Senior Enemy (Systems) Designer

Who We Are:

At NaturalMotion, we make games that wow people. We innovate to create previously impossible experiences that would not exist without us. We take pride in making titles that reach a large audience and creating communities that last. Our commitment to excellence has earned us recognition as one of the UK's Best Places to Work in games for eight consecutive years by gamesindustry.biz, and we're proud to be part of the Zynga and Take-Two Interactive family.

Position Overview:

NaturalMotion is looking for a talented and passionate Enemy Designer to join our London studio, helping shape the combat experience for our first-person shooter mobile title. This role focuses on implementing well known enemies, adapting existing enemies and adding new compelling enemies to bring an authentic console experience to mobile

Sitting at the intersection of design, art, animation, audio, and engineering, you will ensure enemy encounters are polished, purposeful and fun. A core responsibility will be working with Level Design & Combat Design to ensure every enemy encounter is polished, purposeful, and fun. We are looking for someone who brings both craft knowledge and a genuine love of action games.

We embrace a hybrid work environment. Within this role you will work 2 days per week in our London office and the remaining days at home.

What You'll Do:

• Ownership of designing, prototyping, and implementing enemy behaviours, AI systems, boss encounters & other features that align with the creative vision of the game
• Take enemies and bosses from paper design through to shipping quality, ensuring they are complete, polished and fun for players
• Work with Level Design & Combat Design to ensure enemies, factions, and NPCs meet their goals at every stage of development. Define required metrics to track and achieve them
• Collaborate closely with art, animation, audio, design and engineering teams to build content and solve problems in a multi-disciplinary environment
• Develop and balance a diverse roster of enemies, bosses, mutators & more
• Create compelling AI behaviours & attack patterns that provide an exciting experience and appropriately challenging for players
• Analyse combat data, player feedback, and internal playtests to refine and iterate on enemy and boss designs
• Work concurrently on multiple features at varying stages of development, managing priorities effectively as content pipelines run in parallel
• Document and communicate enemy and boss design concepts clearly to ensure alignment across all development teams

What You Bring:

• Previous experience in Combat / Enemy Design or an equivalent role in the video game industry
• At least one shipped title in a design role for a Shooter / Action / RPG title
• Experience designing and implementing enemy AI, behaviours, and encounters for action games
• Experience working on a first-person or third-person game
• Familiarity with the Unreal game engine
• Ability to analyse gameplay data and player feedback to inform and balance design decisions
• Strong visual & verbal communication skills with the ability to work effectively across cross-disciplinary teams
• The ability to manage multiple designs in a fast-paced development environment
• Passionate about action games with a deep understanding of what makes enemy designs engaging and memorable

Bonus Points:

• Background in live service games and/ or mobile games with an understanding of ongoing balancing and content updates
• Experience with visual scripting or rapid prototyping tools
• An avid gamer with a genuine enthusiasm for crafting memorable and inventive enemy designs

What We Offer You:

• Competitive salary and discretionary annual bonus scheme
• 26 days holiday, plus bank holidays & 2 paid personal days
• 6 months fully paid maternity/adoption leave and 16 weeks fully paid paternity leave (eligibility criteria applies)
• Pension plan, with a double matching employer contribution
• Private medical & dental insurance and healthcare cash plan
• Life insurance, personal accident insurance and income protection
• Mental health and neurodiversity support programs
• Company Employee Stock Purchase Plan (eligibility criteria applies)
• Fitness reimbursement plan, worth £600 per annum
• Flexible working hours
• Weekly happy hours, seasonal parties and monthly social events
• Annual rail season ticket advance and cycle to work scheme

#LI-Hybrid
#LI-NH3

We are proud to be an equal opportunity employer, which means we are committed to creating and celebrating diverse thoughts, cultures, and backgrounds throughout our organization. Employment with us is based on substantive ability, objective qualifications, and work ethic – not an individual’s race, creed, color, religion, sex or gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin or ancestry, alienage or citizenship status, physical or mental disability, pregnancy, age, genetic information, veteran status, marital status, status as a victim of domestic violence or sex offenses, reproductive health decision, or any other characteristics protected by applicable law.

As an equal opportunity employer, we are committed to providing the necessary support and accommodation to qualified individuals with disabilities, health conditions, or impairments (subject to any local qualifying requirements) to ensure their full participation in the job application or interview process. Please contact us at accommodationrequest@zynga.com to request any accommodations or for support related to your application for an open position.

Please be aware that Zynga does not conduct job interviews or make job offers over third-party messaging apps such as Telegram, WhatsApp, or others. Zynga also does not engage in any financial exchanges during the recruitment or onboarding process, and will never ask a candidate for their personal or financial information over an app or other unofficial chat channel. Any attempt to do so may be the result of a scamp or phishing attack, and you should not engage. Zynga’s in-house recruitment team will only contact individuals through their official Company email addresses (i.e., via a zynga.com, take2games.com, naturalmotion.com, smallgiantgames.com, themavens.com, gram.gs email domain).

Previous experience in Combat / Enemy Design or an equivalent role in the video game industry; At least one shipped title in a design role for a Shooter / Action / RPG title; Experience designing and implementing enemy AI, behaviours, and encounters for action games; Experience working on a first-person or third-person game; Familiarity with the Unreal game engine; Ability to analyse gameplay data and player feedback to inform and balance design decisions; Strong visual & verbal communication skills with the ability to work effectively across cross-disciplinary teams; The ability to manage multiple designs in a fast-paced development environment; Passionate about action games with a deep understanding of what makes enemy designs engaging and memorable.