Do you have a deep understanding of systemic first-person shooter gameplay and controls? Can you strike a balance between precise, fast-paced, competitive gameplay and more immersive and sustained cooperative experiences? Do you have a track record of collaborating across teams to ensure a cohesive gameplay experience that supports the overall product vision? Do you firmly believe insights from player behavior and other qualitative and quantitative data are fundamental to making smart design decisions? Are you passionate about Halo, eager to preserve what makes it unique—while brimming with ideas to evolve an experience that millions of players love? If so, the Halo Infinite team would love to speak with you about becoming our next Lead Sandbox Designer!
Responsibilities
- Collaborate with Halo Infinite’s Head of Creative as well as the F2P Multiplayer and Campaign leads and other key stakeholders to define the future of Halo’s core combat experience.
- Direct the expansion and refinement of Halo Infinite’s weapons, vehicles, equipment, and other sandbox elements with an eye towards deep and immersive systems.
- Build and maintain collaborative relationships with all development disciplines to ensure a best-in-industry production process that avoids silos and reinforces a unified product vision.
- Hire, manage, and mentor a world-class team of Sandbox designers; help them grow their skills and support them to do their best work.
- Set clear design goals and deliverables, focusing the Sandbox design team on achieving a high-quality, cohesive experience for all players, on all platforms.
- As a senior leader on Halo Infinite, champion a culture of service, respectful feedback, collaboration, transparency, and trust throughout the team.
- As a senior leader at 343 Industries, be a consistent source of clarity, positive energy and an exemplar of Microsoft and Xbox values.
Qualifications
- Shipped multiple, high-quality games in the capacity of Design Director, Design Lead, or equivalent senior leadership role, leading a design team through all phases of development. Shipped games with excellent watchability and/or success on streaming platforms is a plus.
- Highly skilled in communicating an excellent design vision while remaining collaborative and open to new ideas. This includes pitching ideas, strategic initiatives, and game concepts to team leaders, including studio executives.
- Expertise in prioritizing and communicating feature requests to engineering and production partners based on design goals. Experience with agile scrum methodology a plus.
- Comprehensive understanding of games—especially the FPS and action genres—gameplay mechanics and systems, competitive and social player psychology, combined with the demonstrated ability to identify, analyze, and rectify game design and gameplay issues.
- Deep knowledge of standard industry game engines, design toolsets, and production pipelines.
Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, color, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, marital status, medical condition, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran status, race, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by applicable laws, regulations and ordinances. We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements. If you need assistance and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application or the recruiting process, please send a request via the Accommodation request form.
Benefits/perks listed below may vary depending on the nature of your employment with Microsoft and the country where you work.