Senior Game Designer

Sports Interactive (SI); Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 70,000 - 90,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Private Healthcare

Dental Plans

Gym Memberships

Travel Insurance

Mental health support

On-site therapist

Free SEGA games access

Pension scheme

London Living Wage

Disability Confident employer

Job summary

Sports Interactive is seeking aSenior Game Designer to own feature design for Football Manager projects and drive quality from concept through delivery. You will work with stakeholders across design, UI/UX, narrative and engineering to create depth, balance and authentic simulations.

The role requires proactive leadership, strong communication and a passion for football. You will contribute to a culture of design excellence while mentoring peers in a hybrid studio setting in London.

Qualifications

• Systems-driven design with balance, depth and sim-heavy gameplay.
• Autonomous, proactive and able to drive features across teams.
• Excellent written and verbal communication for collaboration with Designers, Engineers, Artists and Producers.
• Able to interpret data and player feedback to inform design decisions.
• Passion for football and Football Manager knowledge.
• Strong game design and UX understanding for PC-first experiences.
• Attention to detail and methodical design approach.
• Experience shipping a commercial title and mentoring.
• Experience with Unity or similar tools.
• Proficient with Excel and data balancing tools.
• Experience with Miro, PowerPoint and Atlassian (Confluence, Jira).
• Computer science or game design educational background beneficial.

Responsibilities

• Own and design engaging gameplay features and systems from concept to release.
• Define feature goals, player experience, constraints and success criteria.
• Collaborate with UI/UX and Narrative Designers on proposals and definitions.
• Produce high-quality documentation and champion features with cross-functional teams.
• Identify design risks and propose improvements.
• Contribute to the game vision and roadmap with leadership.
• Define and deliver qualitative design methodologies like testing and analytics.
• Implement content, tooling, and balance in Unity when required.
• Mentor less experienced designers through feedback and reviews.
• Evaluate features using player feedback and telemetry for future improvements.

Skills

Systems-driven design

Cross-disciplinary collaboration

Communication skills

Data-informed design

Football knowledge

UX/Design principles

Mentoring

Unity experience

Excel

Atlassian tools

Education

Computer science background

Tools

Unity

Job description

Founded in 1994, Sports Interactive became a wholly owned subsidiary of SEGA Europe in 2006. Based at the Here East technology hub in Stratford, East London, the SI team continues to expand as we bring our titles to an ever-growing audience across an increasing variety of platforms.

To support our growth, we welcome the opportunity to connect with passionate people with the drive to match our ambitions and initiative to realise your individual potential.

Job Title: Senior Game Designer

Team: Design

Working Model: Hybrid 2-3 days in studio

Location: Here East, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, London, E15 2GW

Position Overview

Sports Interactive are looking for a talented Senior Game Designer to join the studio and work on the Football Manager franchise.

As a Senior Game Designer, you will be responsible for taking ownership of and driving the latest feature designs for Football Manager projects, coordinating with stakeholders to ensure quality throughout development. Typical activities will include defining features, systems and interfaces; aiming to feed our football simulation with more quality, depth and authenticity.

You will join an ambitious and passionate team who care deeply about delivering an outstanding Football Manager experience for our players. As a Senior member of the team, you will exemplify design excellence and delivery.

The ideal candidate will be a pro-active, self-motivated, and creative individual, with outstanding communication skills, solid design methodology, and the ability to drive features from inception to delivery at pace within a cross-disciplinary team.

Key Responsibilities

• Own and design engaging, complex gameplay features and systems from concept to release to deliver the highest quality Football Manager experience.
• Define feature goals, player experience, constraints, and success criteria in collaboration with design and creative leadership.
• Collaborate closely with UI/UX and Narrative Designers on feature proposals and definition.
• Produce and maintain high quality documentation and champion upcoming design features with Production, Engineering, QA and Communications teams.
• Pro-actively identify design risks and opportunities, proposing solutions and improvements.
• Contribute to the wider game vision, proposing key ideas and game improvements to creative leadership to help shape the feature roadmap.
• Collaborate with design leadership in defining and delivering qualitative design methodologies such as test plans, prototyping, user-testing, analytics and iterative development.
• Implement content, define tooling requirements, tune data and help balance systems directly in Unity when required.
• Mentor and support less experienced designers through feedback, reviews and knowledge sharing.
• Evaluate released features using player feedback, telemetry and internal reviews, identify opportunities for future improvements.

