Senior Systems Designer - RuneScape: Dragonwilds

Location: Cambridge, UK – (This position can accommodate flexible working options. However, candidates must be based (or be willing to relocate) within a comfortable commuting distance of our Cambridge office to be able to attend onsite as required)

This role is a Fixed Term Contract anticipated to end mid-late 2027.

Are you a designer who loves creating deep, interconnected gameplay experiences that engage players over the long term?

As a Senior Systems Designer on RuneScape: Dragonwilds, our open-world survival crafting game developed in Unreal Engine 5, you’ll take ownership of the scalable systems that define progression, economy, crafting, and survival, shaping how players live, grow, and thrive in a shared world in this large multiplayer live game.

Working closely with the Creative Director and Design Leadership, you’ll design, balance, and evolve systems that reward player choice, mastery, and exploration. Your work will connect every aspect of gameplay into a cohesive, rewarding experience, blending RuneScape’s legacy of skill-based progression with the emergent depth of modern survival MMOs.

If you love building living worlds and systems that feel meaningful and enduring, we’d love to hear from you.

What you’ll be doing:

• Design and own core scalable systems for a large-scale multiplayer, live service experience, including progression, resource management, economy, skills, and more.
• Build interconnected systems that reinforce RuneScape’s identity: freedom of playstyle, mastery, and player-driven choices.
• Prototype, test, and iterate to balance survival challenge with fairness and long-term reward.
• Integrate systems across content, engineering, and art to ensure consistency and immersion.
• Use data, analytics, and player feedback to tune systems and maintain live balance.
• Define and evolve survival mechanics such as crafting, durability, hunger, weather, and resource scarcity.
• Balance risk, reward, and progression pacing to maintain tension and engagement over time.
• Mentor junior designers, providing guidance on systemic thinking and design fundamentals.
• Collaborate with live-ops and production to support updates, expansions, and system evolution.
• Identify and resolve system-level issues or exploits before they impact the live environment.
• Advocate for player experience and RuneScape’s values across the team.
• Contribute to creative innovation while honouring the feel and history of the RuneScape universe.
• Operate autonomously with strong ownership and clear design intent.
• Continually seek new ways to improve systems, pipelines, and team collaboration.
• Deep familiarity with MMO design principles: economy loops, player-driven progression, and emergent play.

What we’re looking for:

• Proven experience designing and maintaining systems in a live MMO, multiplayer survival, or similar large-scale game.
• Demonstrable professional games industry experience working autonomously in a system design role, ideally on multiplayer or live-service titles.
• Proven experience designing and balancing interconnected gameplay systems.
• Expertise in progression, economy, and crafting systems, with an analytical and data-informed mindset.
• Strong understanding of MMO design principles, including economy loops, player progression, and emergent gameplay.
• An analytical mindset, combining data insights, player psychology, and design intuition.
• Collaborative, communicative, and comfortable working across multiple teams and disciplines to translate creative direction into functional, scalable systems.

What we offer:

When you join Jagex you can look forward to a generous Perks & Benefits package including:

Private Healthcare, including Dental Plan.
Minimum 6% Pension contributions.
Employee Assistance Programme & onsite Counselling.
Life Insurance.
Discretionary annual performance bonus.
Enhanced family leave policies from day 1.
Flexible working hours.
25 days annual leave + Bank holidays & the option to buy/sell holidays + so much more!

About Jagex:

We are Jagex: The RuneScape Company- home to one of gaming’s most enduring success stories. We create deep, community-powered games with worlds that evolve, inspire, and endure. Our flagship MMORPG franchise, RuneScape has welcomed over 300 million player accounts, inspiring generations of players across PC and mobile for 25 years.

As we begin our 26th year, we are accelerating our strategy to expand RuneScape into a broader ecosystem of forever games and connected experiences, grounded in a renewed commitment to integrity and fair play. This includes the reduction of monetisation mechanics, as well as the launch of RuneScape: DragonWilds into Steam Early Access in 2025 representing a major step in building a multi-genre future for the RuneScape universe. We remain focused on building enduring worlds, empowering player-led innovation, and laying the foundations for the boldest era in RuneScape’s history. For more information, visit www.jagex.com.

Headquartered in Cambridge, United Kingdom, We are  home to passionate creators, storytellers, engineers, and even a few dreamers, all united by a single mission- to shape the future of online worlds and empower players to make them their own. We’re looking for people to join us who share our ambitions & values - We foster an inclusive workplace built on trust, autonomy, and a shared passion for creating experiences which inspire our communities. Our values guide everything we do: We Embrace Fellowship by collaborating and sharing openly. We Hone our Craft by always learning and improving; We Honour our Vows by being honest and transparent; We are our Customers’ Heroes by striving to understand our team & player needs, and We Seize The Day by making the most of every opportunity.

Join us. The next era of RuneScape - and the next chapter of Jagex: The RuneScape Company - starts now.

We are committed to providing equal opportunities and creating an environment where everyone can thrive. We welcome applications from all backgrounds, and we recruit, develop, and promote based on merit and ability.

If you require any reasonable adjustments to support you during the recruitment process, please let us know when you’re invited to interview.