Systems & Economy Designer (Intermediate/Senior)

The Team

A Thinking Ape is a remote mobile game studio focused on building social games that people play for decades. This role sits on the Game Design team within our world-class Live Ops organization, which leads the industry in supporting and growing long-running live games.

Our designers are expected to dig into problems, understand what’s driving them, and take ownership of solutions through launch and beyond. The team isn’t afraid to try new things, take risks, and learn quickly. Decisions are metrics-driven and player-informed, balancing data with deep community insight to deliver meaningful, lasting experiences for our player community. 

The Games

Party in my Dorm is a highly successful free-to-play game with a community of over 100,000 dedicated players. The game has the population of a small city, with a player-driven trade economy, a passionate community, deep progression, and years of layered content. While its themes focus on fashion, relationships, storytelling, and home decor, it’s also one of the most competitive PVP experiences in mobile, surprising many players with the depth and intensity of its gameplay.

Kingdoms at War is a classic free-to-play war game with a passionate, highly engaged community and a constant cadence of live events. With years of progression, currencies, content, and player-driven systems layered together, it presents complex economy and systems design problems that evolve alongside the community.

As our portfolio grows, our designers may also have opportunities to work on different games and genres over time.

The Job

As a Systems & Economy Designer, you’ll tackle some of the most complex design problems in our live games. You’ll work with mature systems and economies that have evolved over many years, identifying where things aren't working as intended, understanding why, and designing solutions that improve the game for the long term.

This work is rarely one-and-done. You’ll establish hypotheses, build models, design solutions, launch changes carefully, measure their impact, and continue iterating as you learn more. You’ll need to understand not only the numbers, but also how changes affect player behaviour and how they are likely to be received by a passionate community.

We’re open to hiring this role at either the Intermediate or Senior level depending on experience. A Senior designer will be expected to take on broader and more ambiguous problems with greater autonomy, while also sharing their expertise and supporting other designers on the team.

What You Will Do

• Design, balance, maintain, and iterate on progression systems, currencies, reward structures, monetization systems, and other core game systems
• Investigate complex system and economy problems to uncover root causes and develop solutions
• Build spreadsheet models to simulate progression, balance economies, and forecast outcomes
• Lead design initiatives from problem definition and scoping through implementation and launch, working closely with Product, Engineering, Creative, Community, and other designers
• Use data, player behaviour, and community feedback to guide decisions, define success metrics, and evaluate outcomes
• Improve the tools, frameworks, documentation, and processes we use to design and maintain our games, including scripting, AI, and automation
• Participate in our live-ops on-call rotation for several days per month, helping the team respond quickly to urgent issues as they arise
• Stay closely connected to player sentiment, community discussions, and trends in the free-to-play mobile market
• Share your expertise and support other designers through mentorship, feedback, and collaboration

Who We Are Looking For

• 3-5 years of experience in game design, with a focus on systems or economy design

• Experience working on free-to-play games, preferably live service mobile games

• A strong understanding of F2P economies, progression, monetization, and retention mechanics

• Strong familiarity with the free-to-play mobile market and genuine interest in understanding the games, systems, and player behaviours within it

• Strong spreadsheet skills and experience building models to simulate balance, progression, or economic outcomes

• Strong data literacy, including familiarity with F2P KPIs and using data to investigate problems and evaluate design changes

• Experience owning design projects through implementation, launch, analysis, and subsequent iteration

• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to explain complex systems and design rationale clearly across disciplines

• Nice to have: 

• Experience with strategy, farming, puzzle adventure/exploration, or match-3 games

• SQL query and/or Looker experience 

What’s in it for you

At ATA you’re offered a flexible, safe, inclusive environment in which you have the autonomy to do your best work, surrounded by a strong team and with the encouragement of supportive leadership that doesn’t just care what you’re doing, but how you’re doing. You’re trusted, respected, listened to, cared for and valued. You take on thought-provoking projects and tackle fun problems alongside people who are equally invested in making meaningful contributions and seeing new ideas come to life. You know how your work aligns with the company’s goals. Your career is given the space and resources to progress. You accomplish things that make you proud. You are compensated competitively, your health and wellbeing are top priorities and you enjoy plenty of perks. At A Thinking Ape, we believe curiosity is a superpower, we make things people truly want, and we pursue gritty ambition with kindness, care, and radical alignment to growth—by thinking, acting, measuring, repeating, over-communicating, and never forgetting to play. You don’t just work for ATA, you are an integral part of ATA.

Location

We’re building a distributed team across Canada! For this role, we are open to candidates based in either British Columbia or Ontario. We’ll provide the equipment you need, and support setting up your home workspace. We have a flexible work schedule, three weeks of vacation to start, flexible sick days, and a generous health benefits package.

At A Thinking Ape, we believe in fairness and pay transparency. That’s why we offer a set salary for each role, ensuring that all employees in the same role are compensated equitably regardless of negotiation skills or background. This means you’ll know exactly what to expect from the start, without the stress of back-and-forth negotiations. For candidates located in Canada, the salary range for this role is CAD $109,000–$124,500 reflecting our commitment to competitive and fair pay. Level and compensation will be determined based on the scope and experience appropriate to the successful candidate.

Our Commitment to Inclusion

We build communities. To do this to the best of our abilities, we need a workforce that reflects the diverse player communities we serve. We believe a variety of perspectives and experiences allows us to make better decisions and understand the needs of our players. We work hard to create an environment where everyone, from any background, can do their best work and feel like they belong at ATA.  Please consider applying even if you don't meet every qualification and let us know if you require any accommodations or support during the recruitment process. 

See our careers page or our short video to learn more about who we are and why you should join our team.