Senior Progression Designer (CONTRACT)

CONTRACT ROLE

Sony Bend Studio, renowned creator of Days Gone, Uncharted: Golden Abyss, and Syphon Filter, is seeking outstanding talent to join our passionate and creative team in crafting our next high-profile AAA title.

We are seeking a Senior Progression Designer to help shape and own the progression systems, rewards, and support economies for our next AAA title. In this role, you will contribute to player experiences that drive satisfaction, motivation, and long-term engagement.

Responsibilities

• Design, tune, and implement fun, meaningful progression systems, reward structures, and supporting economies that align with the game's creative vision and player experience goals.

• Collaborate effectively with cross-functional teams to define the tools, workflows, and processes needed to build, tune, and maintain progression features.

• Create and maintain clear documentation for progression systems and related features, including design briefs, spreadsheets, tuning models, and data visualizations.

• Communicate design goals, feature updates, and implementation details to team members and stakeholders.

• Partner with developers in the design and creation of new content, assets, features, and rewards that support progression goals.

• Work with User-Experience Research (UXR) to test design hypotheses, understand player behavior, and improve the overall player experience.

• Help implement changes to progression systems based on testing, feedback, and data insights.

Requirements:

• 5+ years of experience in video game progression design, systems design, economy design, or related fields, with experience contributing to shipped games.

• Strong knowledge of current trends, innovations, and competitive approaches in game progression and reward design.
• A player-centered approach to design, with empathy for players and an understanding of player motivation, needs, and psychology.
• Strong proficiency in data management, spreadsheet modeling, analysis, and visualization.
• Ability to translate design goals into practical systems, tuning models, and implementation-ready documentation.

• Strong collaboration skills, with a commitment to inclusive, accessible design and a positive team culture.

• Ability to break down, prioritize, and manage tasks across sprints, milestones, and development phases.

• Advanced knowledge of scripting languages and code is preferred, but not required. Comfort working in data tools, tuning pipelines, and implementation-facing workflows is important.