Principal Designer

Principal Designer (External Partners)
Location: Remote or West Hollywood/Hybrid if local
Department: Creative Design / Development Services
Annapurna Interactive is seeking a Principal Designer to act as a creative partner to our portfolio of external development teams. You are not here to build the levels or write the scripts; you are here to be the trusted partner, the seasoned consultant, and the champion of the player experience, all in service to our partner developers' unique creative visions.
This role calls for a seasoned designer (10+ years) who’s transitioned from mastering the ‘how’ of mechanics to defining the ‘why’ behind great games. You will partner with our diverse roster of indie creators to protect their unique visions while ensuring their games are accessible, intuitive, and mechanically sound.
What You’ll Do
Creative Consultancy & Support
Act as a Force Multiplier: Serve as a centralized design consultant across multiple active titles, diving deep to solve specific design knots without taking over ownership from the developers.
Milestone Evaluation: Review builds at key stages (Vertical Slice, Alpha, Beta) to provide high-level feedback on pacing, difficulty curves, onboarding, and "game feel."
Playtest Analysis: Champion playtests and gather insights from internal and external playtest data into clear, focused feedback.
Risk Assessment: Identify potential design pitfalls early (e.g., scope creep, dissonant mechanics, unclear player feedback) and propose pragmatic solutions that respect the developer's constraints.
The Player Perspective: Champion the player experience by ensuring artistic goals do not obscure usability, accessibility, or core fun factors.
Who You Are
A "Design Generalist" with High EQ: You have deep experience in systems, mechanics, levels, and narrative, but your superpower is diplomacy. You know how to give critique that inspires rather than demoralizes.
Hands-Off Implementation, Hands-On Strategy: You are comfortable putting down the tools. You derive satisfaction from empowering others to do their best work, rather than being the one to implement the asset.
An Analytical Powerhouse: You can deconstruct why a mechanic feels "off" and articulate it clearly to a dev team, rather than just saying "it’s not fun."
Versatile: You are just as comfortable discussing the mechanics of a card battler as you are with the narrative pacing of a walking simulator.
Resilient & Adaptable: You can switch contexts rapidly, moving from a pitch review for a new project to a crisis-management design meeting for a game in Beta on the same day.
Experience & Qualifications
10+ Years Preferred (8 Minimum): You have shipped multiple titles across different genres and perhaps different engine generations.
Diverse Track Record: Experience working on both AAA (for process/polish) and Indie (for creativity/constraints) titles is highly desirable.
Communication Mastery: Ability to communicate complex design concepts to non-designers (Marketing, BizDev) and highly technical peers alike.
Publisher/Consulting Experience: Previous experience in External Production, Incubation, or as a Lead Designer managing external outsourcing is a big plus.
Combat-Centric Expertise: A strong design portfolio focused on combat systems, showing a deep understanding of what makes fighting or shooting mechanics feel great, is strongly preferred.

Work arrangement
Yes