Senior Designer

Payload Studios; United States; Remote; USD 73,000 - 112,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

2-week summer break

2-week winter break

Holiday allowance

Job summary

Payload Studios is seeking a Senior Designer to own the game’s design vision and player experience, guiding the design team to deliver a cohesive and compelling product.

You will translate high-level vision into detailed, buildable design while maintaining coherence as the project evolves, and work with leadership to align creative intent with scope and delivery.

Qualifications

• Proven experience as a Senior Designer on shipped games.
• Hands-on design of gameplay systems, mechanics, and progression, with prototyping and iteration in Unreal Engine.
• Experience applying playtesting, feedback, and data to refine features.

Responsibilities

• Own the design direction and player experience, ensuring coherence with core pillars.
• Lead the design team, providing clear direction and timely feedback across disciplines.
• Collaborate with the Studio Head/Creative Director and Producer to balance ambition, scope, and delivery.

Skills

Senior Designer

Gameplay systems design

Balancing

Cross-functional collaboration

Playtesting & data-driven design

Tools

Unreal Engine

Job description

Role Overview

This role is first and foremost about owning the design vision of a game in service of the studio's creative and commercial goals.

You are accountable for the design vision of the game day-to-day. You own the design direction, lead the design team, and ensure quality through hands-on craft. You work closely with the Studio Head/Creative Director, who provides oversight and retains final sign-off, and with the Producer to keep creative ambition, scope and delivery in balance.

Your success is measured by the quality and coherence of the player experience, the clarity of your design communication, and the team's ability to build confidently against a shared understanding of the game.

Key Responsibilities

1 - Design Direction and Player Experience

You ensure every element of the game, from mechanics, systems, progression, feel, pacing, serves the core pillars and player fantasy. You translate the high-level vision into detailed, buildable design that the team can act on with confidence.

At the concept and prototype stage, you work closely with the Studio Head/Creative Director to shape the game's design foundations. As development progresses, you maintain design coherence as the game vision evolves, ensuring new work strengthens rather than fragments the original vision.

You represent the design vision in publisher conversations, keeping alignment on direction, scope and creative intent as the game evolves.

Success looks like:

• Core pillars translated into detailed mechanics, systems, and player-facing design
• Design coherence and scope maintained as the game evolves through development
• Identification of design risks, gaps, or contradictions before they become problems
• Design documentation that is current, accessible, and useful to the team
• Player-facing quality that supports the studio's target of 85%+ on Steam

2 - Team Design Leadership and Collaboration

You are the design authority the team works with day-to-day. You provide clear direction, timely feedback, and consistent creative guidance across disciplines, ensuring art, tech, and production are aligned on design intent. You create the conditions for the team to do their best work by being available, clear, and decisive.

You champion the "why" behind design decisions, helping the team understand intent so they can make good judgements independently when needed. You work closely with the Producer to ensure design priorities are realistic and well-sequenced, and that creative ambition and delivery remain in balance.

You also contribute design input to the studio's other projects and welcome the same in return, so ideas and craft flow naturally amongst our design team.

Success looks like:

• The team understands the game and can make good decisions independently
• Art, tech, and production are aligned on design intent and priorities
• Design feedback is timely, specific, and constructive for the team
• Design leadership that earns trust through consistency, clarity, and craft
• A collaborative culture where ideas are welcomed and measured against the vision

3 - Design Quality and Iteration

You are responsible for the design quality of the game through active hands-on involvement. You play the game regularly yourself and with the team, identify what's working and what isn't, and drive iteration to improve the player experience. You ensure the game is progressing toward builds that are playable, testable, and demonstrably fun at every stage.

You work with the Producer to prepare for and respond to playtesting, player feedback, and data, ensuring design evolves based on evidence as well as instinct.

Success looks like:

• Regular hands-on evaluation of the game driving meaningful iteration
• Design problems identified and addressed early through play and testing
• Builds that are playable and demonstrating progress toward the core player fantasy
• Iteration grounded in a combination of player feedback, data, and design judgement
• Quality and feel that meet the standards set by the Studio Head/Creative Director
• Post-launch design direction informed by player feedback and data

Requirements

• Proven experience as a Senior Designer or equivalent on shipped games.
• Strong, hands-on experience designing and owning gameplay systems, mechanics, and progression in Unreal Engine, from concept through implementation, with the ability to prototype, tune, and iterate quickly.
• Direct systems design and balancing experience in genres that depend on it (deck builders, automation, survival craft, procedural), with the numerical ability to model systems in a spreadsheet as a live balancing tool.
• Experience using playtesting, feedback, and data to refine features and improve outcomes.
• Excellent collaboration and communication skills across design, art, engineering, and production.
• A pragmatic approach, focused on what moves the game forward and creates the best player experience.
• Passion for games and a drive to turn strong design into player delight.

Please note: This is a remote-working position, open to anyone within the UK.

Benefits

Our benefits include a 2-week company summer break and a 2-week winter break to rest and recharge, in addition to your normal holiday allowance.