We are looking for a Senior Design Manager to join us at Undead Labs. This is a unique position with a core focus on development of talent – specifically our game and UX designers – who make our games engaging, fun, and feel amazing to play.
As a member of the Design team, you will help fulfill our mission to create the best games and the best careers in the industry by enabling a great employee experience. Given our highly autonomous culture, you will partner with project leaders and be a key person the designers look to for growth, coaching, and inspiration to do their best work. Your deep experience in game design, combined with nurturing talent in others, will help us keep our art quality bar high and advocate for designers’ individual and collective needs. Operating as a People Manager for Designers, you will be responsible for 10 or more team members. As part of our studio leadership team, you will uphold our practices in leading individuals and leading our culture. This position reports to the Head of Player Experience.
At Undead Labs, we work in highly collaborative, cross-discipline teams because we understand that the best ideas are ones we generate together. We are humble and curious in our work, and are always striving to make things better - for our players, for each other, and for our industry. Everyone here is committed to helping the team thrive, enabling us to rise to the moment to build incredible games.
We have office hubs in Seattle, WA, Champaign, IL, and Orlando, FL and are also able to employ people in Texas and California. If you are currently located in one of these locations, or open to relocation, we'd love to hear from you!
What You’ll Do
- Spend time in dialogue with team members and coworkers to understand our business priorities, talent needs, and employee experience aspirations
- Build trust and rapport with direct report team members and learn each person’s passions, skills, and desires for their career
- Help team members find work that combines their interests and talents with studio opportunities and needs
- Give specific and timely feedback based on direct observations and perspectives you gather from others
- Help team members understand organizational goals, and their meaning, and how their work fits into these
- Provide coaching and development that improves team members’ skills, impact, confidence, and capability to create great games
- Support team members in self-directed problem solving, goal-setting, and help them achieve their job and career goals
- Acts as a consultant to executive leadership, advising on studio-level gaps and solutions
Studio Leadership Responsibilities
- Invest in developing and growing our studio talent
- Foster engagement, safety, collaboration, accountability, and community
- Share strategy and long-term planning and vision
- Partner with other leaders to staff project and product teams
- Help shape the design of tools and practices that impact the employee experience (e.g., selection, pay, employee communications, performance measures, etc.)
Core Traits & Experience
- Experience and technical skills in the craft of digital game design, to help advise the team
- Curiosity, empathy, high self-awareness, and growth mindset
- Ability to create an inclusive team environment
- Productive and results-oriented
- Excellent in 2-way communication with others, in spoken and written words
- Skilled in providing coaching and feedback to all types of individuals
- Understands the dynamics of humans at work, including differences in personality styles, motivations, and maturation of individuals and teams
- Has a knack for mentoring and teaching others
- Adept at listening, gathering information, and assessing and diagnosing problems
- Applies systems thinking to problem and solution sets
- Ideally brings 5 or more years experience in game design, and 3 or more years managing people
Benefits & Perks
Benefits/perks listed below may vary depending on the nature of your employment with Undead Labs and the state in which you work.
- Medical, dental, and vision health insurance
- Unlimited PTO + studio holiday closure in December
- 401k plan with 50% matching
- Subsidized transportation to & from work
- Professional growth resources
- Discounts on the Microsoft Games store
Physical Requirements
- Close vision to monitors and screens, consistently working on computer equipment such as keyboards and monitors, long periods of sitting.
- Noise levels are low to moderate in the work environment.
Reasonable accommodations can be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
About Undead Labs
We are creators of the hit survival-fantasy franchise State of Decay with a fan base of over 10 million people. As an independent member of Xbox Game Studios, we collaborate with a huge network of skilled specialists in all disciplines, providing incredible opportunities for joint development and learning.
Undead Labs is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, color, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, marital status, medical condition, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran status, race, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by applicable laws, regulations, and ordinances.
We look forward to hearing from you!