Lead Designer - RuneScape: Dragonwilds

Office location: Cambridge, UK - This position offers flexible working options, including predominantly remote work. However, applicants should be based (or be willing to relocate) within a comfortable commuting distance of our office to attend onsite as required.

Are you an experienced game design leader who excels with collaboration and enjoys helping external development teams deliver exceptional player experiences?

As a Lead Designer on RuneScape: Dragonwilds, our open-world survival crafting game currently in early access and being developed in Unreal Engine 5, you’ll play a pivotal role in ensuring our co-development partners deliver gameplay and content that meets the creative vision, quality standards, and player experience expectations of the project.

Working closely with Creative Leadership and Production, you’ll act as the bridge between internal direction and external execution, providing clear design leadership, reviewing deliverables, solving development challenges, and helping multiple teams deliver cohesive, player-focused experiences. This is a highly collaborative role where your ability to communicate, mentor, and influence will be just as important as your design expertise.

What you’ll be doing:

• Drive the execution of the RuneScape: Dragonwilds design vision across external development and outsourcing partners.
• Act as the primary design contact for assigned co-development teams, providing clear direction and ongoing support.
• Translate high-level creative vision into actionable design guidance that enables partners to deliver high-quality gameplay and content.
• Review features, gameplay systems, and content, providing constructive, timely feedback that maintains quality and consistency.
• Ensure externally developed work aligns with established design pillars, technical constraints, and player experience goals.
• Collaborate closely with Creative Leadership and Production to maintain consistency across all areas of development.
• Identify risks, blockers, and quality concerns early, working proactively with partners to resolve them.
• Provide hands-on design support where needed, helping unblock teams through implementation guidance, prototyping, or problem-solving.
• Facilitate effective communication between internal stakeholders and external development partners.
• Help establish efficient review processes, design workflows, and best practices across co-development teams.
• Participate in planning sessions, milestone reviews, and feature evaluations to support successful delivery.
• Champion player-focused design through regular playtesting, feedback analysis, and iterative improvement.
• Support the onboarding of new development partners, helping them understand the project’s vision, workflows, and quality expectations.
• Build trusted relationships with external teams, encouraging accountability, collaboration, and shared ownership of outcomes.

What we’re looking for:

• Proven experience leading design efforts on shipped PC or console titles.
• Previous experience working with co-development studios, outsourcing partners, or distributed development teams.
• Strong understanding of gameplay systems, progression, content design, and player experience principles.
• Excellent communication, presentation, and stakeholder management skills.
• Proven ability to influence teams and drive alignment without direct line management responsibility.
• Experience reviewing work across multiple design disciplines and providing clear, actionable feedback.
• Strong problem-solving skills with the ability to identify risks and unblock development teams.
• Experience creating and maintaining clear design documentation.
• Comfortable balancing creative vision with production realities and technical constraints.
• Strong proficiency with Unreal Engine 5, including hands-on experience implementing and reviewing gameplay content.
• Working knowledge of Unreal Engine systems including Blueprints, Data Assets, Gameplay Framework, and content authoring workflows.
• Experience debugging gameplay issues and collaborating closely with engineering teams.
• Strong understanding of feature development pipelines, iteration, and content integration.
• Experience working closely with multidisciplinary teams including Engineering, Art, Audio, Narrative, QA, and Production.
• Deep understanding of player psychology, usability, and gameplay pacing.

What we offer: When you join J…