Principal Economy Designer | New Games

Overview

As Principal Economy and System Designer, you shape the economic and systemic foundations for a new Merge 2 title. You’ll own the economy from first session to long-term engagement, balancing progression, events, and monetisation to deliver a transparent, player-first journey. You’ll collaborate with creative leadership and a cross‑functional team to translate vision into coherent systems and measurable product outcomes. This role offers scope to influence the economic DNA of a live game at scale and contribute to a trusted, sustainable player experience.

Responsibilities

• Own the overall economy design across lifecycle including progression and live events
• Define and balance merge mechanics, currencies, rewards, and inventories
• Design progression pacing with clear short-, mid-, and long-term goals
• Build economy models, simulations, and tools to forecast currency flows and balancing changes
• Ensure healthy currency sinks/sources for engaged and paying players
• Collaborate with Creative, Product, Data, Design, Art, Engineering, and UX to implement systems
• Balance meta, social, events, and monetisation to support retention and revenue
• Lead economy reviews and communicate complex system trade-offs to stakeholders
• Establish standards for economy craft, documentation, and design mentoring

Key requirements

• Proven economy design experience in merge games
• Experience shaping economies in games in development and live operation
• Strong analytical skills with spreadsheet models, simulations, and practical tools
• Ability to use product data and experimentation to balance systems
• Excellent systems thinking and ability to simplify complexity
• Strong design judgement, writing, and presentation skills
• Collaborative leadership and cross-disciplinary teamwork
• Genuine enthusiasm for free-to-play games and player-first economies

• collaboration across disciplines
• clear communication
• leadership and mentorship
• economy modelling
• simulations
• data analysis

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