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# Lead Game Designer

- **Company:** Starform, Inc.
- **Location:** Seattle, WA, United States
- **Experience:** Expert
- **Contract:** Permanent contract
- **Skills:** Microsoft Excel, Artificial Intelligence, Business Analytics Applications, Mixpanel, Tableau (Software), Build Tools, Looker Analytics
- **Published:** October 8, 2026
- **Apply:** https://www.disabledperson.com/jobs/75914259-lead-game-designer

## About the Role

* 7+ years of professional game-design experience, including at least 2 years in a lead role.
 * Experience shipping and operating live-service games, preferably free-to-play.
 * Deep experience in systems and monetization design, including progression, economy, live events, or competitive multiplayer.
 * A strong understanding of player behavior, retention, monetization, and long-term engagement.
 * Excellent design judgment and the ability to find clear, practical solutions to complex player problems.
 * Comfort making decisions with incomplete information, testing assumptions, and iterating quickly.
 * Outstanding communication skills, including the ability to explain design decisions clearly across disciplines.
 * A collaborative mindset and a desire to build the best possible game through teamwork-not simply to "own" individual features.
 * Hands-on experience building in Unity, Unreal, or an equivalent engine.
 * Strong economy-modeling skills in Excel or Google Sheets.
 * Comfort working with analytics platforms such as Mixpanel, Looker, Tableau, or similar tools.

## Description

You'll own the vision and execution behind the content and systems that shape customization, progression, economy, and monetization. This is one of the studio's highest-leverage design surfaces: early-game progression and monetization are where much of our opportunity is won or lost. You'll work closely with the Creative Director to define the strategy and turn it into a better game.

The role is systems-first, but not systems-only. You'll also design gameplay content-including modes, aircraft, weapons, and abilities-while tuning economic systems and guiding content creation. You'll take features from concept through launch and live-operations tuning, making decisions based on how players actually behave.

What You'll Do

 * Design and ship features from concept through launch, iteration, balancing, and live-operations tuning. You'll own the outcome, not just the initial design.
 * Own key systems across gameplay, progression, economy, customization, monetization, and live operations. Design, document, and ship the systems that drive our core KPIs while treating player trust as a highly valuable asset.
 * Develop monetization strategies that feel rewarding and fair, giving players compelling reasons to invest in the game without compromising competitive integrity or long-term trust.
 * Balance depth, accessibility, competitiveness, and long-term engagement. Build systems that create meaningful aspiration and status at the right moments.
 * Write clear design documentation that aligns the entire team across engineering, art, QA, production, analytics, community, and marketing.
 * Work AI-native. Use AI tools to prototype economies, simulate balance, generate and test content variants, and run more design iterations than a human-only process allows. We expect AI to multiply your output, not replace your judgment.
 * Use analytics, community feedback, playtesting, and your own instincts to understand what is working and what is not. Iterate quickly based on real player behavior rather than assumptions.
 * Ask difficult questions and challenge assumptions, regardless of where an idea originates.
 * Make thoughtful tradeoffs that improve the overall game rather than optimizing individual features in isolation.
 * Be a trusted creative partner to the Creative Director and collaborate closely with engineering, production, art, QA, community, analytics, and product.
 * Raise the quality of design discussions through clear thinking, strong rationale, and a willingness to challenge ideas constructively., * Become one of the studio's most trusted voices on design quality.
 * Shaped the direction of Metalstorm through thoughtful, data-informed decisions.
 * Shipped meaningful improvements to the systems that drive player engagement, progression, and monetization.
 * Built strong working partnerships across engineering, art, product, QA, analytics, community, and production.
 * Consistently raised the quality of the game through both your own contributions and your influence on the broader team.