Design Director

Company Description

Smoking Gun Interactive, a Keywords Studio, is an industry-leading game development studio founded in 2007 by award-winning industry veterans. SGI is fearless in creating IP and boldly partners with renowned brands to develop a wide range of world-class, immersive titles and interactive experiences that resonate with strategy gamers worldwide and entertain millions of casual players every day.

Job Overview

As a Design Director with Smoking Gun Interactive (SGI), you’re a talented and passionate natural leader with at least five years of industry experience in game design leadership.  You have a strong understanding of game mechanics and design philosophies to communicate a clear vision for the project. You will be the direct manager of Lead Designers and support them to ensure a positive culture among the design team and project. You lead alongside the team creating designs and documentation. You are a flexible and collaborative individual who is excited about motivating a multi-disciplinary team to achieve excellent results.

This is a permanent full-time position based in our Downtown Vancouver office. Candidates must be currently located or willing relocate to the Greater Vancouver Area with the expectation to be able to come into the office as needed and eligible to work in Canada.

In this role, you will:

• Develop, communicate and champion the creative vision for new and existing projects
• Collaborate with Senior Management to deliver and drive a cohesive vision for the projects.
• Work with production to ensure the vision is achievable within the project constraints.
• Generate and pitch new game ideas to external clients.
• Ideas must consider innovation vs reuse, scope/budget/schedule, commercial viability and target audiences
• Directly manage designers of all levels, including performance evaluations, mentoring and team leadership
• Actively participate in recruitment: resume and portfolio evaluations, tests, interviews and hiring decisions
• Lead the design for a product
• Build strong creative game designs that are original and imaginative.
• Create low level designs and documentation for a product
• Working with discipline heads and leads to provide feedback and ensure consistency of vision and creative goals among all aspects of design, art, audio, narrative, UI/UX, monetization and marketing
• Oversee or own the analysis of game KPI's, user testing, and market trends.
• Be a main conduit of design discussions between the clients and SGI.
• Supervise and approve work completed by the design and UX teams to ensure that features and designs are consistent with the vision for the game, as well as meeting quality standards and timelines

To be successful in this role, you must have:

• 5+ years of experience in a Design Leadership role on mobile, PC or console products.
• Shipped at least three titles in a Design Leadership role.
• Taken games all the way from initial concept to live operations.
• Experience with both Premium and Freemium game mechanics, KPI’s, and monetization strategies.
• Strong people management and performance management skills
• Proven track record of bringing out the true potential of their design team.
• Proven experience in pitching, landing and developing game ideas from conception to market
• Experience in live tuning, scripting and tools of multiple game engines.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, able to communicate ideas clearly to all disciplines
• Strong critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to accept and provide direction, work well under pressure, and handle multiple tasks.
• A naturally self-driven demeanor, taking initiative when needed – demonstrated ability to work independently.
• Willingness to push the envelope and innovate within game parameters.
• Experience with Word, Excel, Photoshop.
• A positive attitude and a great team-player.

It would also be helpful if you had:

• Direct experience creating, and tuning strategy, RPG, and midcore titles
• Multi-platform development experience (ideally, Mobile, PC and console).
• A bachelor’s degree.

• 10 days vacation leave
• 5 paid days personal leave
• 7 paid sick days
• 5 paid parental leave days
• Life Insurance & Accidental Death & Dismemberment
• Dependent Life Insurance
• Long Term Disability (LTD)
• Extended Healthcare Benefit
• Dental Care
• RRSP matching
• Hybrid working
• Training & Development

Salary Range: $120,000 - $150,000 CAD

Smoking Gun Interactive is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, citizenship, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, veteran’s status, age or disability.

Keywords Studios is dedicated to following a well-established Equal Opportunities Policy. We endeavor to create a workplace which provides for equal opportunities for all employees and potential employees.

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Role Information: EN
Studio: Smoking Gun
Location: Americas, Canada, Vancouver
Area of Work: Game Development
Service: Create
Employment Type: Full Time
Working Pattern: Remote, Hybrid