System Era Jobs

Working At System Era

System Era Softworks is a game development studio located in Seattle, WA. We are always looking for talented and passionate people to join our team as we build Astroneer and beyond.

System Era is an equal opportunity employer and we value diversity at our studio. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. We look for candidates who are eager to join a team with a varied set of backgrounds, experiences, interests, and viewpoints.

Current Open Positions

Quality Assurance Analyst

System Era is looking for somebody to join our QA team working on Astroneer and a cooperative multiplayer sandbox game.

For this position, we are looking for a candidate able to work in a hybrid model, spending regular time onsite at our office in Seattle, WA to work alongside the rest of the Quality Assurance team. Please note that full time in office will be required for the first three months as you onboard to our processes and systems.

Compensation package includes salary, benefits with full medical and dental coverage for employee and dependents, 401k with company match, participation in profit sharing, discretionary bonuses, flexible PTO, and more. For exceptional candidates from out of state, relocation assistance is available for the move to Washington state. We are not able to sponsor candidates from outside the US for this position.

The base salary range for this position is $60,000 - $65,000 depending on the skills and experience of the candidate. Please note that this position is classified as full-time non-exempt due to the nature and level of the work. Daily time tracking will be required, and this role is eligible for approved overtime.

We look for candidates who value joining a team with a diverse set of backgrounds, experiences, interests, and viewpoints.

Qualifications

  1. At least 2 years of experience in QA. 
  2. Shipped at least one title.
  3. Has an understanding of the SDLC. 
  4. Strong written and verbal communication skills. 
  5. Experience writing test cases. 
  6. Can speak philosophically to the role of QA, how QA works with stakeholder / partners, and can describe what goes into a good bug report and why it is there.

Responsibilities

  1. Functional testing of Astroneer updates and bug reporting written to QA standards. 
  2. Daily communication with the QA Lead for the Astroneer project.
  3. Test planning / test case writing for upcoming features / updates. 
  4. Regression testing of bug fixes and halo testing around game features. 
  5. BVT testing of the upcoming cooperative multiplayer sandbox game. 
  6. Participation in strike teams for the upcoming cooperative multiplayer sandbox.
  7. Weekly status reporting.

Nice To Have

  1. Have experience working as embedded QA in a strike team / agile framework.
  2. Knowledge of Astroneer game systems.
  3. Has experience with doing memory profiling.
  4. Experience writing internal QA process / knowledge base documentation.
  5. Experience testing on the Nintendo Switch.
Apply to: Quality Assurance Analyst Position

Senior Game Designer (Gameplay)

System Era is looking for a Senior or Principal Game Designer to focus on moment-to-moment gameplay systems for a cooperative multiplayer sandbox game.

In this role, you will cover a wide range of core mechanics – player movement and traversal abilities, camera and controls, and overall balancing and difficulty tuning – to help elevate our exploration and action-oriented gameplay. Additionally, you will be responsible for AI entities and behaviors to create interesting encounters with players and integrate them into a wider sandbox. We are looking for a designer with an intuitive and practiced sense of good game feel so that each move, interaction, and AI encounter feels satisfying, responsive, exciting, expressive, and playful. The ideal candidate is a game designer that deeply enjoys moment-to-moment gameplay and has a strong understanding of highly systemic sandbox systems.

While we prefer working in a hybrid model, with regular time spent onsite with our team in Seattle, WA, System Era supports a variety of work routines to match the needs of our team, including permanent remote work within the US and Canada.  

Compensation package includes salary, benefits with full medical and dental coverage for employee and dependents, 401k with company match, participation in profit sharing, discretionary bonuses, as well as relocation assistance for those interested in moving to Washington state. The base salary range for this position is $110,000 - $135,000 depending on the skills and experience of the candidate. We look for candidates who value joining a team with a diverse set of backgrounds, experiences, interests, and viewpoints.

