Lead Designer

31st Union; San Mateo (CA); On-site; USD 128,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Paid holidays

Paid vacation

Sick days

Parental leave

Wellbeing programs

Family planning

Commuter benefits

Fitness reimbursements

Job summary

31st Union is seeking a Lead Designer for our online multiplayer team in California. You will guide a feature team, shape gameplay systems and drive alignment across disciplines to deliver high-quality experiences.

The role emphasizes live-service leadership, player-centric design, and strong collaboration with engineering, art and audio. The ideal candidate brings extensive design leadership, Unreal Engine proficiency, and a track record with multiplayer systems.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of professional game design experience with leadership
• Live-service game or major live-service systems experience
• Designing and leading multiplayer features with system integration
• Theory-crafting for depth in multiplayer gameplay
• Understanding UI, Art, Engineering, Audio, VFX integration
• Strong ability to translate feedback into improvements
• Experience with patterning and player behavior models
• Proficiency with Unreal Engine & Blueprint scripting; coding is a plus

Responsibilities

• Lead a feature team by setting scope, approach and design objectives that meet our overall game goals
• Manage other designers with support, growth and actionable feedback
• Define and set sprint and milestone objectives for your team including tradeoffs and costs
• Evaluate work to identify improvements and plans to implement them
• Collaborate cross-functionally to communicate tradeoffs and dependencies
• Maintain and enforce execution standards for scripting and design in-engine and documentation

Skills

Lead design leadership

Live-service game experience

Multiplayer features design

Unreal Engine & Blueprint

C++ / C# programming

Cross-disciplinary collaboration

Pattern design & player behavior

Tradeoff advocacy

Tools

Unreal Engine

Job description

Who We Are

We are a diverse team of developers driven by a passion for our art, united by our core values and inspired by a culture of inclusivity to build amazing games that thrill players everywhere. We pursue growth and innovation in an environment of safety and trust. Our culture is built on the belief that the more varied voices in our collective will strengthen our team and our games. We are looking for our next teammate who will raise our bar and make us better.

WE ARE GAME MAKERS

We are a diverse team of developers driven by a passion for our art, united by our core values and inspired by a culture of inclusivity to build amazing games that thrill players everywhere. We pursue growth and innovation in an environment of safety and trust. Our culture is built on the belief that the more varied voices in our collective will strengthen our team and our games. We are looking for our next teammate who will raise our bar and make us better.

Who You Are

We’re looking for a Lead Designer to join our team and help us shape the future of online multiplayer gaming. This role will be a key leader on one of our major gameplay pillars to lead the team on day-to-day work, where you will help the vision come to life, align the team around gameplay objectives and ensure how we design meets a high bar of rigor. You have proven expertise in leading mechanics and systems-based teams and features, developing people and building buy-in through strong working relationships across disciplines to bring things into reality. If you have a passion and drive to bring out the best in others, build teams and shepherd a great experience for players, we’d like to hear from you.

What You’ll Do

• Lead a feature team by setting scope, approach and design objectives that meet our overall game goals
• Manage other designers by giving them support, growth and actionable feedback on both what they work on and how they work
• Define and set sprint and milestone objectives for your team - including appropriate tradeoffs, costs, and the right areas of work to focus on
• Evaluate and diagnose work to find improvements and opportunities for improvement - along with plans of how to get there
• Work cross-functionally within and outside of your team to communicate and align on the work, tradeoffs and dependencies. Radiate changes across the organization
• Maintain and enforce good executional standards and practices for scripting and design execution - including in-engine and documentation

What Will Make You a Great Fit

• 8+ years of professional game design experience, including at least 1 year managing, mentoring, and maintaining accountability for multiple designers within a feature team or area on a AAA development team.
• Background in shaping and building a live-service game or major live-service systems from development through launch.
• Proven experience designing and leading multiplayer features that touch multiple systems and need strong integration - such as game mode, characters, economy, progression, etc.
• Theory-crafting skillset & past experience designing for depth and multiplayer gameplay.
• Deep understanding of the various components (UI, Art, Engineering, Audio, VFX, etc.) to ensure gameplay is cohesive and integrated
• Proactive approach that creates movement in the right direction
• Capable of rapidly filtering large volumes of feedback into concrete and useful improvements
• Adept at managing, articulating and advocating for effective tradeoffs
• Well-played in the multiplayer PvP / Competitive Space and able to deconstruct what works and why.
• Capability to abstract designs outside of single solutions into patterns and models of player behavior; providing options and flexible design solutions
• Strong experience with Unreal Engine and Blueprint visual scripting; programming experience (C++, C#, etc.) is a plus.

The pay range for this position in California at the start of employment is expected to be between $127,500 and $190,000 per year. However, base pay offered is based on market location, and may vary further depending on individualized factors for job candidates, such as job-related knowledge, skills, experience, and other objective business considerations.

Subject to those same considerations, the total compensation package for this position may also include other elements, including a bonus and/or equity awards and eligibility to participate in our 401(K) plan and Employee Stock Purchase Program.

Benefits

• medical, dental, vision, and basic life insurance coverage
• 14 paid holidays per calendar year
• paid vacation time per calendar year (ranging from 15 to 25 days) or eligibility to participate in the Company’s discretionary time off program
• up to 10 paid sick days per calendar year
• paid parental and compassionate leave
• wellbeing programs for mental health and other wellness support
• family planning support through Maven
• commuter benefits
• and reimbursements for fitness-related expenses
• Ontario only: The use of Artificial Intelligence is not being used to screen candidates.
• The position is for an existing vacancy.