Expert Technical Designer

Who We Are Founded in 2023, Small Axe Studios is 2K’s newest stand-alone studio, built to push the boundaries of game development and bring 2K’s next groundbreaking sports franchise to life. Headquartered in Burnaby, we are assembling a world-class team of visionaries, builders, and passionate gamers who thrive on creative collaboration, technical excellence, and bold ideas. At Small Axe Studios, we believe big things start with sharp focus—and we’re crafting an exceptional, player-first experience from the ground up. If you’re ready to tackle unique challenges, leave your mark on a brand-new IP, and help shape the future of interactive sports entertainment, we want you on our team! What We Need We’re looking for an experienced and versatile Expert Technical Designer to help drive the implementation and iteration of our gameplay systems and features. You will play a key role in bridging the gap between design and engineering—prototyping features, building robust content workflows, and ensuring technical feasibility for our sports-focused core fantasy experience. As an Expert Technical Designer, you’ll work across disciplines to bring features to life—from paper design to implementation—and guide the team in crafting flexible, scalable systems. You’ll be instrumental in building our toolsets, scripting gameplay behaviors, and helping define the future of how we build and iterate on gameplay content. This role reports to the Design Director (Core Fantasy) and collaborates with engineering, design, and production leadership to deliver compelling, player-driven experiences. What You’ll Do Prototype and Implement Gameplay Systems Design and build functional prototypes in collaboration with engineers and gameplay designers Implement and iterate on gameplay mechanics, core loops, and systemic features using visual scripting or other proprietary tools Ensure technical feasibility of design solutions while maintaining creative goals Own Technical Implementation of Features Collaborate with designers to translate high-level concepts into robust in-game behaviors and systems Script game logic, define system flows, and integrate features into live builds Act as a technical point-of-contact for feature teams, identifying dependencies and integration risks early Optimize Workflows and Tool Usage Partner with tools engineers to improve designer workflows and content pipelines Develop best practices and reusable templates for design teams to improve iteration speed and reduce bugs Identify inefficiencies in data structures or tool usage and recommend improvements Mentor and Support Other Designers Provide technical guidance to other designers and help raise the team’s scripting and tool proficiency Review and troubleshoot design implementations and help resolve blockers across features Champion technical documentation and help maintain a healthy tech design culture Lead a Team of Technical Designers Be a…