Lead Game Designer in Oxford

We want you to #JOINTHEREBELLION! For 30 years we’ve been independently developing and publishing incredible video games at our multiple studios founded by Jason & Chris Kingsley, but Rebellion is more than just games. We have our own film studio, we create board games, publish books, and through 2000AD, publish comics and graphic novels such as the amazing Judge Dredd.

We’re looking for an experienced Lead Game Designer with outstanding leadership and people management skills to lead our talented team on our forthcoming brand-new IP, Alien Deathstorm. Your role is to lead, inspire and develop your team and mentor Game Designers in all aspects of their role, whilst overseeing the work of the project design team. Your focus is to lead a team of Game Designers to deliver a high-quality gameplay experience in line with project direction.

This exciting opportunity can be based out of any of our studios in Oxford or Warwick, offering flexibility, collaboration, and the chance to work with a world-class team! We can provide a relocation package, including moving assistance, temporary accommodation, and full support to ensure a smooth transition to your new environment. We believe in the power of face-to-face collaboration and encourage working from our studios. However, we understand that flexibility matters, so we’re open to discussing hybrid options based on individual needs.

Responsibilities:

• Lead & inspire a team of Game Designers with best practice people management techniques.
• Proactively manage your team’s performance and professional development through performance review cycles giving constructive, actionable, relevant feedback.
• Collaborate with Design Directors to balance creative vision with production realities.
• Communicate and collaborate with other disciplines to deliver the creative vision on time.
• Oversee the work of a project design team and mentor designers in all aspects of their role.
• Regularly review your team's work against the design brief and provide actionable feedback to make improvements, incorporating appropriate feedback from key stakeholders.
• Collaborate with Production team to schedule and plan delivery to the team's work over the lifecycle of a project.
• Verify the quality of design in the game, give feedback to designers and suggest improvements where necessary to fit technical constraints and artistic direction.
• Plan and conduct gameplay evaluations with the Design Director, and the team providing feedback and suggestions to help fine tune and improve the game.
• Ensure correct documentation workflows and process are followed throughout the project lifecycle.
• Be an active mentor and role model for the Design team. Work to maintain morale, create an atmosphere of creativity, enthusiasm and inspiration.

Requirements:

• Extensive knowledge of people management best practices.
• Broad experience of a range of game design specialties such as 3Cs, AI and Economy.
• Willingness and ability to deliver high quality results using tools and processes required to get the job done.
• Expert knowledge of the video game development process, including working in a timely / time-bound manner, and prototyping/iterating appropriately within that restriction.
• Excellent knowledge of production pipelines.
• Experience working on Action and/or Sandbox games would be advantageous.

Benefits:

• 22 days holidays + Christmas closure (typically 4 days) & Bank holidays (increasing with service at 5 years – one day each year until you reach 31 days)
• Private Medical Insurance, healthcare cash plan, including dental and Vision
• Life Assurance, Income Protection & Critical Illness Cover
• Enhanced Family Leave
• Interest Free, Tax-Free loans
• Enhanced Pension Scheme
• EAP a range of Mental Health and Wellbeing Support
• Plus loads more… including a wide range of discounts, freebies, and social events!

Right to Work Statement: This role is only open to applicants who have the permanent right to work in the UK. We are unable to provide or take over visa sponsorship, either now or in the future. Applicants must therefore be able to demonstrate their ongoing eligibility to work in the UK without the need for employer sponsorship.

Life at Our Oxford HQ: Our riverside headquarters in Oxford places you a short walk away from the city centre. Renowned for its rich historical backdrop and esteemed educational institutions, Oxford offers a unique blend of tradition and modernity, with its beautiful architecture and green spaces. Oxford also boasts excellent transport links, making it easy to navigate both the city and the wider country. The city’s train station, just a short walk from our studio, offers frequent services to London, as well as direct routes to major cities like Birmingham, Manchester, and Reading and we also offer free parking at the studio.

Our open-plan office promotes teamwork and innovation, with regular interaction with senior management and other departments, alongside access to free hot drinks, a handy tuck shop onsite and a range of local pubs, cafes and dining options nearby helping make every workday enjoyable!

Inside Rebellion: Whichever team you join at Rebellion we are proud of our open, friendly, and creative atmosphere. We love what we do, and we have fun doing it! As a big indie developer, we have complete creative freedom over our titles which allows us to work on a massive variety of projects across all the major platforms. Our size, stability, and the variety of in-house expertise across multiple industries, makes Rebellion completely unique! We work in our own way, and we celebrate that as the key to our success. We foster an inclusive culture where you are encouraged to be yourself, to express your creativity and your talent. We are people focused and will support you in every way to can be the best at what you do. We recognise the importance of enjoying what you do and having a healthy work-life balance. We offer a friendly, creative, and relaxed working atmosphere, with sensibly managed projects and a wide variety of benefits and development opportunities for all our teams to ensure you are fully supported with your physical and Mental Well-being. We are actively recruiting for a diverse team and continue to add to our culture of growth and inclusion. Rebellion encourages innovation in all areas, and we look forward to hearing how you can help us to be better. We encourage all demographics of culture, gender, ethnicity, neurodiversity and beyond, because a representative team makes better products. If you are interested in working at Rebellion, but this role doesn’t sound quite like you, we’re recruiting for a range of positions across the studio and we’re always happy to receive speculative applications via our website.