Design Director, Game Studio

Job Description

Machine Zone is a global leader in mobile gaming, with a track record of delivering some of the world’s most successful mobile games including Game of War, Mobile Strike and Final Fantasy XV: A New Empire. We combine the power of technology and creative vision to create experiences that connect people from all corners of the globe. Machine Zone was acquired by AppLovin in May 2020.

AppLovin was named one of the Best Workplaces in Advertising & Marketing 2022 by Fortune, one of the Hottest Adtech Companies of 2021 by Business Insider, and a Certified Great Place to Work in 2021 and 2022. Fortune recognized AppLovin as one of the Best Workplaces in the Bay Area 2022, alongside The San Francisco Business Times and Silicon Valley Business Journal who have also awarded AppLovin one of the Bay Area’s Best Places to Work for the past four years. Our team members are regularly recognized for their work and leadership, including recent award wins for San Francisco Business Times’ Outstanding LGBTQ+ Leaders 2022, Business Insider’s Rising Stars of Adtech 2022, Glassdoor’s Top CEOs 2019, and the Women in Content Marketing Awards 2021.

This role is a crucial piece of the Game Design team at MZ Game Studio leading a team of the industry’s top game designers and will report to our Studio GM. We are looking for an inspiring leader to help keep our design team engaged and creative.  You will be responsible for leading the design teams who create features and systems for our portfolio of mobile games.  You should be a game design guru and understand all aspects of game design and development. 

If you are a strong communicator who can give clear direction, manage cross functional team relationships, and drive ideas into reality, MZ Game Studio wants to chat with you! Your team’s designs will be felt and experienced by tens of millions of global players in the future; this is your chance to leave your legacy and be part of gaming history!

What you’ll be doing

• Lead, inspire, and motivate design teams working on the games and maintain enthusiasm for the projects
• Provide mentoring and guidance to the Designers 
• Manage the day to day process of the design team, providing hands on feedback and strong leadership when difficulties arise
• Work collaboratively with Design Leads, Live Operations, Engineering and Art teams to facilitate well planned and executed features aligned with the overall product roadmap in order to reach company goals 
• Initiate research and implementation of new techniques and processes to improve quality and cost-effectiveness of design production

Your background and who you are

• 8 years of game design experience, preferably in the mobile and/or F2P industry 
• Must have experience with game schedules
• Must be extremely organized in the game design workflow from initial concept to final release and post-release support
• Must be proficient in Excel, and able to provide visual designs or rough mock-ups in an art program of your choice (i.e. Illustrator, Photoshop, Sketchup, etc.)
• Strong analytical abilities and are able to synthesize game-play data to improve the game as necessary
• Experience with all aspects of game design disciplines: concept, level progression, combat, interface, monetization, and playability testing
• Product management skills to track the results of the game and make improvements
• A love of start-ups and a desire to be part of a small team that achieves its vision quickly
• An ability to embrace an environment that iterates constantly – where good ideas triumph quickly
• Understanding complex systems and technical background a plus
• Bachelor’s in Computer Science or Game Design

Bonus points

• Experience in mobile and free to play
• Proven experience and success designing mobile-based online and social game feature-sets
• People skills: Ability to build strong relationships
• Process: Have a solid understanding of how all aspects of design production work and how best to accomplish each task
• Industry: Have several years of experience in game production and has designed for at least one ‘AAA’ commercially released game on iOS and / or Android

AppLovin is proud to be an equal opportunity employer that is committed to inclusion and diversity. All applicants will be considered for employment without attention to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran or disability status, or other legally protected characteristics. Learn more about EEO rights as an applicant here.

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