Qualifications

  1. Prior experience working on AI systems, including behavior trees and complex state machines, through all phases of development from prototype to ship.  
  2. Prior experience on systems related to game feel and moment-to-moment gameplay, preferably on an action-oriented game.
  3. Proficient with modern game development engines such as Unreal, Unity, or proprietary tools (we develop using Unreal 5.3).  
  4. Excellent communication and collaboration skills.
  5. Deep understanding of sandbox gameplay and systems thinking as part of your overall design skillset

Responsibilities

  1. Drive the design of moment-to-moment game feel for the player character, with an emphasis on finely tuned controls, camera, and movement for exploration gameplay. 
  2. Own design for our AI, including defining movement, routines, behaviors, and complex interactions across several sandbox systems.
  3. Tune various systems to balance difficulty for cooperative play with varying numbers of players. 
  4. Collaborate closely with character artists, animators, engineers, vfx, and audio to coordinate all the pieces that go into building complex systems like AI or player move sets.
  5. Work with other designers to improve the game feel of their features. 
  6. Collect and act on feedback – informally and through playtests – to improve the player’s experience, and act as a general advocate for the player.

Nice To Have

  1. Familiarity with Astroneer.
  2. Experience building – or keen interest in – multiplayer cooperative gameplay
  3. Background in engineering or high level of technical expertise beyond that expected of a designer  
  4. Experience in game-adjacent fields such as interactive media, film and theatre, creative writing, teaching, art, animation, etc.
Apply to: Senior Game Designer (Gameplay) Position

Senior UX/UI Designer

System Era is looking for a Senior UX/UI Designer for a multiplayer cooperative sandbox game.

We are looking for someone to take on the mantle of UX and UI within the design team. In this role, you will balance design work on traditional game UI (like menus and HUD) with diegetic in-world UX for various player interactions, while also helping the team define a holistic structure and set of patterns for all our UX/UI flow. As part of the game design team, you will support and provide feedback on other features to improve the overall UX of the game, helping us reduce the complexity of sandbox systems while preserving open-ended, expressive play. The ideal candidate also has an interest in using elements of VFX, audio, and game feel to create immersive in-world UI that is both informative and playful.

This position combines the role of a UX designer and a UI designer, with many of the typical responsibilities of UX design – like user research, playtesting, and understanding players - shared with the whole design team. This role might be a good fit for a UX designer looking to spend more of their time on UI design, or a UI designer interested in expanding their skillset to include a more holistic UX approach.

While we prefer working in a hybrid model, with regular time spent onsite with our team in Seattle, WA, System Era supports a variety of work routines to match the needs of our team, including permanent remote work within the US and Canada.

Compensation package includes salary, benefits with full medical and dental coverage for employee and dependents, 401k with company match, participation in profit sharing, discretionary bonuses, as well as relocation assistance for those interested in moving to Washington state. The base salary range for this position is $110,000 - $125,000 depending on the skills and experience of the candidate. We look for candidates who value joining a team with a diverse set of backgrounds, experiences, interests, and viewpoints.

Qualifications

  1. Prior experience in UX design, UI design, or a combination role where you have shepherded features across all phases of development, including prototyping, implementation, bug-fixing, and ship. 
  2. Proficient in wireframing or prototyping tools such as Figma, Adobe XD, or similar. . 
  3. Familiarity with modern game development engines such as Unreal, Unity, or proprietary tools (we develop using Unreal 5.3). 
  4. Excellent communication and collaboration skills. 
  5. Portfolio of work showcasing interaction design.

Responsibilities

  1. Own the design for various user interfaces (menus, HUD) and collaborate closely with designers for in-world diegetic UI across many gameplay systems . 
  2. Design and build wireframes, mockups, and prototypes for various menus and game flow to communicate UX/UI work outward to the rest of the team.
  3. Collaborate with engineering to create reusable and extensible UI components and develop tools to improve implementation workflow. 
  4. Collaborate with the art team on the look and feel of the UI . 
  5. Work with a variety of disciplines – art, animation, VFX, audio, gameplay – to develop satisfying diegetic or immersive UI elements. 
  6. Work with other designers to improve the UX of their features
  7. Help define accessibility guidelines and work with the team to integrate them into the game to ensure it reaches as many players as possible
  8. Collect and act on feedback – informally and through playtests – to improve the player’s experience, and act as a general advocate for the player.

Nice To Have

  1. Familiarity with Astroneer.
  2. Experience as a game designer outside of user experience such as systems or gameplay design.
  3. Experience on games with multiplayer social systems and/or systems-heavy sandbox gameplay. 
  4. Experience in game-adjacent fields such as interactive media, film and theatre, creative writing, teaching, engineering, art, etc.
Apply to: Senior UX/UI Designer Position

Contact Us

For business inquiries, contact us here. For all Astroneer related questions please go to our support page.