Game Design Director Jobs in California (NOW HIRING)

As a Game Design Manager / Level Design Lead you'll be front and center in defining the design of our game. You'll partner with leads from multiple disciplines to ensure that VALORANT's tactical gameplay shines through. You'll be a champion for design excellence, and level up those around you. You'll apply rigorous critical thinking and a strong dose of imagination to engineer the fun of thrilling in-game experiences. You'll work with every tool at hand and collaborate with multiple interdisciplinary teams to create player-focused designs that'll delight millions around the world.
VALORANT is Riot's take on a character-driven tactical shooter-one where every angle matters, every decision carries weight, and competitive integrity is sacred.
As Level Design Lead, you'll help define the future of VALORANT's maps: evolving existing spaces, leading bold new innovations, and ensuring every map delivers on the tactical depth players expect. You'll partner closely with design, art, and production leadership to shape how millions of players experience the game-today and years from now.
This role is both strategic and hands-on. You'll lead a small, talented team of level designers while remaining deeply connected to the craft-jumping into the editor, guiding design decisions, and helping ship meaningful updates and reworks to a live, competitive game.
You'll report to the Director, Game Design and work at the heart of VALORANT's gameplay evolution.
Responsibilities:

• Set and evolve the design vision for VALORANT maps, ensuring they uphold the game's tactical DNA while pushing the genre forward
• Lead both live map updates and major reworks, building on successes like Breeze and shaping how players engage with maps over time
• Drive innovation on new maps, exploring new ideas while protecting competitive integrity
• Manage, mentor, and grow a team of level designers, leveling up their craft through hands-on feedback, coaching, and example
• Partner closely with Map Art, Lighting, and Production, blending gameplay clarity with visual quality and shipping reliably at high polish
• Guide projects from early concept through final release, balancing player value, development cost, and long-term sustainability
• Influence senior leadership on product direction, strategy, and priorities related to maps and gameplay experiences
• Anticipate player needs across platforms, understanding how different audiences engage with competitive shooters
• Champion player empathy, using data, feedback, and intuition to evolve maps in ways that resonate with the community

Required Qualifications:

• 5+ years experience in a Level Design role; experience as a game design owner of multiple large projects in parallel with successful delivery
• 1+ years people management experience; experience with mentorship of other designers leading to a promotion or substantial positive improvements in their work
• Experience creating systemic change to a design team's process or principles to improve output significantly across the team
• Experience leading cross-discipline teams to deliver on design goals
• Experience communicating and expressing complex and nuanced designs in simple ways
• Leadership experience resolving conflict, and when needed offering difficult feedback with respect

Desired Qualifications:

• Experience working as a developer on an FPS title.
• Strong understanding of Tactical FPS principles and can apply them effectively
• Robust understanding of the FPS market and player motivations and behaviors
• Can quickly produce a wide breadth of mechanics solutions, and generate and identify an excellent solution
• Experience developing on multiple platforms

For this role, you'll find success through craft expertise and a collaborative spirit that prioritizes the delight of players. We will look at your past studies and experience, but for this role, we also look for dedicated people with a personal relationship with games. If you embody player empathy and care about players' experiences, this is the role for you!
Our Perks:
Riot focuses on work/life balance, shown by our open paid time off policy and other perks such as flexible work schedules. We offer medical, dental, and life insurance, parental leave for you, your spouse/domestic partner, and children, and a 401k with company match. Check out our benefits pages for more information.
At Riot Games, we put players first. That mission drives every decision in our quest to create games and experiences that make it better to be a player. Whether you're working directly on a new player-facing experience or you're supporting the company as a whole, everyone at Riot is part of our mission. And just like in our games, we're better when we work together. Our goal is to create collaborative teams where you are empowered to bring your unique perspective everyday. If that sounds like the kind of place you want to work, we're looking forward to your application.
It's our policy to provide equal employment opportunity for all applicants and members of Riot Games, Inc. Riot Games makes reasonable accommodations for handicapped and disabled Rioters and does not unlawfully discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, handicap, veteran status, marital status, criminal history, or any other category protected by applicable federal and state law. We consider for employment all qualified applicants, including those with criminal histories, in a manner consistent with applicable federal, state and local law, including the California Fair Chance Act, the City of Los Angeles Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance, the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers, the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, and the Washington Fair Chance Act.
Per the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance, the following core duties may create a basis for disqualifying candidates with relevant criminal histories:

• Safeguarding confidential and sensitive Company data
• Communication with others, including Rioters and third parties such as vendors, and/or players, including minors
• Accessing Company assets, secure digital systems, and networks
• Ensuring a safe interactive environment for players and other Rioters

These duties are directly related to essential operations, safety, trust, and compliance obligations within our organization. Please note that job duties may evolve based on business needs and additional responsibilities may be assigned as necessary to maintain operational efficiency and security.
(Los Angeles Only) Base salary range between $166,600.00 - $232,800.00 USD + incentive compensation + equity + 401K with company match + medical, dental, vision, and life insurance + short and long-term disability + open PTO.
(Mercer Island only) Base salary range between $166,600.00 - $232,800.00 USD + incentive compensation + equity + 401K with company match + medical, dental, vision, and life insurance + short and long-term disability + open PTO.