Lead Game Designer

TN United Kingdom; Oxford; Hybrid; GBP 50,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

An established industry player is seeking an experienced Lead Game Designer to guide a talented team on an exciting unannounced project. This role offers a unique opportunity to shape the development process from the ground up. With a focus on leadership and mentorship, you will inspire your team to deliver high-quality gameplay experiences. The position provides flexibility with hybrid working options, alongside a comprehensive benefits package, including relocation assistance. Join a creative and dynamic environment where your contributions will be valued and celebrated!

Benefits

Private Medical Insurance

Life Assurance

Enhanced Family Leave

Interest Free Loans

Enhanced Pension Scheme

Mental Health Support

Discounts and Freebies

Social Events

Qualifications

• Extensive knowledge of people management best practices.
• Expert knowledge of the video game development process.

Responsibilities

• Lead and inspire a team of Designers with best practice management techniques.
• Collaborate with Design Directors to balance creative vision with production realities.

Skills

People Management

Game Development Process

Production Pipelines

Prototyping

Job description

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For 30 years we’ve been independently developing and publishing incredible video games at our multiple studios founded by Jason & Chris Kingsley, but Rebellion is more than just games. We have our own film and mo-cap studio, we create board games, publish books, and through 2000AD, publish comics and graphic novels such as the amazing Judge Dredd.

We are seeking an experienced Lead Game Designer with exceptional leadership and people management skills to guide our talented team on an unannounced project. This role offers a fantastic opportunity to help shape the development right from the very start.

Your role is to lead, inspire and develop your team and mentor designers in all aspects of their role, whilst overseeing the work of the project design team. Your focus is to lead a team of Designers to deliver a high-quality gameplay experience in line with project direction.

This exciting hybrid opportunity can be based out of either of our studios in Oxford or Warwick studios. offering flexibility, collaboration, and the chance to work with a world-class team! We can provide a relocation package, including moving assistance, temporary accommodation, and full support to ensure a smooth transition to your new environment.

We believe in the power of face-to-face collaboration and encourage working from our studios. However, we understand that flexibility matters, so we’re open to discussing hybrid options based on individual needs.

Responsibilities:

• Lead and inspire a team of Designers with best practice people management techniques.
• Proactively manage your team’s performance and professional development through performance review cycles giving constructive, actionable, relevant feedback.
• Collaborate with Design Directors and the Production team to balance creative vision with the production realities.
• Oversee the work of a project design team and mentor designers in all aspects of their role.
• Regularly review your team's work against the design brief and provide actionable feedback to make improvements, incorporating appropriate feedback from key stakeholders.
• Verify the quality of design in the game, give feedback to designers and suggest improvements where necessary to fit technical constraints and artistic direction. Ensure correct documentation workflows and process are followed throughout the project lifecycle.
• Plan and conduct gameplay evaluations with the Design Director, and the team providing feedback and suggestions to help fine tune and improve the game.
• Be an active mentor and role model for the Design team. Work to maintain morale, create an atmosphere of creativity, enthusiasm and inspiration.

Requirements

• Extensive knowledge of people management best practices.
• Broad business knowledge of the company structure, operations and strategy.
• Willingness and ability to deliver high quality results using tools and processes required to get the job done.
• Expert knowledge of the video game development process, including working in a timely / time-bound manner, and prototyping/iterating appropriately within that restriction.
• Excellent knowledge of production pipelines.

We offer an extensive benefits package to our team including:

• 22 days holidays + Christmas closure (typically 4 days) & Bank holidays (increasing with service at 5 years – one day each year until you reach 31 days)
• Private Medical Insurance, healthcare cash plan, including dental and Vision
• Life Assurance, Income Protection & Critical Illness Cover
• Enhanced Family Leave
• Interest Free, Tax-Free loans
• Enhanced Pension Scheme
• EAP a range of Mental Health and Wellbeing Support
• Plus loads more… including a wide range of discounts, freebies, and social events!

Life at Our Oxford HQ

Our riverside headquarters in Oxford places you a short walk away from the city centre. Renowned for its rich historical backdrop and esteemed educational institutions, Oxford offers a unique blend of tradition and modernity, with its beautiful architecture and green spaces.

Oxford also boasts excellent transport links, making it easy to navigate both the city and the wider country. The city’s train station, just a short walk from our studio, offers frequent services to London, as well as direct routes to major cities like Birmingham, Manchester, and Reading and we also offer free parking at the studio.

Our open-plan office promotes teamwork and innovation, with regular interaction with senior management and other departments, alongside access to free hot drinks, a handy tuck shop onsite and a range of local pubs, cafes and dining options nearby helping make every workday enjoyable!

Whichever team you join at Rebellion we are proud of our open, friendly, and creative atmosphere. We love what we do, and we have fun doing it! As a big indie developer, we have complete creative freedom over our titles which allows us to work on a massive variety of projects across all the major platforms.

Find out more about us here

Our size, stability, and the variety of in-house expertise across multiple industries, makes Rebellion completely unique! We work in our own way, and we celebrate that as the key to our success. We foster an inclusive culture where you are encouraged to be yourself, to express your creativity and your talent. We are people focused and will support you in every way to can be the best at what you do. We recognise the importance of enjoying what you do and having a healthy work-life balance. We offer a friendly, creative, and relaxed working atmosphere, with sensibly managed projects and a wide variety of benefits and development opportunities for all our teams to ensure you are fully supported with your physical and Mental Well-being.

We are actively recruiting for a diverse team and continue to add to our culture of growth and inclusion. Rebellion encourages innovation in all areas, and we look forward to hearing how you can help us to be better. We encourage all demographics of culture, gender, ethnicity, neurodiversity and beyond, because a representative team makes better products.

If you are interested in working at Rebellion, but this role doesn’t sound quite like you, we’re recruiting for a range of positions across the studio and we’re always happy to receive speculative applications via our website. Visit our Careers website to view all our live vacancies: Rebellion: Careers