Technical Game Designer

Posted Yesterday
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Kirkland, WA, USA
Hybrid
89K-131K Annually
Senior level
Gaming • Information Technology • Mobile • Software • Esports
2K develops and publishes interactive entertainment for video game consoles, personal computers, and mobile devices.
The Role
Designs, prototypes, ships, and tunes features for free-to-play mobile games. Owns gameplay experiences end to end, writes detailed specifications, prototypes directly in Unity, integrates live-service systems, develops agentic design workflows, analyzes telemetry, and collaborates with engineering and art teams to balance gameplay, difficulty, and monetization.
Summary Generated by Built In

2K’s Cat Daddy studio, based in Kirkland, Washington, was started 25+ years ago by industry veterans and is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Take-Two Interactive within the 2K Label. The studio is a fun, dedicated family of incredibly hardworking game developers. We have shipped games on almost every genre and platform, with a current focus on mobile games.

What We Need:

Cat Daddy is seeking a Technical Designer to join our team of artists, engineers, and product managers to design, prototype, and ship features for free-to-play mobile games. This role sits between design and engineering. You will carry a feature from the first pitch through to the live build: writing the spec, standing up the prototype in Unity, wiring it into the services that run our games, and tuning it once players are inside it. The ideal candidate has shipped multiple F2P mobile games in a design or technical design role.

This is an in-office position, located in Kirkland, WA. Must be able to work onsite 4 days a week. 

What You Will Do:

  • Design new gameplay experiences including limited-time events, complete game modes, and mini-games that add variety and excitement to the core game loop.

  • Own features end to end, from the pitch through a working prototype, the shipped build, and the live tuning pass that follows.

  • Write specs that hold up as executable instructions: clear intent, explicit constraints, acceptance criteria, edge cases, and the failure states that separate a good build from a plausible one.

  • Build, orchestrate, and refine agentic workflows across the design pipeline, covering research, competitive teardowns, spec drafting, prototype scaffolding, balance sweeps, content authoring, and telemetry analysis.

  • Prototype directly in Unity so a concept can be played, and validated against live service systems.

  • Collaborate with cross-functional teams to balance fun, difficulty, and monetization across your designs.

Who We Think Will Be A Great Fit:

  • 5+ years of game design experience, with a focus on free-to-play mobile games, plus a Bachelor's degree in a related field and/or comparable, relevant work experience.

  • Deep, hands-on practice with agentic tooling and workflows, used daily rather than demoed occasionally.

  • Fluency in the craft that makes those workflows work: context and prompt construction, task decomposition, tool and permission design, checkpointing, evaluation harnesses, and honest measurement of quality over time.

  • Production experience in Unity building mobile games.

  • Expert-level understanding of the mobile game market from a game design perspective, including game economies, data analysis, back-end environments, and live infrastructure.

  • Practical understanding of game development pipelines end to end.

  • World-class communication skills, with proven ability to produce effective design documentation, and a great teammate who can collaborate with engineers and artists on game development.

The pay range for this position in Kirkland, WA at the start of employment is expected to be between $88,700 and $131,300 per year. However, base pay offered is based on market location, and may vary further depending on individualized factors for job candidates, such as job-related knowledge, skills, experience, and other objective business considerations.

Subject to those same considerations, the total compensation package for this position may also include other elements, including a bonus and/or equity awards and eligibility to participate in our 401(K) plan and Employee Stock Purchase Program.

Regular, full-time employees are also eligible for a range of benefits at the Company, including: medical, dental, vision, and basic life insurance coverage; 14 paid holidays per calendar year; paid vacation time per calendar year (ranging from 15 to 25 days) or eligibility to participate in the Company’s discretionary time off program; up to 10 paid sick days per calendar year; paid parental and compassionate leave; wellbeing programs for mental health and other wellness support; family planning support through Maven; commuter benefits; and reimbursements for fitness-related expenses.

If hired, employee will be in an "at-will position" and the company reserves the right to modify base salary (as well as any other discretionary payment or compensation or benefit program) at any time, including for reasons related to individual performance, company or individual department/team performance, and market factors.

