Principal Encounter Designer, STARCRAFT | Irvine, CA

BLIZZARD ENTERTAINMENT, INC; Irvine (CA); Hybrid; USD 119,000 - 221,000; Full time

Job summary

Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. in Irvine, CA is seeking a Principal Encounter Designer to lead the player combat experience and encounter philosophy for STARCRAFT.

You will collaborate with design, art, and engineering to create readable, challenging, and rewarding encounters across a new story-driven, open-world shooter, with a hybrid work week at our Irvine studio. The role emphasizes mentorship, design reviews, and maintaining high quality, accessibility, and player engagement across

Responsibilities

• Define and champion the player combat experience and encounter philosophy for STARCRAFT.
• Own end-to-end combat encounters, balancing player abilities with enemy behavior and level design.
• Prototype and iterate on combat systems, encounter experiences, and moment-to-moment gameplay.
• Establish design frameworks and best practices to scale across feature teams.
• Mentor designers through reviews and knowledge sharing, ensuring alignment with game goals.

Job description

Team Name:

StarCraft

Job Title:

Principal Encounter Designer, STARCRAFT | Irvine, CA

Requisition ID:

R028143

Job Description:

Your Mission

Blizzard Entertainment is assembling a team to build the next chapter of STARCRAFT, returning to a universe forged in interstellar war. This mission offers something new: crafting an original story-driven, open-world shooter while honoring the legacy of one of Blizzard's most beloved games.

We are here to reignite this universe alongside you. We are here to make STARCRAFT, and it's about damn time.

We are looking for a Principal Encounter Designer to help craft this new game for Blizzard. As a key member of the development team, you will be responsible for defining and championing the player combat experience and encounter philosophy that bring gameplay to life. You will help define not only how players fight, but why every combat situation is compelling, readable, challenging, and rewarding.

This role offers a hybrid work week, with a mix of work-from-home and on-site days, based out of our Irvine studio.

Responsibilities

Priorities can often change in a fast-paced environment like ours, so this role includes, but is not limited to, the following responsibilities:

• Serve as the connective tissue between player combat, enemy combat, and level design disciplines.
• Build and champion the end-to-end combat experience, ensuring player abilities, enemy behaviors, and encounter design come together to create compelling gameplay.
• Design, prototype, and iterate on player combat systems, enemy combat mechanics, encounter experiences, and moment-to-moment gameplay.
• Establish combat and encounter design frameworks, guidelines, and best practices that enable scalable development across multiple feature teams.
• Implement combat encounters that challenge players, encourage mastery, support multiple playstyles, and reinforce progression goals.
• Evaluate gameplay feedback, telemetry, and playtest findings to identify opportunities for improvement in combat feel, pacing, challenge, and engagement.
• Provide expert guidance and mentorship to designers across multiple disciplines through constructive feedback, design reviews, and knowledge sharing.
• Partner with leadership to identify risks, align priorities, and ensure combat initiatives support broader game goals.
• Champion high standards of quality, accessibility, usability, and player experience throughout development.

Minimum Requirements

Experience

• 13+ years of applicable experience demonstrating recognized expertise within combat or gameplay design disciplines.
• Significant professional experience in game design with a strong focus on combat design, gameplay systems design, or related disciplines.
• Experience owning and shipping complex combat features or gameplay systems on large-scale game development teams.
• Demonstrated success leading major gameplay initiatives that required cross-functional collaboration across multiple disciplines.
• Experience developing games for PC, Xbox, and/or PlayStation platforms.
• Proven ability to influence gameplay direction and design decision-making through expertise, communication, and execution.
• Proven ability to work collaboratively within teams and foster productive partnerships across all departments.
• Demonstrated ability to inspire colleagues through an enthusiastic approach to game development and a commitment to continuous improvement of core skills.
• Ability to take initiative and manage responsibilities independently, demonstrating strong ownership and accountability.
• Experienced and knowledgeable player of a wide range of games and able to use that expertise to enhance creative decisions in game development.

Knowledge & Skills

• Comprehensive understanding of combat design principles including pacing, responsiveness, game feel, encounter design, progression, and player mastery.
• Extensive experience creating and balancing combat systems for action-oriented gameplay experiences.
• Expertise with gameplay prototyping, iteration methodologies, tuning workflows, and playtest-driven development.
• Strong understanding of player motivation, engagement, progression systems, and long-term retention through gameplay excellence.
• Experience collaborating with technical teams to translate design goals into robust gameplay implementations.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to clearly articulate design intent and provide actionable feedback.
• Experience using modern game development tools and game engines, including Unreal.
• Deep understanding of game development pipelines and cross-disciplinary production practices.

