Staff Game Designer
Staff Game Designer
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$ 190780 - 262323
1 Vacancy
Job Description
Role summary
Volley is hiring a Staff Game Designer to lead gameplay design for our most important games defining experiences that engage millions of players. This seniorlevel role requires someone versatile enough to seamlessly move between game design rapid prototyping (technical art) and UX/UI designensuring a cohesive and polished player experience. Youll leverage your broad skill set and deep interest in generative AI to set new standards for creativity innovation and productivity at Volley.
This job opportunity offers a hybrid work arrangement and we are specifically seeking candidates who are comfortable with onsite attendance in our Bay Area office 3 times per week (MWF) and are either currently residing in or near the Bay Area or willing to relocate for onsite work.
What youll do at Volley
- Own endtoend gameplay design for our toppriority titles creating innovative core mechanics compelling progression systems and intuitive UI interactions.
- Quickly prototype ideas directly within visual editors (Unity PlayCanvas or similar) validating gameplay concepts early and often through player feedback.
- Clearly communicate your vision align stakeholders and document designs to keep product art and engineering teams closely aligned.
- Proactively mentor junior and midlevel designers significantly elevating design skills creative thinking and implementation standards across Volley.
- Serve as a thought leader on leveraging generative AI tools to enhance productivity creativity and gameplay quality across the company.
Stuff you may have done before
- Held a senior or lead game design role at a studio focused on casual or mobile games contributing to a product with meaningful scale (e.g. millions of players or top category rankings).
- Defined and executed gameplay systems that balanced creative vision with datainformed iteration and realworld player impact.
- Navigated ambiguous product goals and used strong judgment to scope and prioritize features with high strategic value.
- Acted as a key contributor or design lead in a fastpaced crossfunctional environmentcollaborating with product managers engineers artists and executives.
- Scaled your impact by mentoring designers driving crossteam standards or influencing design culture beyond your immediate scope.
- Explored or implemented generative AI in a production setting to enhance productivity creativity or userfacing content.
Musthaves
- 8 years in professional game design ideally shipping multiple successful casual or mobile games.
- Demonstrated expertise across game design technical art implementation (rapid prototyping visual editor workflows) and UX/UI design for games.
- Proven ability to strategically lead design vision execute complex ideas and produce measurable player impact.
- Enthusiasm forand ideally handson experience withgenerative AI tools whether for personal workflow creativity or innovative game mechanics.
- Exceptional collaboration skills: you thrive in a highly crossfunctional fastpaced startup environment and know how to align diverse teams around a shared vision.
- Deep passion for casual gaming with sharp instincts about what makes games broadly appealing replayable and enjoyable.
Our stack
- Prototyping & Game Engines: Unity PlayCanvas HTML5/WebGL
- Design & Visual Tools: Figma Adobe Creative Cloud
- Collaboration: Slack Notion Linear
- AI & Analytics: ChatGPT Midjourney Amplitude Tableau
- User Testing: PlaytestCloud UserTesting
Your first 90 days
- Deliver a functional prototype or key gameplay improvement that demonstrates a step change in quality or engagement for a flagship title.
- Ramp up quickly on our tools systems and team dynamics while identifying early opportunities for process improvement.
- Build trust and alignment with stakeholders across design engineering and product leadership.
- Begin mentoring other designers providing feedback and raising quality through direct collaboration.
- Lead the launch of a new gameplay feature or system that moves the needle on retention engagement or player feedback.
The hiring process
- Stage 1 (Preliminary Screen)
- Stage 2 (Hiring Manager Interview)
- Stage 3 (Portfolio Review)
- Stage 4 (Onsite Interview)
- Stage 5 (Offer)
Whats in it for you
- Your medical dental and vision insurance is 100 covered by Volley for yourself and all dependents and we match 401k!
- We offer a flexible hybrid workfromhome and inoffice work model.
- We offer 4 weeks of paid time off (enforced 2week minimum) 16 paid holidays 40 hours of bereavement leave and unlimited sick days.
- Our generous parental leave policy includes 24 weeks at 100 pay for birthing parents and 12 weeks at 100 pay for nonbirthing parents.
- We offer visa support for eligible candidates making relocating for the job smoother and more streamlined.
- A full breakdown of our benefits is here!
For Pay Transparency: The salary range that we expect to pay for this position is $190780$262323 annually. This is a portion of the pay band for the role and level we are seeking. The final offer amount will depend on experience education and skills. Base pay is only one part of the total package that is provided to compensate and recognize employees for their work.
About Us
Volleyis the leading developer of AIpowered games for Amazon Alexa Roku TVs and mobile devices. Our games attract millions of users every month. Popular Volley games includeSong QuizJeopardy! andThe Price Is Right.
We believe voice interfaces will become the main way people access entertainment in their living rooms kitchens bedrooms and cars. Were building a bundled subscription product similar to Netflix or Spotify for the emerging category of AIpowered games.
Volley was founded by Max Child and James Wilsterman in 2016. Were headquartered in downtown San Francisco in the historic Phelan Building! Were a quickly growing team that truly enjoys working together. If you think you would enjoy creating joyful games on top of a rapidly evolving AI technology stack please get in touch!
Volley believes in an inclusive workplace and is committed to building a team from a variety of backgrounds. We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process perform essential job functions and receive the other benefits and privileges of employment.
Underrepresented candidates and candidates from nontraditional backgrounds are strongly encouraged to apply!
Required Experience:
Staff IC
Employment Type
Full-Time
