Sr. Competitive Systems Designer (Apex Legends)
- Compensation
- Not disclosed
- Location
- Los Angeles - Chatsworth, California, United States of America
- Work setup
- Hybrid
- Seniority
- Senior
- Employment
- Not specified
- Experience
- 5+ years
- Category
- Design
- Posted
Must have
- 5+ years of professional game design experience owning progression, scoring, competitive structures, or live-service features.
- Experience designing Ranked modes, rating systems, ladders, tournaments, and other competitive systems.
- Familiarity with MMR, skill-rating systems, matchmaking constraints, and competitive matchmaking concepts.
- Proven track record of taking features from concept through implementation, scripting, technical prototyping, tuning, launch, and live iteration.
- Strong implementation skills including text scripting and ability to create prototypes using in-house tools and platform
- Deep understanding of complex multiplayer systems, live-service needs, and player motivations, with the ability to reason about skill, progression, incentives, fairness, and player perception.
- Strong analytical skills and comfort using data to evaluate design problems and outcomes.
- Strong communication and cross-disciplinary collaboration skills across Engineering, Analytics, UX, Product, and Production.
Nice to have
- Experience with seasonal resets, placement systems, rank decay, promotion systems, or competitive reward structures.
- Experience with anti-smurfing, boosting prevention, competitive integrity, or alternate competitive formats.
- Familiarity with esports ecosystems and connecting professional competition with broader player systems.
- Deep familiarity with Apex Legends, its Ranked ecosystem, or large-scale battle royale games.
Full description
Senior Systems Designer – Competitive Systems
Founded in 2010 by the original creators of the Call of Duty Franchise, Respawn was created with the philosophy that when talented people have creative freedom, they'll make extraordinary games that achieve the unexpected. From our roots as an indie studio to joining the expansive roster of studios at Electronic Arts, this remains our guiding principle. We truly love what we do and want to share our passion with players worldwide. Our shipped titles include critically acclaimed multi-platform games Apex Legends, Titanfall, Titanfall 2, Star Wars™ Jedi: Fallen Order, Star Wars™ Jedi: Survivor and Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond. Join us for the opportunity to create groundbreaking games with some of the best developer talent in the industry.
Why This Role Matters
Respawn is looking for a Senior Systems Designer – Competitive Systems to help shape how players compete in Apex Legends.
In this role, you will design and evolve systems that support competitive play across Apex, including Ranked, matchmaking, competitive progression, leaderboards, scoring, rewards, and new ways for players to test their skill.
You will work across Design, Product Management, Analytics, UX, Engineering, Production, and other partner teams to create competitive experiences that feel fair, understandable, motivating, and rewarding for players across a wide range of skill levels.
Responsibilities
- Design and own major competitive systems for Apex Legends, including Ranked progression, matchmaking-related features, scoring, and competitive rewards for both seasonal, annual and lifetime career cycles.
- Develop new competitive formats, limited-time modes, and structured competition beyond Ranked play.
- Define competitive goals, rules, progression, eligibility, and recognition to motivate players across all skill levels.
- Partner with Matchmaking, Analytics, Anti-Cheat, and Esports to ensure match quality, integrate integrity systems to deter abuse, and connect in-game competitive structures to ALGS and professional pathways.
- Balance competitive accuracy with queue times, accessibility, social play, and long-term engagement.
- Use telemetry, feedback, and live-service learnings to define metrics, evaluate outcomes, and iterate on features.
- Collaborate across UX, Matchmaking, Analytics, Anti-Cheat, Engineering, Esports, and Community teams to align on design intent, ensure competitive integrity, evaluate player outcomes, and support cross-functional goals.
- Prototype, implement, tune, and support features throughout development and live service operations.