Lead Game Designer

Who We Are

Founded in 2023, 2K Sports Lab is the newest stand alone studio at 2K looking to push game development boundaries to bring 2K's next groundbreaking sports franchise to life. We're building a world-class team at our new Vancouver, BC location where our goal is to deliver an exceptional experience through bold ideas, technical excellence, and creative collaboration. We're seeking passionate and driven professionals across all areas of game development to help shape this ambitious vision. If you’re interested in tackling unique challenges and think you have what it takes to level up our team, we encourage you to apply!

What We Need

Our studio is looking for an experienced Lead Game Designer who has a high quality bar and a passion for creating memorable and authentic sporting player journeys. The Lead Game Designer will produce feature designs for our hour-to-hour play and partner with other designers and subject areas to champion the production of said features. The Lead Game Designer will report to the Design Director (Core Fantasy).

What You’ll Do

Be the ‘Product Owner’ for large features of the ‘hour-to-hour’ play (our Core Fantasy)

• Acquire an intimate knowledge of our target player and our product goals
• Acquire an intimate knowledge of the competitive landscape
• Work with the ‘Design Director’ to translate the ‘Core Fantasy’ vision into feature designs
• Partner with producer, tech, and art peers on feature development
• Lead the tuning of features and the economy
• Collaborate with the QA team to drive testing of the game experience
• Evaluate progress and game quality and work with the design and production team on execution plans

‘Champion the vision’ and ‘craft the design’ of your game area

• Help craft the vision for your game area together with creative studio leadership
• Collaborate with your team to create designs that complete the agreed upon feature visions
• Live our creative process and build vital documentation
• Manage the timely generation of design documentation
• Work with the design team to define and implement our Core Fantasy

‘Steer the Implementation’ of your gameplay vision

• Lead the vision for your game area
• Collaborate with Engineers and Animators to steer the execution of your vision
• Collaborate with your Project Management and Technical partners to lead your feature team (5-10 developers)
• Champion the player experience, bringing the player's perspective to all decision making
• Be constantly analyzing the software, adding to, grooming and prioritizing the backlog

Align the Studio on your designs for the ‘Core Fantasy’

• Passionately and clearly present designs to the team
• Share design material in asynchronous ways to aid visibility

Mentor junior design team members

• Champion our framework for designer responsibilities a 2KSL
• Be a source of knowledge and experience for other team members
• Contribute to positive morale and a healthy team culture

Prototyping and Iteration

• Work with the engineering team on prototypes to prove the ‘Core Fantasy’ vision
• Iterate on prototypes to ensure the best possible feature set for the game 

What Will Make You A Great Fit

• Passion for Sports and Sports Video Games
• Experience designing and owning large features for AAA games
• Experience as a lead systems designer (5+)
• Experience in mentoring other designers
• Appetite for taking on  ‘Game Area Owner’ responsibilities (front-to-back development partner)
• Passion for and knowledge of how to create ‘player driven/emergent narrative’ and systemic design
• Positive, ‘can do’, proactive attitude 

Beneficial Qualifications

• Experience working on sports games

The pay range for this position in British Columbia at the start of employment is expected to be between CAD $96,400 and CAD $142,660 per Year. However, actual pay offered is based on market location and may vary further depending on individualized factors for job candidates, such as job-related knowledge, skills, experience, and other objective business considerations. If hired, the company reserves the right to modify base pay (as well as any other discretionary payment or compensation or benefit program) at any time, including for reasons related to individual performance, company or individual department/team performance, and market factors.

As an equal opportunity employer, we are committed to ensuring that individuals with disabilities are provided  suitable accommodations to enjoy equal employment opportunities, including the ability to participate in the job application or interview process,. Please contact us if you need an accommodation as part of your application process or otherwise have questions about the Company’s accommodation policy and review process.

Please note that 2K Games and its studios never uses instant messaging apps or personal email accounts to contact prospective employees or conduct interviews and when emailing, only use 2K.com accounts.