How many online poker players over the years have envisioned themselves launching their very own poker website? Looking at the top operators around the world, it’s clear that there’s an overabundance of money to be made, but the thought of breaking into the business from the ground floor up turns most of us off. So instead, why not go to work for one of those top ranked site that already makes the big bucks?
Maybe you’ve even thought about it before, but assumed it was an impossible goal. Have you bothered to check any operator’s website for job listings? If you had, you might have found that PokerStars—the world’s largest online poker room, owned by the world’s largest publically traded gaming company, Amaya Gaming—is actually hiring for dozens of positions.
Of the 72 job listings posted, several of them are even available at the Rational Group’s UK office in London. Even more surprisingly, many of those employment ads have been up on JobVite.com for months. If you have the necessary skills to fill one of those roles (see job listings below), you could actually be working for PokerStars.
There are ten listings for jobs at Rational Group in the UK. You can find them all here by filtering the listings by location and choosing “UK Office”. They are all full-time positions, revolving around content, design, IT, marketing and social gaming. Though none are poker-specific, there are three strictly poker oriented jobs open for Poker Analyst (Tournament Script Writer), Poker Economy Manager and Ring Games Manager, but they are all located at the PokerStars head office on the Isle of Man.
For UK residents who want to apply for employment with PokerStars locally, the following positions (including brief job descriptions) are available.
| Job Title/Description | Key Responsibilities |
| Copywriter Content & Publishing Rational Group, |
– Creation of written content for new Group approved promotions and launches across the Group’s poker, casino and sports web/app estate (and other player communications channels) – Ensure all areas of the Group’s web estate are up to date and accurate Read Full Job Listing |
| Motion Graphics Designer Design Rational Group, |
– Creation of motion graphics to assist the Rational Group business across all areas – High level creative concept design working in conjunction with the both Digital Animation Manager and Senior Motion Graphics Designer – To have a self-motivated and proactive approach to work – To input creatively and lead the work of project teams as directed by the Digital Animation Manager Read Full Job Listing |
| IT Support Analyst Information Systems & Technology Rational Group, |
– Providing IT service and support to internal staff and consultants. – Provide IT Support to global live events. – Perform endpoint software and hardware servicing and support. – New user account creations, internal transfers and account closures. – Ownership of jobs assigned and keeping our customers up to date. – Contribute and update supporting documentation where necessary. – Provide sufficient information to team members when assigning and escalating jobs. – Manage and maintain backup solutions. – Daily infrastructure checks. – Hardware, software and licensing procurement. Read Full Job Listing |
| Senior Software Developer Information Systems & Technology Rational Group, |
– Attend project kick-off, design and review meetings. – Creative design and architect of scalable backend software components to serve frontend applications across multiple platforms. – Employ best-in-breed software design patterns to support high concurrent number of clients. – Interface and coordinate with team members, including Project/Product management, Creative/Design, QA and technology. – Write clean, documented, reusable, and scalable code for deployment on unix servers. – Maintain a coding skill set consistent with current and upcoming client platform capabilities, sharing knowledge as applicable. – Work at both detailed and abstract levels, solving problems creatively. – Be highly productive, creative and motivated. Read Full Job Listing |
| Mobile & Social Advertising Manager Marketing Services Rational Group, |
– Develop and manage mobile display and paid social marketing campaigns – Define and implement a paid social & mobile strategy for all our properties (mobile app, desktop app & social app) based on direction and guidelines set by Group management – Control assigned pre-approved budgets and devise ways of spending more efficiently – Setting up, managing and constantly optimizing global and local display campaigns across different mobile publishers, networks, ad exchanges and partners to meet CPA based goals – Report on performance – Test creative messaging, landing pages and campaigns to optimise performance continuously – Use data to help drive Group decision making process – Collaborate with teams across the Group to ideate, influence and implement initiatives that will promote the mobile App to current and potential customers – Manage and execute creative process underpinning the advertising strategy. Read Full Job Listing |
| Online Marketing Manager – SEO Marketing Rational Group, |