Knoledge, Skills and Experience

• Systems-driven game designer who has an appreciation for complexity, depth, and simulation-heavy topics, with a strong understanding of balance, progression and emergent gameplay.
• Autonomous and proactive, capable of driving feature quality and alignment across distributed cross-disciplinary teams.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills for effective collaboration with other Designers, Software Engineers, Artists, Animators, QA and Producers.
• Comfortable interpreting quantitative data and player feedback to inform design decisions.
• Passionate about both football and video game development, with good knowledge of Football Manager.
• Strong understanding of game design and UX principles for PC-first experiences.
• Exceptional attention to detail and a methodical approach to design.
• Experience shipping at least one commercial title through a full development cycle, ideally within simulation or systems-heavy genres.
• Experience within a ‘Senior’ role including mentorship and/or people management would be beneficial.
• Experience working with modern game development tools and engines such as Unity or similar.
• Advanced proficiency with Excel and other data-driven analysis and balancing tools.
• Proficient with Miro, PowerPoint and the Atlassian suit (Confluence, Jira, Jira Product Discovery).
• Computer science, game design or other relevant educational background would be beneficial.

Benefits of Working at Sports Interactive:

• Private Healthcare and Dental Plans.
• A range of Gym Membership options through our Benefits partners.
• Travel Insurance for yourself and your family.
• Subsidised mental health, therapy, and coaching sessions are available.
• Access to our on-site physical and massage therapist services.
• Free access to games released under the SEGA Europe umbrella.
• Contributory Pension Scheme (up to 7% of annual salary).
• Regular events in collaboration with our partnered football clubs.
• Free onsite evening bar in our London HQ.
• A well-stocked breakfast bar with cereals, fruits, teas, and coffees.
• Multiple clubs and societies to join e.g., book club and art workshops.
• Your club’s shirt personalised upon passing probation.
• Trophies & gift cards for length of service milestones.
• Cupcakes delivered on your birthday.

What is it like to work here?

We approach everything with passion, whether that is making our mark on the football industries or doing our bit for the world around us. We want to share that outlook with everyone who shows up to work here each day.

For us, talent wins games, but teamwork wins titles. All our roles require a level of Studio attendance to help us collaborate effectively and stay connected as a team. Collaboration is the key to constantly topping our best. Everyone's contribution counts, no matter which part of the business you are in. We encourage and support our people in driving your own growth and realising your full potential. But, more than anything else, we are a team. A team with a down-to-earth dynamic, that has a lot of fun doing what we do.

And whether that’s technical tweaks or fine-tuning our creative process, everything is geared at producing the best game possible for our players. To do that, we need to be tenacious and ambitious and not be afraid of switching things up. It is these principles that have enabled us to produce a game that has defined year after year, and that will continue to push us for many more to come.

We’re also a London Living Wage employer and boast one of the lowest staff turnover rates in the industry.

We are proud to be an equal opportunities employer and encourage applications from any relevant candidate irrespective of sex, race, disability, age, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy or maternity, religion, or belief.

SI is proudly a Disability Confident Committed employer, and we are dedicated to ensuring our recruitment process is inclusive and accessible. Our studio has disabled access and facilities but please ensure you advise us if you require any other reasonable adjustments to be made to support you during the recruitment process.

Our Values:

• Keep collaborating: Teamwork wins titles - Here, ideas belong to everyone, whatever department you’re part of. Collaboration lets us score more as a team than we could individually.
• Be flexible: We think fast and adapt faster. The football and entertainment worlds never stand still, so we keep progressing and switching things up to stay ahead.
• Stay Tenacious: We don’t overlook the details. Everything we do is about producing the best game possible, in other words, never settle.
• Show Ambition: Let your drive lead the way - Your individual outlook can give everyone the edge. Make the studio’s purpose personal and let your drive lead the way.
• Bring the Passion: Have fun doing your thing - Don’t be fooled, what we do is not a game. Making our players’ passion come to life is our passion.
• Consider the Bigger Picture: Keep things in perspective - We want our impact to be a positive one. From built-in work/life balance to initiatives covering the most important topics of today, we have what matters in focus.