EY-Parthenon - Strategy and Execution - Corporate and Growth Strategy - Media and Gaming - Director

The opportunity

EY-Parthenon’s unique combination of transformative strategy, transactions and corporate finance delivers real-world value – solutions that work in practice, not just on paper. Benefiting from EY’s full spectrum of services, we’ve reimagined strategic consulting to work in a world of increasing complexity.

With deep functional and sector expertise, paired with innovative AI-powered technology and an investor mindset, we partner with CEOs, Boards, Private Equity and Governments every step of the way – enabling you to shape your future with confidence.

The interactive media and gaming industry is being reshaped by device-agnostic player behavior, rising content costs, and the shift of platform value toward franchise depth and developer experience. Operating models built for a prior era are straining to keep up, and clients need partners who can reframe the questions, not just answer them. Within our practice, you will join a team that pairs deep sector fluency with EY-Parthenon's broader strategy, transactions, and corporate finance capabilities to help studios, publishers, platforms, and investors place bolder, better-informed bets. You will develop your career through high-impact engagements, exposure to industry leaders, and a culture that prizes original thinking over playbooks.

Your key responsibilities

Within EY-Parthenon’s Strategy and Execution - Corporate and Growth Strategy – Interactive Media and Gaming practice, Directors will own engagement delivery end-to-end across the issues shaping the industry: long-range growth and portfolio strategy, M&A and investment diligence, content and live-services monetization, platform and storefront economics, franchise extension, operating model transformations, and more. You will be accountable for the quality of the answer, the strength of the client relationship, and the development of the team, and you will be expected to bring a point of view on where the industry is heading that shapes how engagements are scoped and sold. 

Skills and attributes for success

• Lead end-to-end delivery of complex gaming engagements, translating ambiguous client problems into structured workplans, hypotheses, and answers that hold up to senior client scrutiny.
• Own the client relationship at the senior executive level, acting as the day-to-day strategic counterpart to C-suite, Board, and investor stakeholders across publishers, platforms, studios, and PE.
• Drive business development by building proposals and converting client conversations into sold work, contributing directly to the practice’s growth.
• Form and defend a differentiated point of view on the gaming industry's trajectory and use it to shape engagement scope, client dialogue, and thought leadership.
• Build, coach, and retain the next generation of Interactive Media and Gaming talent at the Associate, Senior Associate, and Consultant levels, raising the bar on both analytical rigor and industry fluency.

To qualify for the role, you must have

• A bachelor's degree with outstanding academic performance and at least 5 years of related work experience; or a graduate degree and approximately 3 years of related work experience.
• Direct, substantive experience in the interactive media and gaming sector, through prior strategy consulting work, in-house roles at a publisher, developer, platform, or investor, or a combination, sufficient to lead senior client conversations credibly from day one with limited ramp-up.
• A track record of leading engagement teams and owning delivery quality, scope, and client outcomes on complex strategy, transaction, or transformation work.
• Genuine investment in gaming, evidenced by ongoing engagement with the games, platforms, and communities the sector revolves around rather than professional exposure alone.
• Strong organization and time-management skills, with the discipline to deliver high-quality work under pressure and to project deadlines across multiple concurrent engagements.
• Proficiency in English, including the ability to listen, read, and communicate clearly and persuasively in writing and verbally in a professional environment, including at the C-suite and Board level.
• You must either reside in or be in a commutable distance to your office location for this position.
• The ability and willingness to travel and work in excess of standard hours when necessary. In certain circumstances, travel may be required beyond your work location based on client and project needs.

Ideally, you will have

• An MBA with two years of related experience, or a graduate degree with at least five years of related experience, ideally focused on client advisory, strategic planning, or corporate development within a professional services or operating environment serving interactive media and gaming clients.
• A track record of transformative rather than incremental thinking, with examples of having reframed a client or company strategy rather than simply optimizing the existing one.
• Established relationships and credibility within the gaming ecosystem (publishers, studios, platforms, investors, industry bodies) that can be activated for business development and thought leadership.
• Excellent problem-solving, project management, facilitation, and interpersonal skills, with the ability to lead multi-workstream engagements and senior client conversations in a fast-paced environment.
• Knowledge of how to leverage firm-approved AI tools in a business setting, including Microsoft Copilot.

What we look for

We are looking for Directors who can lead Interactive Media and Gaming engagements with both authority and curiosity: transformative thinkers who genuinely care about the future of gaming, bring deep subject-matter knowledge that lets them engage senior gaming clients with minimal ramp-up, and have the intellectual humility to keep learning from the best operators, creators, and investors in the space. Strong analytical skills and the ability to link business strategy to performance are table stakes. What sets candidates apart is the ability to own client relationships, shape sold work and develop a team while pushing our collective.