Lead Systems Designer

Role overview

Lead the systems design discipline for a large-scale game production, balancing team leadership with hands-on ownership of gameplay systems. The role is responsible for delivering high-quality design work on schedule, guiding a small team of Systems Designers, and partnering closely with programming, mission design, project management, and creative leadership to turn design goals into polished in-game experiences.

Responsibilities

- Manage, mentor, coach, and support the career development and performance of Systems Designers; participate in hiring, onboarding, and work assignment. - Design, prototype, implement, iterate, and polish systems such as player mechanics, non-combat features, world simulation, progression, economies, and game balance. - Lead or contribute to cross-disciplinary development pods, working closely with gameplay programmers and other contributors to realize system designs. - Plan systems design schedules, priorities, milestones, dependencies, and staffing in coordination with project management. - Review work in progress, gather feedback, drive iteration, and maintain quality standards and measurable targets across milestones. - Create and maintain clear design documentation, tutorials, standards, and metrics that support consistent systems across the full game experience.

Requirements

- Demonstrated experience leading systems design work for a substantial game project, including responsibility for quality and delivery. - Experience directly managing or supervising designers, including interviewing, training, assigning work, providing feedback, and addressing performance or team issues. - Practical experience designing and iterating gameplay systems through prototypes, internal tools, editors, and scripting workflows. - Strong written, verbal, interpersonal, and cross-functional communication skills, with the ability to build alignment among varied stakeholders. - Intermediate familiarity with level editing tools and scripting in a major game engine or comparable development environment. - Working knowledge of Microsoft Office or similar productivity tools, plus familiarity with a major 3D modeling application such as Maya.

Nice to have

- Experience with Unreal Engine or Unity workflows, including Unreal Blueprint scripting. - Familiarity with Adobe Illustrator. - Experience establishing shared design practices, standards, and processes across multiple teams or projects.

Benefits and work setup

- The work combines people management, creative leadership, and hands-on systems design, with responsibilities adjusted according to production needs. - The role emphasizes collaborative reviews, inclusive brainstorming, continuous improvement, and a supportive team environment.