Senior Game Designer

Electronic Arts (EA); Redwood City (CA); On-site; USD 165,000 - 256,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Live-service economy design

Creator rewards/monetization programs

Relocation assistance

Job summary

Electronic Arts is seeking a Systems Designer in California to own progression, economies, and rules across our AAA engine stack. You will architect scalable systems, align with engine and data pipelines, and drive telemetry-driven design decisions.

The role emphasizes agentic tool design, safety constraints, and data-validation tests. You will simulate player and creator behavior, balance systems pre‑launch, and collaborate across engineering and leadership to advance product vision and

Qualifications

• 8+ years of professional game design experience, including shipped titles owning progression, economy, or rules systems in a AAA engine.

Responsibilities

• Design, model, and maintain scalable, stable, and engaging game systems.
• Align systems design with engine architecture, data pipelines, and technical strategy, defining data schemas and config structures together with engineering.
• Refine player and creator journeys across sessions and over the player lifetime.
• Define telemetry, KPIs, and health metrics for every system you ship and own the analysis of whether those systems are working.
• Build and run agent‑driven simulations of player personas, economies, and creator behavior to check balance and find failure states before launch.
• Design the rules, permissions, and safety constraints for creator‑made content and for the agentic tools creators use, so that creation is easier, safer, and more rewarding.
• Identify systemic risks and provide clear mitigation plans.
• Contribute to engine, content, agentic, and research initiatives, turning research goals into production‑ready systems.
• Create system diagrams, flow models, and automated balance and data‑validation test suites.

Skills

Game system design

Quantitative modeling

Python

SQL

Lua

C#

Telemetry & analytics

CI/CD

Git

Tools

Jenkins

GitLab

Perforce

Git

Job description

Electronic Arts creates next-level entertainment experiences that inspire players and fans around the world. Here, everyone is part of the story. Part of a community that connects across the globe. A place where creativity thrives, new perspectives are invited, and ideas matter. A team where everyone makes play happen.

At EA, we believe games are powerful because they bring together multiple ways people engage: play, watch, create, and connect. And increasingly, the biggest entertainment platforms aren't just places to consume content — they're places where communities build.

Creator‑made content is already a proven part of EA's history — from community creation tools in Battlefield to The Gallery in The Sims 4. We believe new creative technologies and tools will expand how players engage with and contribute to our experiences, supported by thoughtful product design, safety systems, and global reach. Our focus is on enabling more players to participate in creative expression by making creation easier, safer, and more rewarding.

As the Systems Designer, you own the structures that turn mechanics into a game and creation into a community. That covers progression, economies, rewards, and rulesets, plus the creator‑facing systems that govern how content gets built, shared, discovered, and kept safe. Your systems have to hold up under millions of players and under thousands of creators remixing them in ways no one planned.

AI agents are part of this team's toolchain. You'll use them to simulate, stress‑test, and analyze systems at scale. You'll also help design the rules and guardrails for agentic features that creators and players use directly.

Responsibilities

• You will design, model, and maintain scalable, stable, and engaging game systems.
• You will align systems design with engine architecture, data pipelines, and technical strategy, defining data schemas and config structures together with engineering.
• You will refine player and creator journeys across sessions and over the player lifetime.
• You will define telemetry, KPIs, and health metrics for every system you ship and own the analysis of whether those systems are working.
• You will build and run agent‑driven simulations of player personas, economies, and creator behavior to check balance and find failure states before launch.
• You will design the rules, permissions, and safety constraints for creator‑made content and for the agentic tools creators use, so that creation is easier, safer, and more rewarding.
• You will identify systemic risks and provide clear mitigation plans.
• You will contribute to engine, content, agentic, and research initiatives, turning research goals into production‑ready systems.
• You will create system diagrams, flow models, and automated balance and data‑validation test suites.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of professional game design experience, including shipped titles where you owned progression, economy, or rules systems in a AAA engine (Frostbite, Unity, Unreal, Godot, or proprietary)
• Experience with quantitative modeling including probability, statistics, and simulation.
• Scripting and data skills (Python, SQL) plus engine scripting (Lua, Blueprint, C#) for data-driven systems
• Working knowledge of gameplay domains (character, controls, UI, physics, animation)
• Experience using AI coding or agentic tools in a real production or analysis workflow
• Experience with telemetry and analytics tooling including defining events, building dashboards, and turning data into design decisions
• Experience getting productive quickly in large, unfamiliar game projects and data pipelines
• Experience collaborating on product vision and research goals with engineering and leadership
• Proficiency with design tools (Miro, Figma) for system diagrams and flows
• Comfort working in CI/CD environments (Jenkins, GitLab): owning data-validation and balance tests.
• Proficiency with VCS tools (Perforce, Git)

Bonus

• Live-service economy design, especially on creator or UGC platforms, or creator reward and monetization programs
• Experience with trust and safety, moderation, or reputation systems
• Experience designing evals or scoring rubrics for AI/LLM-powered features

Pay Transparency - North America

Compensation And Benefits

The ranges listed below are what EA in good faith expects to pay applicants for this role in these locations at the time of this posting. If you reside in a different location, a recruiter will advise on the applicable range and benefits. Pay offered will be determined based on a number of relevant business and candidate factors (e.g. education, qualifications, certifications, experience, skills, geographic location, or business needs).

PAY RANGES

• British Columbia (depending on location e.g. Vancouver vs. Victoria) *$141,400 - $204,400 CAD
• California (depending on location e.g. Los Angeles vs. San Francisco) *$165,000 - $256,000 USD

Pay is just one part of the overall compensation at EA.

In the US, we offer a package of benefits including paid time off (3 weeks per year to start), 80 hours per year of sick time, 16 paid company holidays per year, 10 weeks paid time off to bond with baby, medical/dental/vision insurance, life insurance, disability insurance, and 401(k) to regular full-time employees. Certain roles may also be eligible for bonus and other incentive programs.

For Canada, we offer a package of benefits including vacation (3 weeks per year to start), 10 days per year of sick time, paid top-up to EI/QPIP benefits up to 100% of base salary when you welcome a new child (12 weeks for maternity, and 4 weeks for parental/adoption leave), extended health/dental/vision coverage, life insurance, disability insurance, retirement plan to regular full-time employees. Certain roles may also be eligible for bonus and other incentive programs.

About Electronic Arts

We’re proud to have an extensive portfolio of games and experiences, locations around the world, and opportunities across EA. We value adaptability, resilience, creativity, and curiosity. From leadership that brings out your potential, to creating space for learning and experimenting, we empower you to do great work and pursue opportunities for growth.

We adopt a holistic approach to our benefits programs, emphasizing physical, emotional, financial, career, and community wellness to support a balanced life. Our packages are tailored to meet local needs and may include healthcare coverage, mental well‑being support, retirement savings, paid time off, family leaves, complimentary games, and more. We nurture environments where our teams can always bring their best to what they do.

Electronic Arts is an equal opportunity employer. All employment decisions are made without regard to race, color, national origin, ancestry, sex, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, genetic information, religion, disability, medical condition, pregnancy, marital status, family status, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. We will also consider employment qualified applicants with criminal records in accordance with applicable law. EA also makes workplace accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities as required by applicable law.