Lead Technical Designer| Diablo | Irvine, CA or Albany, NY

Lead Technical Designer

Diablo games are action RPG experiences with endless evil to slay, countless abilities to master, nightmarish dungeons, and legendary loot. Come work with us, and together, we'll create experiences that exceed the expectations of those who call Sanctuary home.

We are seeking a Lead Technical Designer to assist in the creation of new ARPG experiences within one of Blizzard's most iconic worlds, Diablo. As a key member of the team, you will be responsible for leading a group of technical designers while providing technical and creative support across the design organization. You will help define and evolve designer workflows, tools, and pipelines to enable the efficient creation of high-quality, performant content.

This role offers a flexible hybrid work week, with a mix of remote and on-site days. While hybrid is the standard arrangement, you're also welcome to work on-site full-time if you prefer. Our primary studio locations are in Albany, NY, and Irvine, CA.

Responsibilities

• Lead and support a team of technical designers, providing direction on priorities, deliverables, and career development.
• Coach and mentor designers on implementation, workflows, and tools.
• Collaborate closely with design, engineering, art, QA, and production to align solutions and execution.
• Serve as a technical point of contact for content reviews, standards, and best practices.
• Champion improvements to designer workflows, identifying inefficiencies and driving solutions.
• Analyze existing pipelines and tools to determine areas for enhancement.
• Partner with engineering to request, define, and refine tool and workflow improvements.
• Create, maintain, and reinforce standards and best practices for technical design.
• Review and troubleshoot game content to ensure quality, cleanliness, and performance.
• Simplify complex systems and content to improve usability and scalability.
• Contribute hands-on where needed, including debugging and resolving content issues.

Minimum Requirements

• 8+ years of experience in game design on AAA titles, including technical design experience, with a track record of shipping content across multiple areas (systems, levels, encounters, UI, etc.).
• Experience leading, mentoring, or guiding developers, with accountability for team delivery and quality outcomes.
• Experience developing and evolving pipelines, workflows, and development processes to support scalable content creation.
• Strong understanding of technical design principles, pipelines, and content creation workflows, including a deep familiarity with game editors.
• Proficiency in scripting or programming gameplay systems and content, with the ability to diagnose and resolve complex technical and content-related issues.
• Ability to create and communicate clear design documentation for tools, systems, and workflows.
• Experience collaborating across disciplines to deliver complex features or systems, with strong communication skills that align cross-functional partners.
• Ability to balance hands-on technical execution with leadership responsibilities in a dynamic development environment.
• A collaborative, team-oriented approach, with a passion for improving workflows, tools, and developer experience.

Extra Points

• Previous design experience for ARPG / Open World / Multiplayer games.
• Passion for new and emerging workflows.
• Previous experience training developers on best practices.
• Authoring game content using the Lua scripting language.
• Familiarity with Blizzard worlds and gameplay, especially within the dark fantasy of Diablo.

Best known for iconic video game universes including Warcraft®, Overwatch®, Diablo®, and Star Craft®, Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. (), a division of Activision Blizzard, which was acquired by Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), is a premier developer and publisher of entertainment experiences. Blizzard Entertainment has created some of the industry's most critically acclaimed and genre-defining games over the last 30 years, with a track record that includes multiple Game of the Year awards.

Blizzard Entertainment engages tens of millions of players around the world with titles available on PC via ®, Xbox, Play Station, Nintendo Switch, iOS, and…