Senior Systems Designer

31st Union; Burnaby; On-site; CAD 76,000 - 112,000; Full time

Job summary

2K Sports Lab in Vancouver, BC is seeking an experienced Senior Game Designer who will own large features of hour-to-hour play, partnering with engineers, artists, and producers to realize your vision.

You’ll mentor junior designers, analyze the backlog, and ensure player-driven emergent narratives. The role reports to the Lead Designer, with a focus on authentic sports player journeys.

Qualifications

• Experience as a Senior Game Designer in AAA sports games.
• Proven mentoring ability for design staff.
• Strong focus on player-driven emergent narrative and systemic design.

Responsibilities

• Be the Product Owner for large features of the hour-to-hour play.
• Prototype, iterate, and prove the vision by deep knowledge of target players and market.
• Lead the design of your game area with engineers, artists, and producers to realize the vision.
• Translate the vision into feature designs with the Design Director and coordinate with QA for testing.
• Evaluate progress and game quality; collaborate on execution plans with design and production teams.
• Champion the player experience and maintain the players' perspective in decisions.
• Maintain and prioritize the backlog; mentor junior designers and grow the team.

Skills

Senior Game Designer

5+ years experience

Mentoring designers

Player-driven narrative

Sports games

Job description

Who We Are

Founded in 2023, 2K Sports Lab is the newest stand alone studio at 2K looking to push game development boundaries to bring 2K’s next groundbreaking sports franchise to life. We’re building a world-class team at our new Vancouver, BC location where our goal is to deliver an exceptional experience through bold ideas, technical excellence, and creative collaboration. We’re seeking passionate and driven professionals across all areas of game development to help shape this ambitious vision. If you’re interested in tackling unique challenges and think you have what it takes to level up our team, we encourage you to apply!

What We Need

Our studio is looking for an experienced Senior Game Designer who has a high quality bar and a passion for creating memorable and authentic sporting player journeys. The Senior Game Designer will produce feature designs for our hour-to-hour play and partner with other designers and disciplines to champion the production of said features. The Senior Game Designer will report to the Lead Designer.

What You’ll Do

• Be the ‘Product Owner’ for large features of the ‘hour-to-hour’ play
• Acquire an intimate knowledge of our target player, our product goals, and our competitive landscape to prototype, iterate, and prove the vision
• Lead the vision and craft the design of your game area while collaborating with Engineers, Animators, Artists, and Producers to steer the execution of your vision.
• Work with the ‘Design Director’ to to translate the vision into feature designs and collaborate with the QA team to drive testing of the game experience
• Evaluate progress and game quality and work with the design and production team on execution plans
• Champion the player experience, bringing the players perspective to all decision making
• Consistently analyze the software by adding to, grooming and prioritizing the backlog
• Mentor junior design team members and help grow the team

What Will Make You A Great Fit

• Experience as a Senior Systems Designer (5+ years) in the AAA gaming space
• Passion for Sports and Sports Video Games
• Experience in mentoring other designers
• Appetite for taking on ‘Game Area Owner’ responsibilities (front-to-back development partner)
• Passion for and knowledge of how to create ‘player driven/emergent narrative’ and systemic design

The pay range for this position in British Columbia at the start of employment is expected to be between CAD $75,700 and CAD $112,060 per year. However, base pay offered is based onmarket location, and may vary further depending on individualized factors for job candidates,suchas job-related knowledge, skills, experience, and other objective business considerations.

Subject to those same considerations, the total compensation package for this position may alsoinclude other elements, including a bonus and/or equity awards and eligibility to participate in our401(K) plan and Employee Stock Purchase Program.

Regular, full-time employees are also eligible for a range of benefits at the Company, including: medical, dental, vision, and basic life insurance coverage; 14 paid holidays per calendar year; paid vacation time per calendar year (ranging from 15 to 25 days) or eligibility to participate in the Company’s discretionary time off program; up to 10 paid sick days per calendar year; paid parental and compassionate leave; wellbeing programs for mental health and other wellness support; family planning support through Maven; commuter benefits; and reimbursements for fitness-related expenses.

As an equal opportunity employer, we are committed to ensuring that individuals with disabilities are provided suitable accommodations to enjoy equal employment opportunities, including the ability to participate in the job application or interview process. Please contact us if you need an accommodation as part of your application process or otherwise have questions about the Company’s accommodation policy and review process.

Please note that 2K Games and its studios never uses instant messaging apps or personal email accounts to contact prospective employees or conduct interviews and when emailing, only use 2K.com accounts.

As an equal opportunity employer, we are committed to ensuring that individuals with disabilities are provided suitable accommodations to enjoy equal employment opportunities, including the ability to participate in the job application or interview process, . Please contact us if you need an accommodation as part of your application process or otherwise have questions about the Company’s accommodation policy and review process.

Please be aware that 2K does not conduct job interviews or make job offers over third-party messaging apps such as Telegram, WhatsApp, or others. 2K also does not engage in any financial exchanges during the recruitment or onboarding process, and will never ask a candidate for their personal or financial information over an app or other unofficial chat channel. Any attempt to do so may be the result of a scam or phishing attack, and you should not engage. 2K’s in-house recruitment team will only contact individuals through their official Company email addresses (i.e., via a 2k.com email domain).

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