Head of Game Design

🧑🏼‍💻 The role:

We are on a mission to revolutionize education by harnessing the power of cutting-edge learning games designed to supercharge Power skills. As part of our strategic expansion, we are broadening our portfolio to include AI-first and single-player games, further diversifying our offerings to meet a wide range of learning objectives. To facilitate this growth, we are excited to welcome an experienced game designer to our world-class team to lead our game design department. This individual will play a crucial role in the development of NXTLVL, helping to shape the future of kids educational gaming!

Are you ready to embark on this exciting journey? 😎

🕵️ Key details:

Whereabouts: Remote - We have offices in London and Athens but the majority of the team is remote
Interview process: ~3 hours of interviews (intro call, case study, meeting with founders)
Compensation: You’ll be compensated competitively - a hybrid model of both salary + stock options can be discussed
Reporting to: You’ll work closely with all 3 founders. Officially, you’ll report to Konstantinos (CPO)

🎯 What you‘ll do:

• Collaborate with the leadership team to set and work towards the achievement of objectives and key results (OKRs) related to game design and development.
• Create the concept and game mechanics for each game/family of games, thoughtfully integrating the defined learning objectives, pedagogical approaches, and frameworks.
• Utilize AI-first tools and mechanisms to enhance the design of single-player games.
• Work closely with our learning, facilitation, child psychology, and subject matter experts, as well as identify best practices and relevant research to inform the game design implementation and define the learning objectives of each game/family of games.
• Work closely with the Head of Game Development and other technical teams to guide the implementation of each game/family of games.
• Organize and conduct iterative user-testing/playtests to identify and understand areas for improvement in a data-driven way.
• Work on game and session analytics infrastructure, and define metrics aligned with our learning objectives.
• Assist leadership in building, scaling, and leading the team needed for game design and development based on the growing needs of the startup.
• Collaborate with other NXTLVL teams not related to game development whose OKRs and strategic initiatives are close to your expertise.

🌟 You have:

• You've worked in high-performing, high-intensity, team-first environments (e.g., innovative game studios, high-growth startups, etc.).
• You've acquired at least seven (7) years of relevant experience in game design.
• You've led game design & development processes end-to-end (vs. discrete tasks or streams within an initiative or project).
• You've worked with robust prototyping processes to inform effective design.
• You've worked on game analytics and metrics.
• You've managed larger teams of game designers, developers, artists, producers, etc.

🥇 Your skills:

• Learning game design — Ability to create game concepts and mechanics that maintain both engagement and effective learning at the highest levels. Confident in delving deeply into new content areas to inform the implementation of game design.
• Structured idea generation — Experienced in generating a wide range of unique game concepts and mechanics, as well as defining the criteria to select the most suitable one for our learning needs.
• Prototyping — Confident in running prototyping (design > build > try > iterate) to inform effective design instead of over-designing without experimentation, as well as recognizing the development needs and specifics in every step of the design process.
• Unity experience — We develop all our games in Unity, so being confident in using the platform is important.
• Full ownership & adaptability — Can lead critical initiatives, pulling in help as needed, and keeps projects on schedule (vs. requiring active oversight and input). Willingness to be flexible, switching between initiatives depending on the company's needs.
• Outstanding people skills — Thrive working in teams, brings a deep level of empathy, and can connect easily with many types of people.

✔️ Your mindset:

• Hungry to learn by doing — Excited to roll up your sleeves and get stuff done (even they fall outside of your natural area of responsibilities).
• You get the startup grind — Proactive, embrace ambiguity, and understand that the company’s directions and your responsibilities will continuously evolve.

✔️ Nice to have:

• Experience in educational game design, creating game concepts and mechanics to achieve specific learning objectives.

🍩 We offer:

• The chance to join an innovative team shaping the future of education early.
• Direct collaboration with top-tier entrepreneurial, learning, and game development teams.
• A crucial role in shaping the company's growth trajectory and game design success.
• The autonomy to innovate and implement strategies that make a real difference.
• Competitive compensation package that can include stock options.

NXTLVL.io is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.