Lead Narrative Designer

Electronic Arts; Guildford; Hybrid; GBP 50,000 - 75,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Healthcare coverage

Mental well-being support

Paid time off

Family leaves

Complimentary games

Job summary

Electronic Arts is seeking a Lead Narrative Designer for a temporary full-time role in Guildford. This position involves driving narrative content for the Battlefield team, ensuring a cohesive player experience through leadership and collaboration.

Ideal candidates will have over 5 years of experience in narrative design with AAA titles. Responsibilities include defining narrative vision, implementing dialogue systems, and mentoring team members. Competitive benefits and a hybrid work model available.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience in Narrative Design with AAA titles.
• Strong understanding of narrative structure and character development.
• Experience implementing narrative content in game engines.

Responsibilities

• Define and uphold narrative vision and goals.
• Design and prototype narrative systems and dialogue.
• Manage narrative priorities and ensure timely delivery.

Skills

Narrative Design

Interactive Storytelling

Dialogue Systems

Leadership

Communication

FPS/Action Experience

Tools

Unreal Engine

Unity

Jira

Confluence

Frostbite

Perforce

Job description

Locations: Guildford, Surrey, United Kingdom

Role ID: 214170

Worker Type: Temporary - with Benefits (EU & Malaysia)

Studio/Department:

Work Model: Hybrid

Description & Requirements

Role Overview

This is a temporary full-time position for 14 months to cover parental leave. We are seeking an experienced Lead Narrative Designer to join the Battlefield team on a fixed-term basis to provide maternity leave cover. In this role, you will partner closely with cross-discipline teams to drive the implementation and delivery of narrative content, ensuring a cohesive, immersive player experience that aligns with Battlefield's tone, lore, and gameplay pillars.

Key Responsibilities

Narrative Leadership

Define, champion, and uphold the narrative vision, tone, and storytelling goals across the game. Lead and mentor a small team of narrative designers, providing clear direction, feedback, and support to maintain consistency and high-quality standards across all narrative content.

Narrative Systems Design

Design, prototype, and iterate on narrative systems, including dialogue frameworks, branching logic, environmental storytelling, in-world messaging, and interactive narrative moments. Ensure seamless integration of narrative with gameplay systems, UI, and player progression.

Dialogue Implementation

Own the end-to-end implementation of dialogue content within the game engine. This includes structuring conversations, setting up branching flows and conditions, integrating VO assets, and implementing triggers, volumes, and state-driven logic. Collaborate with audio and cinematic teams to ensure performances are correctly hooked up, timed, and contextually responsive to gameplay. Maintain clarity, scalability, and performance of dialogue systems across single-player and multiplayer contexts where applicable.

Cross-Discipline Collaboration

Work closely with level design, gameplay, art, audio, and cinematic teams to embed narrative meaningfully into all aspects of the player experience. Advocate for narrative needs during development and ensure storytelling opportunities are maximised without compromising gameplay.

Documentation & Communication

Create and maintain clear, detailed narrative documentation, including system designs, implementation workflows, VO pipelines, and Confluence pages. Communicate narrative intent effectively across disciplines to ensure alignment and efficient execution.

Iteration & Feedback

Continuously refine narrative content based on playtests, team feedback, and production needs. Conduct regular reviews to ensure narrative cohesion, pacing, and emotional impact throughout development milestones.

Planning & Delivery

Manage narrative priorities and workload, ensuring timely delivery of assets in line with project milestones. Identify risks, dependencies, and opportunities, and communicate progress clearly to project leadership.

Experience & Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience in Narrative Design, with at least 1–2 shipped AAA titles in a Senior or Lead capacity (FPS/action experience preferred)
• Strong understanding of interactive storytelling, narrative structure, and character development
• Hands-on experience implementing narrative content in game engines (e.g. Unreal, Unity, Frostbite)
• Familiarity with production tools and pipelines (e.g. Jira, Confluence, Perforce)
• Experience designing and implementing branching dialogue and narrative systems
• Proven leadership and mentorship skills, with the ability to guide and develop others
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Ability to work both independently and collaboratively in a fast-paced, iterative environment
• Passion for military action storytelling and familiarity with the Battlefield franchise

Benefits

We adopt a holistic approach to our benefits programs, emphasizing physical, emotional, financial, career, and community wellness to support a balanced life. Our packages are tailored to meet local needs and may include healthcare coverage, mental well-being support, retirement savings, paid time off, family leaves, complimentary games, and more. We nurture environments where our teams can always bring their best to what they do.

Electronic Arts is an equal opportunity employer. All employment decisions are made without regard to race, color, national origin, ancestry, sex, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, genetic information, religion, disability, medical condition, pregnancy, marital status, family status, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. We will also consider employment qualified applicants with criminal records in accordance with applicable law. EA also makes workplace accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities as required by applicable law.