Systems Designer

Ironwood Digital is a globally remote game development company specializing in Co-development, Porting, and End-to-End Art Production for the global gaming industry. With a distributed team we collaborate across time zones to support projects on all major platforms, engines and styles - from AAA titles to emerging technologies. Our team includes world-class talents who bring deep expertise in external development, pipeline optimization, and creative problem-solving. Whether it’s porting games to new systems, enhancing gameplay features, or crafting stunning visuals, Ironwood Digital operates as a trusted, flexible extension of our partners’ internal teams. We are proud to be the development partner of choice for industry leaders such as: 2K Xbox Meta Obsidian Entertainment Turtle Rock Studios Gearbox Software At Ironwood Digital , we’re committed to making outsourcing more efficient, collaborative, and impactful. If you're passionate about co-development, game art, or solving technical challenges on a global scale. We are hiring a Systems Designer with expertise in economy design, monetization, and player progression to support live and evolving games across our co-development partnerships. You will design, tune, and maintain the systems that shape player engagement, reward structures, and long-term progression, ensuring they are balanced, sustainable, and clearly communicated. This is a collaborative, data-informed role at the intersection of player motivation, system health, and live game performance. Key Responsibilities: Design and own player progression systems, including XP curves, unlock pacing, milestone rewards, progression loops, and long-term engagement structures. Build, tune, and maintain in-game economies, including currencies, sinks and sources, item valuation, reward distribution, and exchange systems. Design monetization systems and content structures that align with player trust and support long-term engagement, including seasonal content, stores, passes, and other live-service offerings where applicable. Support the planning and tuning of recurring content, live events, and gameplay incentives tied to seasonal or rotating content strategies. Partner with design, product, production, and live operations teams to model the impact of new features, content, and reward changes before release. Create and maintain economy models, balance sheets, simulation tools, and tuning documentation to support implementation and decision-making. Analyze live data, player behavior, and feedback to identify economy drift, progression friction, reward imbalance, or missed monetization opportunities. Propose and implement tuning changes that improve clarity, retention, engagement, and overall system health. Help investigate and resolve player-facing issues related to rewards, progression, economy balance, exploits, and other live-service concerns. Requirements 4+ years of game design experience with a focus on systems, economy, progression, or live game design. At least one shipped title where you were a primary owner of progression, economy, or monetization systems. Strong analytical skills and comfort working with spreadsheets, models, and live data to support design decisions. Deep understanding of player progression, reward systems, virtual economies, retention loops, and monetization frameworks across live games. Experience designing for long-term player engagement without relying on predatory or opaque mechanics. Ability to translate product goals and business KPIs into practical, player-centered design decisions. Clear documentation skills, with the ability to create balance sheets, specs, and tuning guides that cross-functional teams can use directly. Proficiency in Unreal Engine 5, with the ability to work directly in-engine to support system implementation and tuning. Strong working knowledge of Blueprints for gameplay logic, tuning hooks, and feature support. Ability to work with light scripting in C++, particularly in support of systems implementation and collaboration with engineering teams. Nice to have: Experience working on live service or free-to-play titles. Familiarity with seasonal content models, reward calendars, or recurring event structures. Benefits Benefits Why Join Us? We offer: Strong and enthusiastic team – you will have the opportunity for knowledge sharing, learning, and professional self-development. Direct collaboration with the Finance Director. Interesting and challenging tasks – solve diverse and challenging issues of a growing organization. Convenient working conditions – remote work and flexible hours А chance to work in a highly professional and dynamic team working in an International Game Production company, attractive remuneration package, and opportunities to develop professionally. This is a remote, full-time contractor position We are an equal opportunity company and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for a contract without regard to race, colour, relig