Lead Level Designer (F/H/NB) [AAA Project]

• Contract: Permanent
• Work location: On-site, Annecy, France

About the Position

Ubisoft is a global leader in video games, with teams around the world creating original and memorable gaming experiences, from Assassin’s Creed to Rainbow Six, Just Dance, and more. We believe that diversity of perspectives drives progress for both players and teams. If you are passionate about innovation and want to push the boundaries of entertainment, join our adventure and help us create the unknown!

About the Role

The Lead Level Designer is responsible for the design, coherence, and execution of the gaming experiences produced by the World team.

Reporting to the World Lead, they organize, support, and advance the Level Design team to transform the gameplay, artistic, and technical vision into readable, coherent, and strong gaming spaces.

They work closely with the Lead Level Art and Lead Tech Level Design to ensure perfect coherence between gameplay intentions, visual composition, technicality, and the quality/playability of the environments.

They collaborate daily with the Technical Direction to integrate technical constraints, production tools, and methods to ensure efficient, robust, and sustainable production.

Beyond their team, they actively contribute to World decisions and represent the challenges of Level Design to other project disciplines.

Responsibilities

Management of the Level Design Team

• Organize the work of the Level Design team and define production priorities.
• Support, advance, and develop the skills of Level Designers.
• Provide regular, clear, and constructive feedback.
• Ensure a team culture based on autonomy, responsibility, and knowledge sharing.
• Identify production risks and quickly propose appropriate solutions.
• Ensure compliance with deadlines, expected quality levels, and production methods.

Collaboration within the World Team

• Translate the vision of the Game Direction and World Director into concrete Level Design objectives for the World team.
• Build a daily working relationship with the World Lead to align quality, priorities, and production capacity.
• Work closely with the Lead Level Art to design environments where gameplay, readability, composition, and art direction reinforce each other.
• Collaborate with Technical Direction to anticipate technical constraints, optimize workflows, and ensure smooth integration of content with controlled performance.
• Define quality standards, production conventions, and best practices with other Leads for the World team.
• Ensure the playability and coherence of gaming spaces, their structure, and their readability at all scales.

Collaboration with the Rest of the Project

• Represent the challenges of Level Design to the Game Direction, Technical Direction, Art Direction, and Production.
• Collaborate with Gameplay, Programming, Tech Art, QA, and other disciplines to ensure coherent integration of content.
• Participate in arbitrations between gameplay intentions, technical constraints, quality, and planning.
• Foster fluid communication between the different teams involved in the production of the World.

Excellence in Level Design

• Define Level Design standards for environments produced by their team, in coherence with the requirements of the Game Direction.
• Design spaces offering clear readability, controlled progression, and a coherent and high-quality experience.
• Ensure the quality of paths, points of interest, gameplay sequences, transitions, and spatial references.
• Pay particular attention to rhythm, movement flows, continuity of spaces, and player perception.
• Design experiences that promote discovery, decision-making, appropriation of places, and renewal of game situations.
• Quickly produce prototypes and iterations to validate gameplay intentions and continuously improve environments.
• Identify opportunities for improvement of the World throughout production.
• Stay updated on industry methods, tools, and practices to continuously improve team workflows.

Requirements

Leadership

• Proven experience in managing a Level Design team in AAA production.
• Ability to unite a team around common objectives.
• Ability to make decisions, arbitrate, and prioritize effectively.
• Excellent communication, argumentation, and collaboration skills.

Expertise in Level Design

• Solid experience in designing environments and gaming experiences for video games.
• Excellent understanding of space organization, movement flows, game ingredients, progression, rhythm, and gameplay staging.
• Ability to design environments that promote clear readability, meaningful choices, and a fluid experience.
• Good understanding of environmental storytelling and its integration into gameplay.
• Particular sensitivity to the perception of spaces, their continuity, and coherence at different scales.
• Ability to maintain a high level of quality in a complex production context.

Collaboration

• Ability to work daily with artistic, technical, and production profiles.
• Understanding of gameplay, performance, and pipeline constraints.
• Ability to transform a creative vision into concrete production objectives.
• Good knowledge of disciplines contributing to the construction of a World (architecture, geography, geology, urbanism, landscape, or equivalent fields).

Personal Qualities

• Strong creativity at the service of production objectives.
• Great rigor in organizing and monitoring their team.
• Ability to adapt and evolve methods when the context requires it.
• Clear, constructive, and problem-solving communication.
• Proficiency in English.

About the Company

Founded in 1996, Ubisoft Annecy has participated in the group's various blockbuster successes by collaborating on sagas such as Splinter Cell, Assassin’s Creed®, and standalone game parts like the raid in Tom Clancy’s: The Division 2® and Ghost Recon Wildlands. We are also proud to have developed our own IP, Steep and Riders Republic!

Beyond our AAA productions, we contribute to the technological innovation of the group, thanks to our technological expertise hub around the Snowdrop game engine, as well as the Technological Group in collaboration with Ubisoft Montreal.

Located in one of France's most dynamic regions, Ubisoft is nestled in an idyllic spot between lake and mountains, in the heart of the Venice of the Alps, just 30 minutes from Geneva International Airport. With a studio in perpetual growth, we prioritize the engagement of our employees and teamwork. Our ambition translates into innovation and excellence for the ultimate goal: the satisfaction of our players!

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Published by

Anna Konwinski

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