Apex Legends: Senior Competitive Systems Designer

HellaGoodAudio; West Chatsworth (CA); On-site; USD 128,000 - 191,000; Full time

Job summary

Respawn is seeking a Senior Systems Designer – Competitive Systems to help shape how players compete in Apex Legends. You will design and evolve systems that support Ranked, matchmaking, competitive progression, leaderboards, scoring, rewards, and new ways for players to test their skill.

You will work across Design, Product Management, Analytics, UX, Engineering, Production, and other partner teams to create competitive experiences that feel fair, understandable, motivating, and rewarding for

Qualifications

• 5+ years of professional game design experience owning progression, scoring, competitive structures, or live-service features.
• Experience designing Ranked modes, rating systems, ladders, tournaments, and other competitive systems.
• Familiarity with MMR, skill-rating systems, matchmaking constraints, and competitive matchmaking concepts.
• Proven track record of taking features from concept through implementation, scripting, technical prototyping, tuning, launch, and live iteration.
• Strong implementation skills including text scripting and ability to create prototypes using in-house tools and platform.
• Deep understanding of complex multiplayer systems, live-service needs, and player motivations, with the ability to reason about skill, progression, incentives, fairness, and player perception.
• Strong analytical skills and comfort using data to evaluate design problems and outcomes.
• Strong communication and cross-disciplinary collaboration skills across Engineering, Analytics, UX, Product, and Production.

Responsibilities

• Design and own major competitive systems for Apex Legends, including Ranked progression, matchmaking-related features, scoring, and competitive rewards for both seasonal, annual and lifetime career cycles.
• Develop new competitive formats, limited-time modes, and structured competition beyond Ranked play.
• Define competitive goals, rules, progression, eligibility, and recognition to motivate players across all skill levels.
• Partner with Matchmaking, Analytics, Anti-Cheat, and Esports to ensure match quality, integrate integrity systems to deter abuse, and connect in-game competitive structures to ALGS and professional pathways.
• Balance competitive accuracy with queue times, accessibility, social play, and long-term engagement.
• Use telemetry, feedback, and live-service learnings to define metrics, evaluate outcomes, and iterate on features.
• Collaborate across UX, Matchmaking, Analytics, Anti-Cheat, Engineering, Esports, and Community teams to align on design intent, ensure competitive integrity, evaluate player outcomes, and support cross-functional goals.
• Prototype, implement, tune, and support features throughout development and live service operations.

Skills

Progression design

Ranked systems

Live-service features

Data-driven design

Cross-functional collaboration

Job description

Respawn is seeking a Senior Systems Designer – Competitive Systems to help shape how players compete in Apex Legends. You will design and evolve systems that support Ranked, matchmaking, competitive progression, leaderboards, scoring, rewards, and new ways for players to test their skill.

You will work across Design, Product Management, Analytics, UX, Engineering, Production, and other partner teams to create competitive experiences that feel fair, understandable, motivating, and rewarding for