Principal Game Designer

About the role

This role is a key creative partner to product and game leadership, helping shape the long-term vision for a new player-first experience. You will focus on discovering and defining systems that make players feel connected, valued, and emotionally invested without relying on transactional mechanics, all while supporting a long-term progression model that keeps players active.

As a Principal Game Designer, you’ll bring clarity to ambiguous spaces, guide early and ongoing exploration, and help establish the design principles that will anchor the future of the project. You’ll collaborate closely with cross-functional leaders to evolve the project’s identity and ensure the gameplay experience reflects our highest goals for player meaning, connection, and long-term engagement.

What you'll achieve

• Define and uphold the design vision, ensuring systems and features support a meaningful, player-centric experience.
• Drive discovery and exploration efforts, helping the team identify opportunities that deepen emotional investment and connection.
• Partner with leadership to align design direction with product goals and long-term strategy.
• Provide structure and clarity as the project navigates open-ended or ambiguous problem spaces.
• Mentor designers, elevate craft quality, and foster a culture of curiosity, collaboration, and thoughtful experimentation.
• Communicate insights, patterns, and design learnings that strengthen decision-making across the project.

What you'll need to be successful

• A holistic understanding of systems design and how player motivations, psychology, and behaviors influence long-term engagement while still having a sense of long-term progression.
• Strong ability to think from first principles and explore new ways for players to feel connected and invested.
• Skill in navigating ambiguity, defining problems, and driving alignment in complex design spaces.
• Experience collaborating closely with cross-functional partners across product, engineering, art, and production.
• Ability to translate qualitative and quantitative insights into actionable design direction and iterative improvements.
• Clear, structured communication that makes abstract ideas understandable and actionable.
• A track record of mentoring designers and elevating design quality across a team.
• A naturally curious mindset and a drive to stay current with evolving player expectations, design trends, and opportunities in the market.