Senior Level Designer (5-month contract)

Job description

Blackbird Interactive is a creative-fueled, future-driven, independent game studio where the best talent in the industry can find long-term careers to help grow their abilities while working on a wide range of projects, which encompass world-class IPs as well as our own creations across multiple genres. Our studio operates as a remote-first workplace, offering flexible work arrangements. **PLEASE NOTE: At this time, we are only able to hire candidates who are legally eligible to work in Canada and reside within Canada.** Blackbird Interactive is looking for an experienced Senior Level Designer to help build and deliver high-quality gameplay spaces for a third-person multiplayer action game. This role focuses on designing levels, combat spaces, and environments that promote engaging player interactions, support multiple playstyles, and deliver memorable multiplayer experiences through strong pacing, readability, and spatial design. You'll work closely with game design, art, engineering, and production to create levels that are fun to play, strategically engaging, and visually compelling. The role involves collaborating with leadership to align content with the overall creative vision while owning levels end-to-end, from initial concept and blockout through implementation, iteration, and polish. If you enjoy crafting dynamic combat spaces, encouraging player choice, and creating highly replayable multiplayer experiences, this role could be a great fit. ### Responsibilities - Collaborate with game design, art, engineering, and production to support and implement the established creative vision, raising questions or inconsistencies as they arise during development - Work within production schedules and constraints, implementing level content in a timely and iterative manner while communicating risks or dependencies to appropriate team members - Design and build levels end-to-end, including layout, combat spaces, traversal, pacing, player flow, and objective placement - Create engaging multiplayer environments that support varied combat scenarios, multiple player strategies, and balanced gameplay experiences - Script and implement gameplay events, encounters, objectives, triggers, and environmental interactions that support gameplay and replayability - Test, debug, and iterate on levels regularly, identifying and resolving issues related to navigation, combat balance, player flow, readability, progression, and edge cases - Respond constructively to feedback, refining layouts, combat spaces, and pacing to improve gameplay quality, balance, and player experience - Maintain an understanding of core gameplay systems and how they interact with level design, adjusting layouts to support multiple playstyles, team dynamics, and systemic gameplay ### Requirements - A minimum of 5 years of experience contributing to game development, with a strong focus on level design for action, multiplayer, or combat-focused games - Experience shipping at least one title, ideally a multiplayer action or third-person game, with an understanding of the full content lifecycle from implementation through polish - Hands-on experience with Unreal Engine 5, with confidence using in-engine level editing tools, Blueprint scripting, and gameplay workflows to build, implement, debug, and iterate on gameplay spaces - Comfort working independently on assigned content, with the ability to manage tasks, iterate on feedback, and solve implementation challenges in a dynamic production environment - Strong collaboration and communication skills, with the ability to work closely across design, art, engineering, audio, and production to deliver cohesive gameplay experiences - Strong understanding of combat space design, player navigation, encounter pacing, gameplay readability, and multiplayer level flow ### Pluses - Passion for third-person action games and competitive or cooperative multiplayer experiences - Strong interest in hands-on level implementation, including layout design, encounter setup, scripting, and gameplay integration - Appreciation for systemic gameplay and how level design supports replayability, player expression, and multiple tactical approaches - Interest in creating memorable gameplay moments through level composition, pacing, and environmental storytelling - Care about polish, clarity, and player comprehension, and enjoy iterating on spaces to improve gameplay balance and overall player experience - Curiosity about how level design, gameplay systems, and player behavior intersect to create engaging, replayable multiplayer environments