Vacant job

The Position

As a Lead World Designer, you will lead the design and execution of an immersive open world, shaping landscapes, biomes, landmarks, roads, and rivers to enhance exploration and gameplay. Your work will include terrain sculpting, material painting, and strategic placement of key locations to ensure a seamless and engaging experience.

Being a Lead comes with people management responsibilities, meaning you will oversee and coach employees to achieve their best performance and professional growth. You will handle tasks such as hiring, training, and evaluating staff, ensuring alignment with organisational goals. Ultimately, you will aim to motivate and support your team, promoting a productive and cohesive workplace.

This role also includes Product Owner responsibilities, as you will translate high-level world design direction into actionable features, ensuring clear scope, priorities, and technical feasibility. You will oversee milestone progress, balancing creative vision with production constraints while collaborating closely with Art, Tech, and Level Design teams to refine and optimise world-building efforts.

Your expertise in spatial design, composition, and game mechanics will help create a living, interconnected world that delivers a compelling player experience.

What you'll do

• Collaborate with the Creative Director, other POs, and lead designers to bring innovative ideas to all aspects of game design.
• Design and implement game areas, ensuring they align with gameplay goals and world-building vision.
• Actively participate in or lead design discussions, reviews, and issue resolution.
• Conceptualize, design, script, and create game levels and encounters that enhance player engagement.
• Develop design documentation based on direction from the Creative Director and lead designers.
• Work closely with the GD and Tech teams to ensure layouts integrate seamlessly with existing systems.
• Collaborate with the Art team to create balanced, readable environments that enhance the player experience.
• Validate playability through testing with artists, gameplay programmers, and QA teams.
• Feature Breakdown & Execution – Translate high-level world design direction and features from directors into actionable elements, ensuring clear scope, priorities, and technical feasibility for the development team.
• Milestone Value Delivery – Ensure each milestone contributes meaningful progress toward an immersive, high-quality open world, balancing creativity with production constraints.
• Cross-Team Coordination – Align world-building efforts with design, tech, and art teams to maintain coherence, optimize workflows, and deliver a cohesive player experience.

Who you are

• Several years of AAA game development experience, with at least one shipped open-world title (or equivalent).
• Experience managing a team.
• Deep understanding of world and level design fundamentals.
• Experience with terrain editing, pathing, and other world-building tools.
• Strong grasp of game design principles and how to craft spaces that embrace systemic gameplay.
• Self-motivated, goal-oriented, and effective at both independent and team-based work.
• Strong understanding of composition and layout principles for both aesthetics and functionality.
• Ability to communicate ideas and requirements effectively to stakeholders.
• Strong technical problem-solving skills and a keen eye for functional design.
• Passion for making and playing games.