Design Director

Job Description

Your Platform

Sledgehammer Games is situated in the San Francisco Bay Area; Melbourne, Australia; Toronto, Canada; and Guildford, UK. Across our four locations, we strive to be the most inclusive and supportive game studio we can be. We are extremely passionate about working together to make incredible AAA games for our players to enjoy and connect with.

We're the studio behind Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare 3, Call of Duty®: Advanced Warfare, Call of Duty®: WWII, and Call of Duty®: Vanguard. With world-class audio, design, engineering, and art teams, we've been able to achieve some of the highest-quality game execution of any studio in the industry.

The strength of our team makes us not only excellent at what we do, but also how we do it. We firmly believe in supporting our talented employees to be the best they can be. Here at Sledgehammer Games, everyone is a game maker. We think it's important to be constantly evolving, innovating, and taking risks – which are some of the most rewarding aspects of game development. We love what we do and work hard to make sure that each new game we make is even better than the last. Creativity is key, and we're looking for talented game developers for our exciting next project.

Sledgehammer Games is wholly owned by Activision. To learn more about our studio, please visit us at www.sledgehammergames.com or search for Sledgehammer Games on your favorite social media platform. Want to hear what it's like at the studio directly from current employees? Check out our #LifeatSHG developer profiles: https://youtu.be/12DUBszg-w4

Your Mission

As a Design Director, you will be the leader of our local Melbourne design team. This team is responsible for crafting innovative level designs for our both our Single player/Campaign and Multiplayer experiences. We're looking for top talent with strong experience in level design on AAA titles.

Design Leadership:
• Drive game design with creative director and game director guidance across systems
• Ensure cross pollination of design best practices via presentations, design documentation and verbally
• Partner closely with studio design leadership to help support the development of titles
• Work closely across analytics, production, marketing and business teams to build alignment in support of studio design goals
• Actively guide teams to reach target design goals offering mentoring and support where possible
• Review and provide guidance on game mechanic designs and sequences.
• Own the integration, iteration, tuning and playtesting.
• Match game quality goals and scope to complement schedule, staff and budget.
• Improve processes and practices to increase quality and accuracy.
• Maintain knowledge of the global game market and applies knowledge to product
• Plan, build, innovate new/exciting scenarios for gameplay.
• Design and own systems/mechanics from concept to completion.
• Create and iterate on the second to second experiences.
• Implement gameplay using proprietary level editor and scripting language.
• Research the game's subject matter.
• Collaborate with other departments, including Design, Art and Engineering teams to create and refine gameplay mechanics & combat encounters.
• Prioritise well, meet project landmarks and communicate progress with your lead and/or manager.

People Management:
• Provide day-to-day management, mentorship, and leadership to others, guiding them in resolving issues and helping develop their overall skills
• Continually recognise and reward employees for strong performance
• Partner with & support Human Resources and Recruiting to ensure optimal hiring and retention practices.
• Participate in organisational planning to ensure structure reflects changing business needs

Year 1 success will include the following:
• Build effective relationships and credibility within Design Department and Studio.
• Innovative new mechanics and refine/improve existing mechanics.
• Strengthen operational processes, procedures and communications.

Player Profile

Minimum Requirements:
• Ten or more years of direct game development experience. Shown successes, or confirmed experience, in driving team results through strong leadership.
• Proven experience creating gameplay in a 3D environment.
• Experience building believable spaces that cater to gameplay and narrative needs.
• Ability to conceptualise and communicate an engaging gameplay experience and the technical ability to carry out your vision.
• Experience in Radiant, UnrealEd, Hammer, or other first-person shooter level editors
• Strong creative and technical design skills.
• Ability to assist with level, narrative, and systems design when the situation arises
• Ability to map out overall game pacing.
• Strong portfolio of work in current-gen game engines
• Takes and understands direction and feedback well, meets deadlines and handles multiple tasks.
• Ability to empower teams and promote initiatives
• Strong interpersonal skills & thrives in a team environment.
• Validated problem solving and trouble-shooting skills
• Experience handling change
• Strong communication skills.

Extra Points:
• Prior Experience developing first-person shooters is a huge plus.

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

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Jobcode: Reference SBJ-rzj9q2-3-135-205-146-42 in your application.