Senior Combat Designer

Role overview A mobile games studio is hiring a Senior Combat Designer to shape the long-term combat and gameplay experience of a live, top-grossing 4X MMO. The role is highly craft-focused: owning combat design end to end, balancing complex systems, and creating experiences that give millions of players meaningful agency. It blends systems design, live operations, and cross-functional collaboration with designers, product managers, analysts, and engineers.

Responsibilities - Own the design and balance of combat gameplay that supports strategic player decisions across PvE, PvP, and co-op content. - Build and refine novel experiences focused on officers, ship tech, ships, and hostile encounters. - Create systemic combat experiences that foster meaningful player agency and long-term investment. - Use spreadsheets to model combat challenge, economic loops, and progression pacing. - Collaborate with designers, product managers, analysts, and engineers to implement features that push the genre forward. - Evaluate performance using data, player feedback, and hands-on playtesting. - Design for scale by planning long-term content extensibility and system health. - Mentor junior designers and help strengthen combat design across the organization.

Requirements - Deep passion for combat and gameplay design. - 6+ years of experience designing combat and gameplay systems for live, free-to-play games, preferably in MMO, 4X, or strategy genres. - Strong ownership mindset, with the ability to take a feature or content stream from vision through launch to iteration. - Proven track record of delivering features that balance player fun, engagement, and monetization. - Comfort with KPI targets and using data to inform balance or tuning adjustments. - Mastery of spreadsheets and confidence in balancing power curves, pacing, and resource flow. - Experience working cross-functionally in live production environments. - Positive, thoughtful, and collaborative approach to game development.

Nice to have - Experience mentoring or leading junior designers. - Familiarity with SQL, scripting, or simulation tools. - Background in character collection or squad RPG experiences. - Exposure to live ops systems, event design, or server lifecycle planning. - Personal interest in sci-fi, highly strategic social games, or alliance and co-op gameplay at large scale.

Benefits and work setup Hybrid options in Dublin or Barcelona, or remote from London, for candidates who can work in line with the team's hours and location preferences.