Senior Audio Designer - Narrative Focus

HoYoverse•Los Angeles, CA

About The Position

HoYoverse is seeking a Senior Audio Designer with a narrative focus to help create a coherent audio story across traditional cutscenes and emergent gameplay, such as dialogue choices. The role works closely with gameplay, narrative, art, quest design, technical design, and engineering to shape the player experience and the processes needed to create a nonlinear story. The designer will build audio functions and logic with technical partners and work with and mentor in-house audio talent. The position includes co-creating the audio vision for narrative cohesion and implementing dynamic systems in Wwise and Unreal Engine 5 so branching gameplay feels authored. The designer will identify story moments that emerge through play and propose audio solutions to strengthen them, manage risks as broader design evolves, and translate systemic narrative needs into technical requirements for tools and pipelines. The role also establishes and documents best practices, plays the game extensively to find inconsistencies and transition problems, and advocates for the audio experience across disciplines. The base pay range is $135,000 to $175,000 USD per year for Los Angeles. Actual pay depends on location and relevant knowledge, skills, and experience. Total compensation may include salary, company bonuses, sign-on bonuses, relocation package, and other benefits.

Requirements

At least 5 years of game audio design experience.
A portfolio or demo reel demonstrating systemic or nonlinear audio design that adapts to player choice, state changes, or emergent gameplay.
Mastery of dynamic audio implementation in a modern game engine.
Expertise with Wwise or FMOD, especially on large-scale projects with multiple systems and complex routing.
A strong personal relationship with games, including broad play experience, critical thinking about how games work, and understanding how audio shapes the player experience.
Excellent communication skills, including the ability to inspire others with a creative vision and explain technical needs clearly to engineering partners.

Nice To Haves

Experience on shipped branching narrative games, open-world titles, immersive sims, or games where story emerges through systems.
Experience mentoring other audio designers or providing creative feedback.
Familiarity with technical pipelines and tools used in quest or narrative scripting, such as visual scripting or dialogue systems.

Responsibilities

Co-create the audio vision for narrative cohesion.
Craft and implement dynamic audio systems in Wwise and UE5 so branching gameplay feels like an authored experience.
Collaborate with gameplay, systems, quest, and narrative designers to identify where story emerges through play and propose audio solutions that surface and strengthen those moments.
Identify risks and keep the audio vision moving forward while broader design is still taking shape.
Partner with tools engineers, audio programmers, and other technical personnel to translate systemic narrative design needs into clear technical requirements for audio tools and pipelines.
Establish and document best practices for systemic audio design, creating shared language and process across the team.
Play the game extensively to identify stylistic inconsistencies, dead zones, and poor transitions, and advocate for the audio experience across disciplines.
Work with and guide in-house audio talent, elevating the experience through personal contributions and mentorship.