Sr. Competitive Systems Designer (Apex Legends)
About The Position
Respawn is seeking a Senior Systems Designer focused on competitive systems for Apex Legends. The role designs and evolves systems that support competitive play, including Ranked, matchmaking-related features, competitive progression, leaderboards, scoring, rewards, and new ways for players to test their skill. The designer works across Design, Product Management, Analytics, UX, Engineering, Production, and other partner teams to create competitive experiences that are fair, understandable, motivating, and rewarding for players across a range of skill levels. The role owns major competitive systems and supports features from concept through implementation and live service operations. It balances competitive accuracy with queue times, accessibility, social play, and long-term engagement, using telemetry, player feedback, and live-service learnings to evaluate outcomes and iterate.
Requirements
- At least 5 years of professional game design experience owning progression, scoring, competitive structures, or live-service features.
- Experience designing Ranked modes, rating systems, ladders, tournaments, and other competitive systems.
- Familiarity with MMR, skill-rating systems, matchmaking constraints, and competitive matchmaking concepts.
- A track record of taking features from concept through implementation, scripting, technical prototyping, tuning, launch, and live iteration.
- Strong implementation skills, including text scripting and the ability to create prototypes using in-house tools and platform.
- Deep understanding of complex multiplayer systems, live-service needs, and player motivations, including skill, progression, incentives, fairness, and player perception.
- Strong analytical skills and comfort using data to evaluate design problems and outcomes.
- Strong communication and cross-disciplinary collaboration skills across Engineering, Analytics, UX, Product, and Production.
Nice To Haves
- Experience with seasonal resets, placement systems, rank decay, promotion systems, or competitive reward structures.
- Experience with anti-smurfing, boosting prevention, competitive integrity, or alternate competitive formats.
- Familiarity with esports ecosystems and connecting professional competition with broader player systems.
- Deep familiarity with Apex Legends, its Ranked ecosystem, or large-scale battle royale games.
Responsibilities
- Design and own major competitive systems for Apex Legends, including Ranked progression, matchmaking-related features, scoring, and competitive rewards across seasonal, annual, and lifetime career cycles.
- Develop new competitive formats, limited-time modes, and structured competition beyond Ranked play.
- Define competitive goals, rules, progression, eligibility, and recognition to motivate players across skill levels.
- Partner with Matchmaking, Analytics, Anti-Cheat, and Esports to support match quality, deter abuse through integrity systems, and connect in-game competitive structures to ALGS and professional pathways.
- Balance competitive accuracy with queue times, accessibility, social play, and long-term engagement.
- Use telemetry, feedback, and live-service learnings to define metrics, evaluate outcomes, and iterate on features.
- Collaborate across UX, Matchmaking, Analytics, Anti-Cheat, Engineering, Esports, and Community teams to align design intent, evaluate player outcomes, support competitive integrity, and meet cross-functional goals.
- Prototype, implement, tune, and support features throughout development and live-service operations.
Benefits
- Paid time off or vacation (3 weeks per year to start)
- 80 hours per year of sick time in the US; 10 days per year in Canada
- 16 paid company holidays per year in the US
- 10 weeks paid time off to bond with a baby in the US
- Paid top-up to EI/QPIP benefits up to 100% of base salary when welcoming a new child in Canada (12 weeks for maternity and 4 weeks for parental/adoption leave)
- Medical, dental, and vision insurance or coverage
- Life insurance
- Disability insurance
- 401(k) for regular full-time US employees
- Retirement plan for regular full-time Canadian employees
- Some roles may be eligible for bonus and other incentive programs
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Senior
Education Level
No Education Listed
