Technical Designer

Location: Los Angeles, California, United States, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Québec City, Quebec, Canada, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, United States, Charleston, South Carolina, United States

Department: CoDev

Workplace: remote

Employment Type: contract

Description

At Side, we partner with some of the world's leading developers and publishers to solve complex production challenges and help bring exceptional games to life. From concept through live operations, our co-development teams work as trusted extensions of our clients' studios, contributing expertise across design, engineering, art, audio, QA, and production.

We are looking for a Technical Designer to bridge the gap between creative vision and technical implementation across co-development projects. This role is suited to a tech-minded designer with strong Unreal Engine 4 expertise who enjoys hands-on Blueprint development, systems architecture, and close collaboration with cross-functional teams like narrative and UI.

The ideal candidate will bring deep experience leading design teams on Unreal Engine projects, with a background spanning gameplay design, systems design, technical design, and level design. You'll be equally comfortable defining player experiences at a high level, prototyping and validating ideas, mentoring designers, and collaborating with engineering teams to ensure successful execution.

Requirements

What you will do:

• Refactor prototype Blueprint assets into scalable, reusable systemic actors, utilizing C++ in Unreal Engine 4 when core performance or extension is needed.
• Build UI tooling and developer interfaces to surface debug information and diagnostics to logs and HUDs.
• Debug and verify large-scale game systems, cleaning up errors and resolving content or code issues.
• Implement gameplay mechanics and reward systems while partnering with narrative teams to seamlessly hook up quest lines.

What we are looking for:

• Deep expertise with Unreal Engine 4 and a strong understanding of gameplay, systems, and level design.
• Strong FPS design experience, with a track record of improving gameplay flow, combat encounters, progression, and player engagement.
• Excellent communication, stakeholder management, and mentoring skills, with the ability to balance creative vision against production realities.

Benefits

• Competitive Salary.
• Dynamic, multicultural and fun environment.
• You will be working for the world's leading provider of game services.
• We empower our people and offer regular progression opportunities to ensure our employees flourish.

About Side 
Side (formerly PTW) is a global video game development and services provider, offering technical and creative solutions to many of the largest developers and studios around the world. Founded in 2009 and drawing on 30+ years' experience from our parent company in Japan, Side has since grown to become a global force with 20 studios in 14 countries across North America, Europe, South America, and Asia. 

Our industry-leading services include game development, art production, audio production, quality assurance, localization, localization QA, player support, community management, and datasets. 

Experience our side of life. For more information, visit www.side.inc