Design Director

Blackbird Interactive; Vancouver; Remote; CAD 140,000 - 160,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Remote-first workplace

Flexible work arrangements

Job summary

Blackbird Interactive is a remote-first game studio hiring a senior design leader to shape narrative direction, characters, and environmental storytelling. You will collaborate with project leadership and publishing to ensure a cohesive player experience across narrative, gameplay, art, and presentation.

The role emphasizes mentoring a design team, balancing creative ambition with scope and technical constraints, and hands-on contribution to writing and prototyping as needed.

Qualifications

• At least 10 years in game development with 5+ years in leadership roles.
• Experience shipping a narrative-driven or ambitious game with significant creative direction.
• Strong understanding of interactive storytelling, pacing, and player agency.
• Ability to mentor a multidisciplinary design team and maintain quality and consistency.
• Hands-on writing, narrative implementation, or content prototyping experience.

Responsibilities

• Define and reinforce the game's creative vision with project leadership and stakeholders.
• Lead narrative architecture, characters, and environmental storytelling for a cohesive experience.
• Mentor and support the design team to foster a high-quality design culture.
• Collaborate with engineering, art, audio, and production to ensure aligned workflows.
• Provide clear creative direction and feedback to translate vision into shippable content.

Skills

Narrative leadership

Storytelling

Cross-functional collaboration

Communication

Mentoring teams

Tools

Unreal Engine 5

Job description

Blackbird Interactive is a creative-fueled, future-driven, independent game studio where the best talent in the industry can find long-term careers to help grow their abilities while working on a wide range of projects, which encompass world-class IPs as well as our own creations across multiple genres.

Our studio operates as a remote-first workplace, offering flexible work arrangements.

PLEASE NOTE: At this time, we are only able to hire candidates who are legally eligible to work in Canada and reside within Canada.

Responsibilities

• Partner with project leadership and publishing stakeholders to define, reinforce, and execute the creative vision, ensuring alignment across narrative, gameplay, art, audio, and presentation
• Lead the development of the game's narrative, characters, investigative gameplay, and environmental storytelling, ensuring every element supports a cohesive and memorable player experience
• Lead, mentor, and support the design team, fostering a strong design culture focused on quality, collaboration, and accountability
• Collaborate closely with engineering, art, audio, and production to establish effective workflows, drive implementation, and maintain alignment as the project evolves
• Provide clear creative direction and feedback, helping translate high-level vision into polished, shippable content while maintaining quality and consistency across the game
• Identify creative risks, narrative gaps, and production challenges early, partnering with discipline leads to balance creative ambition with scope, schedule, and technical constraints
• Contribute hands-on to writing, narrative implementation, game design, prototyping, and content development as needed, helping unblock the team and drive key features through critical milestones

Requirements

• At least 10 years of experience in game development, including at least 5 years in a creative leadership, narrative leadership, or senior design role
• Hands-on experience developing content in Unreal Engine 5, with confidence using in-engine tools and workflows to prototype, implement, iterate, and polish gameplay features
• Experience shipping at least one narrative-driven or creatively ambitious game with significant responsibility for story, gameplay, or overall creative direction
• Strong understanding of interactive storytelling, narrative pacing, player agency, and how gameplay and presentation work together to create compelling player experiences
• Proven ability to provide creative direction, review content, and maintain quality and consistency across a multidisciplinary team
• Strong communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to align design, narrative, engineering, art, audio, and production around a shared creative vision
• Comfortable contributing hands-on to writing, narrative implementation, game design, prototyping, or content development while balancing creative ambition with scope, schedule, and technical constraints

Pluses

• Passion for crime fiction, investigative storytelling, and grounded, character-driven narrative games
• Appreciation for authentic research and the responsible adaptation of real-world subject matter into interactive storytelling
• Strong instincts for dramatic pacing, mystery, suspense, and player-driven discovery
• Experience working with dialogue systems, cinematic storytelling, performance capture, or branching narrative tools
• Enjoyment of collaborative creative development and helping teams refine ideas through iteration, playtesting, and feedback

$140,000 - $160,000 a year