Design Director - Core Fantasy

Who We Are

Founded in 2005, 2K Games is a global video game company, publishing titles developed by some of the most influential game development studios in the world. 2K publishes titles in today’s most popular gaming genres, including sports, shooters, action, role-playing, strategy, casual, and family entertainment. Our studios responsible for developing 2K’s portfolio of world-class games across multiple platforms include Visual Concepts, Firaxis, Hangar 13, CatDaddy, Cloud Chamber, and HB Studios. Our portfolio of titles is expanding due to our global strategic plan, building and acquiring exciting studios whose content continues to inspire all of us! 

Located in Vancouver, BC, 2K Sports Lab is a small collective being formed within 2K Games that is driving the research and development of future sports interactive entertainment programs. Within this group, speculative work will be done on future sports games with an eye towards taking the magic of 2K’s publishing and development expertise and applying them to future opportunities. 

Our team of engineers, marketers, artists, writers, data scientists, producers, thinkers and doers, are the professional publishing stewards of our growing library of critically-acclaimed franchises such as NBA 2K, 2K PGA, Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, Lego Drive, BioShock, Borderlands, The Quarry, Mafia, Sid Meier’s Civilization, Marvel’s Midnight Suns, WWE 2K, and XCOM.

At 2K, we pride ourselves on creating an inclusive work environment, which means encouraging our teams to Come as You Are and do your best work! We encourage ALL applicants to explore our global positions, even if they don’t meet every requirement for the role.  If you're interested in the job and think you have what it takes to work at 2K, we encourage you to apply!

What We Need

Our studio is looking for an experienced Design Director who has a high quality bar and a passion for creating memorable and authentic sporting player journeys. The Design Director will drive the long-term vision for our hour-to-hour play and partner with production and tech peers to lead a sizable team of developers to deliver against the vision. The Design Director will report directly to Studio Leadership.

What You’ll Do

• Be the ‘Product Owner’ for our ‘hour-to-hour’ play (our Core Fantasy)
• Acquire an intimate knowledge of our target player and our product goals
• Acquire an intimate knowledge of the competitive landscape
• Work with the ‘Head of Design’ to define the vision for our ‘Core Fantasy’
• Partner with producer and tech peers to lead your team
• Drive the generation and prioritisation of your team’s backlog
• Collaborate with the QA team to drive testing of the game experience and drive external testing as needed
• Evaluate progress and game quality and partner with Production to formulate and revise plans to drive execution
• Build a team
• Work with your production and tech leaders to define team shape
• Work with your production and tech leaders to hire talent 
• Direct your design team to ‘craft the design’ of our Core Fantasy
• Espouse WGLL for design process and documentation
• Manage the timely generation of design documentation
• Collaborate with your reports to generate design direction documentation
• Review and approve designs from members of your team
• Inspire and align the Studio on your vision for ‘Core Fantasy’
• Passionately and clearly present visions to the team
• Share design material in asynchronous ways to aid visibility
• Mentor and manage your design team 
• Champion our framework for designer responsibilities a 2KSL
• Be a source of knowledge and experience for other team members
• Manage and contribute to positive morale and a healthy team culture.

What Will Make You A Great Fit

• Passion for Sports and Sports Video Games
• Experience directing and delivering ‘product defining’ high quality game experiences
• Experience leading a design team (5+)
• Experience directing a sizeable development team (20+)
• Appetite for taking on  ‘Product Owner’ responsibilities (backlog management and prioritisation)
• Passion for and knowledge of how to create ‘player driven/emergent narrative’ and systemic design
• Positive, ‘can do’, proactive attitude 

Bonus Points

• Experience working on sports games

The pay range for this position in British Columbia at the start of employment is expected to be between CAD $165000 and CAD $265000 per year. However, actual pay offered is based on market location and may vary further depending on individualized factors for job candidates, such as job-related knowledge, skills, experience, and other objective business considerations. If hired, the company reserves the right to modify base pay (as well as any other discretionary payment or compensation or benefit program) at any time, including for reasons related to individual performance, company or individual department/team performance, and market factors.

As an equal opportunity employer, we are committed to ensuring that qualified individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform their essential job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment. Please contact us if you need reasonable accommodation.

Please note that 2K Games and its studios never uses instant messaging apps or personal email accounts to contact prospective employees or conduct interviews and when emailing, only use 2K.com accounts. 

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