– Building high quality inbound links to boost and maintain rankings in global markets. – Verifying SEO copy for quality and targeting. – Assisting local content managers in producing content that is optimised for search. – Reporting on local SEO performance as defined by Senior SEO Manager. – Working with internal teams to maximise the link profile of Full Tilt within English Speaking Markets. – Assisting with global analysis and special projects as and when necessary. – Help increase search visibility in Google – Help increase backlink popularity of company’s websites in LATAM region – Working with Link Suppliers – Keyword research – Backlink analyses – Doing SEO friendly onpage changes as approved by Group management – QA new pages before publishing live – Assist in maintaining leading positions in Google Read Full Job Listing |
| Senior Manager – Digital Marketing Services Marketing Rational Group, |
– Help plan, then lead the execution of, approved global display, PPC, mobile and social media advertising campaigns for PokerStars, FullTilt and other Rational Group brands and products – Heading a team of 14 marketing services staff, specialising in digital marketing and media buying – Recommending actions to optimise cross-channel and multi-platform campaigns and Attribution Modelling System – Work with the Digital Analytics Manager to design measurement, tests, and optimization to evaluate and drive success of the digital platform – Establishing communication process between the team, brands and other stakeholders – Work closely with PokerStars’ technology team to ensure best-in-class tracking & measurement processes Read Full Job Listing |
| Art Director – Social Gaming Social Gaming Rational Group, |
– In line with the agreed approach and marketing strategy, establish the overall look and feel of in-game as well as promotional art for the games, including interaction and animations. – Overseeing all design hiring, training, development & resource allocation. – Leading and coaching a diverse team of creative in-house as well as outsourced designers to ensure their outputs consistently match the agreed art style for the game. – Working with the Group Social Gaming Director on an ongoing basis to ensure brand continuity and creative excellence. – Optimising creative processes and workflows, and ensuring on-time delivery of high quality art to development team. – Conception of new ideas and improvements and pitching these to the Director and other department heads. – Being the single point of contact in the team for all matters related to design Read Full Job Listing |
| Game Designer Social Gaming Rational Group, |
– Within the framework of the overall approved direction, strategy and objectives of the games: – Develop and maintain design documentation, including but not limited to mechanics, story, guidelines, UI flows, game loops and progression – Devise systems and balance in-game resources and economy focused on player long term retention and optimizing monetization – Weave free-to-play game mechanics with monetization in simple, natural, respectful ways (i.e. design monetization that players respect and feel adds a great deal of value for their money) – Become a master of FTUEs and create cohesion between all game features – Remain current on industry trends including: new game genres, new game design methods and emerging platforms. Read Full Job Listing |
| User Experience (UX) Manager Social Gaming Rational Group, |
– Provide expertise on user interaction solutions and assist with designing new features for the PokerStars social gaming Desktop and Mobile clients – Work closely with Product and Operations to help design, prototype, and implement game and UI experiences – Creating appealing, user friendly, innovative and crisp user interfaces (e.g. menus, buttons, icons and animation etc.) with a focus on usability and freemium best-practices – Help drive usability and user interface improvements for the existing and future PokerStars social gaming Desktop and Mobile clients – Write detailed specification documents for software development, based on development requests approved by the Director of Social Gaming – Interface with graphics designers, and software developers to assure high quality software is deployed – Take responsibility for the entire cycle of pre approved projects – from inception to final delivery – Act as a player advocate to ensure the highest level of usability, playability, and visual excitement – Investigate player reports about usability issues and prepare recommendations for changes – Assist with other Social related tasks as required. Read Full Job Listing |
Rational Group’s UK office is located in the heart of London, right around the corner from Soho restaurants and across the street from a gym where employees of PokerStars are privy to a membership discount. The company describes its work environment as a place where people work “happily together” with “iPad-steered meeting rooms and coffee machines”.
If you consider yourself “Cool, hip, trendy, fun but hard working,” PokerStars may be the perfect work environment for you.