Lead Gameplay Designer - Unannounced Game | Irvine, CA

Team Name:

Unannounced Project

Job Title:

Lead Gameplay Designer - Unannounced Game | Irvine, CA

Requisition ID:

R025106

Job Description:

Blizzard is seeking a Lead Gameplay Designer to help shape our next great multi-platform, turn-based strategy game. We’re a team that values creativity, collaboration, and a passion for quality, and we’re looking for an experienced designer to join our talented group of game makers.

As a Lead Gameplay Designer, you will lead a team of game designers to create engaging, strategic, and approachable gameplay.  This role will be a blend of game design leadership and hands-on implementation. As a design lead, you will inspire and guide your team, aligning their work with both the game’s creative vision and business objectives, while upholding a high standard of quality.

You’ll also lead by doing; personally building, tuning, and refining gameplay content that defines the player’s experience. Working closely with a multidisciplinary team, you’ll champion your designs across the team and draw on a deep understanding of player motivations to shape content that’s fun, rewarding, and memorable.

This role is anticipated to be a hybrid work position, with some work required to be on-site and some work-from-home. The studio for this role is in Irvine, CA.
 

Responsibilities

•  Lead the design, implementation, and ongoing refinement of core gameplay content, ensuring it delivers strategic depth, approachability, and fun.

• Manage and mentor a team of gameplay designers, supporting them in creating engaging content that resonates with a broad range of players. 

• Foster a culture of collaboration, creativity, and continuous improvement by providing thoughtful feedback and guidance to help designers grow in their craft.

•  Post-launch, analyze player behavior and in-game data to identify opportunities for balancing, new content, and gameplay improvements.

• Build a deep understanding of the player community to help shape content updates and live-game decisions that keep players engaged over the long term.

• Champion the player experience at every stage of development, ensuring gameplay remains fun, rewarding, and fresh through ongoing support and content updates.

 

Minimum Requirements

Experience

• 6+ years of professional game design experience, including at least 2 years in a leadership or managerial role.

• Proven ability to lead, grow, and inspire design teams, championing design craft while collaborating effectively with cross-functional teams.

• Familiarity with live service game design, including content pipelines, seasonal events, and time-limited challenges.

 

Key Attributes

•  Deep understanding of strategy game mechanics, tuning, and player motivations.

• Strong project management skills and a great understanding of what players find fun.

• Proactive, self-motivated, and able to drive initiatives with minimal oversight.

• Being an advocate for simple, intuitive, and future-proof design

• A good understanding of when to control scope and when to encourage exploration to find the right balance when aiming for a specific deadline.

• Confident in speaking up or giving voice to dissenting opinions constructively.

• Commitment to creating a safe space for collaboration, communication, and creativity across all subject areas and departments.

 

Extra Points

• Strong documentation practices that clearly communicate design intent and build alignment.

• Experience playing a strategy game at a competitive or high skill level.

• Active player of a variety of mobile titles, especially turn-based strategy games.

• Experience working with or helping define content creation pipelines and tools for fast iteration and designer-friendly workflows.
   

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 innovative 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 accommodationrequests@activisionblizzard.com. 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 $116,800.00 - $216,000.00 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.