skill-based games that combine fun, competition, and real rewards, with thriving tournament communities at the heart of our platform. Our home base is in vibrant Tel Aviv, where data, creativity, and a love for games power everything we do.

Now, our top-performing Solitaire studio is looking for a Game Economy Team Lead to lead its team of game economists. This is a hands-on leadership role. You'll own the health of the Solitaire economy end to end, from feature ideation to post-launch tuning, while growing a team of talented economists and shaping how economic decisions are made across the studio.

Responsibilities

- Lead, mentor, and develop a team of Game Economy Managers, fostering high-quality execution, knowledge-sharing, and continuous professional growth.
- Own the economic health of our Solitaire games: monitor and balance currencies, resources, sinks and sources, and inflation using data analysis and simulations.
- Stay hands-on by building economic models and simulations, tuning feature configurations, and diving into data to solve the most complex economy challenges.
- Drive the economic design of new and existing features, including tournaments, LiveOps events, progression systems, and rewards, making sure economy aspects are properly scoped from day one.
- Plan, prioritize, and review complex A/B tests, and translate results into clear, actionable recommendations.
- Implement and uphold the economy guidelines, processes, and standards set by the Head of Game Economy, and help evolve them across the portfolio.
- Partner closely with Product, Monetization, Game Design, Analytics, and Engineering to balance revenue goals with player engagement and long-term retention.
- Be a key voice in studio roadmap discussions, bringing economic insights that influence feature priorities, pricing, and reward strategies.
- Present findings and recommendations to studio and company leadership.
- Manage team workload and priorities, provide ongoing feedback, and take part in hiring and onboarding new team members.

Requirements

- 4+ years of experience in a Game Economy role within the gaming industry, ideally in free-to-play mobile games- A must.
- Experience leading or mentoring analysts or economists, formally or informally- A must.
- Deep understanding of game economies: sinks and sources, inflation control, reward systems, progression, and their impact on retention and monetization.
- Proven experience designing, running, and analyzing A/B tests.
- Strong proficiency in SQL, and experience building economic models and simulations in Excel, Google Sheets, Python, or R.
- Experience using AI tools and LLMs (e.g., Claude, ChatGPT) to streamline analysis, modeling, and research. An advantage.
- Experience with skill-based, competitive, or tournament-based games. An advantage.
- B.A. / B.Sc. in Industrial Engineering, Mathematics, Statistics, Economics, Computer Science, or an equivalent background.

Soft Skills

- A natural leader who raises the bar for the team while staying close to the details.
- Ability to turn complex economic concepts into clear, actionable recommendations for both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
- Excellent communication skills in English, both written and verbal.
- A pragmatic mindset that balances data-driven rigor with creativity and player empathy.
- Thrives in a fast-paced, fast-growing environment with a can-do approach.

Why Join Us?

- Lead the team that owns and shapes the economy of Solitaire games played by millions of players worldwide.
- Work with one of the industry's top-performing teams.
- Grow your leadership career in a company that values creativity, ownership, and continuous learning.