At Cat Daddy, we believe diversity of experience is fundamental to crafting accessible and fun gaming experiences for all of our players. We encourage everyone to consider being a part of our team.

We are an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, gender, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment. Please contact us to request accommodation.

Please note that Cat Daddy is unable to provide visa sponsorship or assistance for this position. All candidates must be legally authorized to work in United States without requiring current or future employer sponsorship.

By clicking on the link below, you consent to the processing of your personal information by 2K Games, Inc. and its affiliate Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. in accordance with the Privacy Notice for Job Applicants (the “Privacy Notice”), available at https://www.2k.com/applicantprivacypolicy/. The Notice provides information about how we use your data and how you can exercise your right of access, rectification or deletion. If you need more information, please contact the Privacy Contact identified in the Notice.

I have read the Notice consent to the collection, processing, transfer and use of my personal information by 2K Games and Take-Two.

Please note that 2K Games and its studios never uses instant messaging apps or personal email accounts to contact prospective employees or conduct interviews and when emailing, only use 2K.com accounts.
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Skills Required

  • 5+ years of game design experience focused on free-to-play mobile games
  • Bachelor’s degree in a related field or comparable relevant work experience
  • Deep, hands-on experience with agentic tooling and workflows
  • Fluency in context and prompt construction, task decomposition, tool and permission design, checkpointing, evaluation harnesses, and quality measurement
  • Production experience building mobile games in Unity
  • Expert understanding of the mobile game market, game economies, data analysis, backend environments, and live infrastructure
  • Practical understanding of end-to-end game development pipelines
  • Strong communication skills and demonstrated ability to produce effective design documentation
  • Ability to collaborate onsite in Kirkland, Washington four days per week
  • Multiple shipped free-to-play mobile games in a design or technical design role

What the Team is Saying

2K Compensation & Benefits Highlights

  • Healthcare Strength — Health coverage is widely characterized as robust, with medical, dental, vision, mental-health support, and wellness programs frequently highlighted.
  • Leave & Time Off Breadth — Paid time off, sick time, holidays, and a companywide year‑end break are emphasized, with some roles noting discretionary time off and flexible/hybrid work.
  • Parental & Family Support — Paid parental leave, fertility and family‑planning resources, and childcare support are repeatedly described as part of the package.

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The Company
HQ: Novato, CA
4,200 Employees
Year Founded: 2005

What We Do

2K is headquartered in Novato, California and is a wholly owned label of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. (NASDAQ: TTWO). Founded in 2005, 2K Games is a global video game company, publishing titles developed by some of the most influential game development studios in the world. Our studios responsible for developing 2K’s portfolio of world-class games across multiple platforms, include Visual Concepts, Firaxis, Hangar 13, CatDaddy, Cloud Chamber, 31st Union, and HB Studios. Our portfolio of titles is expanding due to our global strategic plan, building and acquiring exciting studios whose content continues to inspire all of us! 2K publishes titles in today’s most popular gaming genres, including sports, shooters, action, role-playing, strategy, casual, and family entertainment. Our team of engineers, marketers, artists, writers, data scientists, producers, thinkers and doers, are the professional publishing stewards of our growing library of critically-acclaimed franchises such as NBA 2K, 2K PGA, Battleborn, BioShock, Borderlands, The Quarry, The Darkness, Mafia, Sid Meier’s Civilization, Marvel’s Midnight Suns, WWE 2K, and XCOM. At 2K, we pride ourselves on creating an inclusive work environment, which means encouraging our teams to Come as You Are and do your best work! We encourage ALL applicants to explore our global positions, even if they don’t meet every requirement for the role. If you're interested in the job and think you have what it takes to work at 2K, we encourage you to apply!

Why Work With Us

We pride ourselves on creating an inclusive work environment, which means encouraging our teams to Come as You Are and do your best work! We push ourselves creatively to do the best work of our careers. We’re direct, open, and you’ll probably meet some new best friends – along with their dogs – sitting nearby. In short, it’s kinda awesome.

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Employees engage in a combination of remote and on-site work.

We are a blend of onsite, hybrid, and remote roles. Please refer to individual job descriptions for more details on location.

Typical time on-site: Flexible
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