Senior Game Designer - Systems, Unpublished R&D Product

Riot Games was established in 2006 by entrepreneurial gamers who believe that player-focused game development can result in great games. In 2009, Riot released its debut title League of Legends to critical and player acclaim. As the most played video game in the world, over 100 million play every month. Players form the foundation of our community and it’s for them that we continue to evolve and improve the League of Legends experience.

We’re looking for humble but ambitious, razor-sharp professionals who can teach us a thing or two. We promise to return the favor. Like us, you take play seriously; you’re passionate about games. We embrace those who see things differently, aren’t afraid to experiment, and who have a healthy disregard for constraints.

That's where you come in.

As a Game Designer, you will design, tweak, and optimize the player experience. Your analytical skills, player insight, and creativity help craft in- and out-of-game experiences that engage and surprise players. You will collaborate with interdisciplinary teams and work with every tool at hand to create and iterate player-focused designs that will delight millions around the world.

As a Senior Game Designer (Systems) on the Unpublished R&D Product team, you will help shape cohesive player experiences across major releases. You will bring together gameplay, systems, and creative intent into a clear design direction, then work with designers and cross-disciplinary partners to carry it from concept through development, release, and iteration. This is a hands-on design role for someone who can lead a broad problem space without losing sight of the details that make a game compelling. You will report to the Game Director of the team.

Responsibilities:

• Own the design direction for major releases, defining player experience goals, design pillars, and the connections between features and content.
• Bring together gameplay systems, content, and thematic and narrative intent into a cohesive player journey, partnering with craft specialists rather than replacing their expertise.
• Lead design work across disciplines from early exploration through implementation, testing, release, and post-release iteration; make informed decisions about scope, priorities, quality, and design trade-offs.
• Identify opportunities for new mechanics and systems, develop multiple viable approaches, and articulate their player impact, dependencies, risks, and long-term implications.
• Contribute hands-on to the design, prototyping, implementation, and refinement of high-impact systems and features.
• Use playtests, player insights, and data to evaluate design hypotheses and improve the player experience.
• Create clear design principles, documentation, and feedback that help partners align and execute; support other designers in raising the quality of their work.

Required Qualifications:

• 8+ years of experience in professional game design.
• Experience owning the design of a major release or comparably broad content update for a live game, from planning and development through launch and subsequent iteration.
• Strong systems design craft, with demonstrated ability to connect multiple features and systems into a coherent player experience and anticipate the downstream effects of design decisions.
• Strong gameplay instincts and the ability to work with narrative and thematic goals to improve how a game feels and what players experience, without needing to be a narrative specialist.
• Experience guiding cross-disciplinary teams through ambiguous design problems, building alignment, and making practical quality and scope trade-offs.
• Ability to communicate design goals, rationale, and implementation needs clearly through documentation, discussion, and feedback.
• Fluent in Mandarin Chinese.

Desired Qualifications:

• Experience establishing a design vision and leading the development of multiple major updates for a live game.
• Experience designing and evolving systems that support sustained player engagement.
• Experience mentoring or coaching other designers.
• Experience with early-stage development, prototyping, and iterative design.
• Fluent in spoken and written English.

For this role, you'll find success through craft expertise, a collaborative spirit, and decision-making that prioritizes the delight of players. We will be looking at your past studies, experience, and your personal relationship with games. If you embody player empathy and care about players' experiences, this could be your role!