Principal Encounter Designer, STARCRAFT | Irvine, CA

Team Name:
Star Craft

Job Title:

Principal Encounter Designer, STARCRAFT | Irvine, CA Requisition : R028143

Your Mission Blizzard Entertainment is assembling a team to build the next chapter of STARCRAFT, returning to a universe forged in interstellar war. This mission offers something new: crafting an original story-driven, open-world shooter while honoring the legacy of one of Blizzard's most beloved games. We are here to reignite this universe alongside you. We are here to make STARCRAFT, and it's about damn time.

We are looking for a Principal Encounter Designer to help craft this new game for Blizzard. As a key member of the development team, you will be responsible for defining and championing the player combat experience and encounter philosophy that bring gameplay to life. You will help define not only how players fight, but why every combat situation is compelling, readable, challenging, and rewarding.

This role offers a hybrid work week, with a mix of work-from-home and on-site days, based out of our Irvine studio.

• Serve as the connective tissue between player combat, enemy combat, and level design disciplines.
• Build and champion the end-to-end combat experience, ensuring player abilities, enemy behaviors, and encounter design come together to create compelling gameplay.
• Design, prototype, and iterate on player combat systems, enemy combat mechanics, encounter experiences, and moment-to-moment gameplay.
• Establish combat and encounter design frameworks, guidelines, and best practices that enable scalable development across multiple feature teams.
• Implement combat encounters that challenge players, encourage mastery, support multiple play styles, and reinforce progression goals.
• Evaluate gameplay feedback, telemetry, and playtest findings to identify opportunities for improvement in combat feel, pacing, challenge, and engagement.
• Provide expert guidance and mentorship to designers across multiple disciplines through constructive feedback, design reviews, and knowledge sharing.
• Partner with leadership to identify risks, align priorities, and ensure combat initiatives support broader game goals.
• Champion high standards of quality, accessibility, usability, and player experience throughout development.

Your Platform 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 Android. Our World Activision Blizzard, Inc., is one of the world's largest and most successful interactive entertainment companies and is at the intersection of media, technology and entertainment. We are home to some of the most beloved entertainment franchises including Call of Duty®, World of Warcraft®, Overwatch®, Diablo®, Candy Crush™ and Bubble Witch™.

Our combined entertainment network delights hundreds of millions of monthly active users in 196 countries, making us the largest gaming network on the planet! Our ability to build immersive and innovate worlds is only enhanced by diverse teams working in an inclusive environment. We aspire to have a culture where everyone can thrive in order to connect and engage the world through epic entertainment.

• Experience 13+ years of applicable…