Engineering Gaming Design Engineer Remote (US)

Herd Security; Northern (KY); Remote; USD 110,000 - 170,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

Health benefits

Unlimited PTO

WFH stipend

Job summary

Herd Security is an agentic AI creative platform transforming security training into engaging, game-like experiences. You will lead the gamification of the Herd platform, designing systems and building them to turn security learning into a voluntary, compelling activity.

This role emphasizes end-to-end ownership, collaboration with the content engine, and measurable engagement outcomes such as retention and completion rates.

Qualifications

• Must have shipped gamified or game-like features in a production product.
• Strong intuition for game feel, pacing and reward timing.
• Comfort with analytics and experimentation to drive iteration.

Responsibilities

• Design progression systems (levels, XP, badges, seasons).
• Build leaderboards, team challenges, and social mechanics.
• Develop reward loops and economy systems for learners and business sustainability.
• Collaborate with content generation engine to slot microlessons into game-like formats.
• Analyze engagement metrics and iterate based on data.

Skills

TypeScript

Next.js

Tailwind

Node

PostgreSQL

Gamified features

Analytics

Ownership

AI tools

Tools

GitHub Copilot

Cursor

Claude

Job description

Herd Security is an agentic AI creative platform built for continuous security training and simulation. Founded in 2025, Herd helps organizations move beyond once-a-year compliance checkboxes, replacing static programs with dynamic curricula that evolve alongside emerging threats without adding operational overhead. Security and GRC teams use the platform as a creative partner to translate practitioner expertise into compelling content and deploy it across the channels employees frequently use, including Slack, Teams, and LMS. When a new threat surfaces, the platform enables organizations to shift from IT tickets or vendor requests to iterative microlessons delivered the same day. This puts the people behind security back at the center, empowering practitioner expertise, making awareness more habitual, and using every interaction to fuel a feedback loop that strengthens the human layer of defense.

Position Overview

We are looking for a Gaming Design Engineer to lead the gamification of the Herd platform. Security awareness has an engagement problem: most people complete it under duress and forget it immediately. Our thesis is that continuous security training can be genuinely fun (something employees opt into rather than endure) if it borrows from the design language of great consumer games and learning products like Duolingo, Habitica, and mobile free-to-play mechanics. You will be the person who makes that thesis real, designing the systems and build them.

Responsibilities

• Design progression systems, including levels, streaks, XP, badges, and seasonal content, that reward learning without trivializing the security subject matter
• Build leaderboards, team-based challenges, and social mechanics that tap into organizational culture without creating toxic competition
• Develop reward loops and economy systems that feel generous to learners while remaining economically sustainable to the business
• Collaborate with the agentic content generation engine to ensure generated microlessons slot cleanly into game-like formats (quests, missions, threat-response challenges, etc.)
• Design game mechanics that reinforce the feedback loop at the heart of the platform, turning every learner interaction into a signal that strengthens future content
• Instrument and analyze engagement metrics (retention, session length, completion rates) and iterate on mechanics based on what the data actually shows, not what you hoped would happen
• Partner with customer-facing teams to understand how security leaders want to motivate their workforce, and translate that into configurable game mechanics

Required Qualifications

• Full-stack engineering capability, with proficiency in TypeScript and comfort working across frontend (Next.js, Tailwind) and backend (Node, PostgreSQL) layers
• Demonstrated experience designing and shipping gamified or game-like features in a production product, whether in games, edtech, fitness, consumer apps, or elsewhere
• Strong intuition for game feel: pacing, feedback, reward timing, and the difference between mechanics that engage and mechanics that manipulate
• Comfort with analytics and experimentation: you treat engagement metrics as inputs to iteration, not scoreboards
• Ability to take ownership of features end-to-end, from pitch to design to implementation to measurement
• Proficiency with AI-assisted development tools (e.g., GitHub Copilot, Cursor, Claude) as part of your regular workflow

Preferred Qualifications

• Background in game development, whether at a game studio or as a serious hobbyist
• Experience with learning products, behavior change apps, or any product where engagement is the core metric
• Familiarity with behavioral psychology, self-determination theory, or adult learning principles
• Experience designing for enterprise contexts, where admin configurability and cultural sensitivity matter
• Background in the security industry or security-related products
• Prior experience at early-stage startups
• Equity
• Health, dental, vision, and life benefits
• Unlimited PTO
• WFH Stipend
• Opportunity to define an entirely new product surface area
• Direct impact on a small, focused team with minimal process overhead