Key Attributes

• A player-first design mindset grounded in quality and craftsmanship.
• Exceptional problem-solving skills and comfort addressing complex design challenges.
• A collaborative and team-oriented approach to development.
• A passion for mentorship, knowledge sharing, and elevating the craft of game design.
• Strong ownership and accountability for outcomes.
• Adaptability and resilience within a dynamic environment while navigating fluid deadlines and changing priorities with purpose.
• A commitment to fostering an inclusive and respectful development environment.

Extra Points

• Experience designing combat systems for shooter, action, RPG, or other combat-focused game genres.
• Experience designing boss battles, creature combat, progression systems, or large-scale gameplay experiences.
• Experience building and evaluating combat prototypes early in development.
• Prior experience mentoring senior and principal-level designers.
• Experience contributing to the establishment of gameplay direction on new game development efforts.

Your Platform

Best known for iconic video game universes including Warcraft®, Overwatch®, Diablo®, and StarCraft®, Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. (www.blizzard.com), a division of Activision Blizzard, which was acquired by Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), is a premier developer and publisher of entertainment experiences. Blizzard Entertainment has created some of the industry’s most critically acclaimed and genre-defining games over the last 30 years, with a track record that includes multiple Game of the Year awards. Blizzard Entertainment engages tens of millions of players around the world with titles available on PC via Battle.net®, Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, iOS, and Android.

Our World

Activision Blizzard, Inc., is one of the world’s largest and most successful interactive entertainment companies and is at the intersection of media, technology and entertainment. We are home to some of the most beloved entertainment franchises including Call of Duty®, World of Warcraft®, Overwatch®, Diablo®, Candy Crush™ and Bubble Witch™. Our combined entertainment network delights hundreds of millions of monthly active users in 196 countries, making us the largest gaming network on the planet!

Our ability to build immersive and innovate worlds is only enhanced by diverse teams working in an inclusive environment. We aspire to have a culture where everyone can thrive in order to connect and engage the world through epic entertainment. We provide a suite of benefits that promote physical, emotional and financial well-being for ‘Every World’ – we’ve got our employees covered!

The videogame industry and therefore our business is fast-paced and will continue to evolve. As such, the duties and responsibilities of this role may be changed as directed by the Company at any time to promote and support our business and relationships with industry partners.

We love hearing from anyone who is enthusiastic about changing the games industry. Not sure you meet all qualifications? Let us decide! Research shows that women and members of other under-represented groups tend to not apply to jobs when they think they may not meet every qualification, when, in fact, they often do! We are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment and strongly encourage you to apply.

We are committed to working with and providing reasonable assistance to individuals with physical and mental disabilities. If you are a disabled individual requiring an accommodation to apply for an open position, please email your request to [e-mail]. General employment questions cannot be accepted or processed here. Thank you for your interest.

We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status, among other characteristics.

Rewards

We provide a suite of benefits that promote physical, emotional and financial well-being for ‘Every World’ – we’ve got our employees covered! Subject to eligibility requirements, the Company offers comprehensive benefits including:

• Medical, dental, vision, health savings account or health reimbursement account, healthcare spending accounts, dependent care spending accounts, life and AD&D insurance, disability insurance;
• 401(k) with Company match, tuition reimbursement, charitable donation matching;
• Paid holidays and vacation, paid sick time, floating holidays, compassion and bereavement leaves, parental leave;
• Mental health & wellbeing programs, fitness programs, free and discounted games, and a variety of other voluntary benefit programs like supplemental life & disability, legal service, ID protection, rental insurance, and others;
• If the Company requires that you move geographic locations for the job, then you may also be eligible for relocation assistance.

Eligibility to participate in these benefits may vary for part time and temporary full-time employees and interns with the Company. You can learn more by visiting https://www.benefitsforeveryworld.com/.

In the U.S., the standard base pay range for this role is $119,280.00 - $220,700.00 Annual. These values reflect the expected base pay range of new hires across all U.S. locations. Ultimately, your specific range and offer will be based on several factors, including relevant experience, performance, and work location. Your Talent Professional can share this role’s range details for your local geography during the hiring process. In addition to a competitive base pay, employees in this role may be eligible for incentive compensation. Incentive compensation is not guaranteed. While we strive to provide competitive offers to successful candidates, new hire compensation is negotiable.