Principal Game Designer, Hearthstone | Irvine, CA

Team Name

Hearthstone

Job Title

Principal Game Designer, Hearthstone | Irvine, CA

Requisition ID

R026100

Job Description

Pull up a chair and join us by the hearth! Blizzard is looking for a Principal Game Designer to join the Hearthstone card design team. If you have a passion for the design and craft of card games and want to help shape the future of Hearthstone, we want to hear from you! Our team values creativity, collaboration, and a passion for delivering joyful experiences to our players.

As a Principal Game Designer on the card design team, you will have the core responsibility and specialization in making fun-to-play, clear, and balanced cards for our upcoming expansions. Your player insight, analytical abilities, and creativity will help create player-focused designs that will surprise and delight millions of players all around the world. As with every design role on the Hearthstone team, you will be a champion of Blizzard's commitment to delivering world class quality.

This role is anticipated to be a hybrid work position, with some work required to be on-site and some work-from-home. The home studio for this role is Irvine, CA.

Responsibilities

• Create engaging cards and mechanics for Hearthstone’s future expansions that deliver strategic depth and fun while remaining approachable.
• Leverage your knowledge of Hearthstone and the universe of Warcraft to design and develop cards, concepts, and flavor that encapsulates the charm of Hearthstone
• Script and implement cards using internal tools.
• Participate in playtests and foster a culture of collaboration, creativity, and continuous improvement by providing thoughtful feedback.
• Advocate for and explain product vision and design decisions both inside and outside the initial design team.
• Champion the player experience at every stage of development, ensuring gameplay remains fun, rewarding, and fresh through ongoing support and content updates.
  
  

Experience

Minimum Requirements

• 10 years of professional game design experience, including at least 3 years in a content design role on a live service game in the CCG or strategy game genre.
• Familiarity with live service game design, including content pipelines, seasonal events, and time-limited challenges.
• Proven success leading multi-disciplinary teams in aligning goals and delivering content from initial concept through launch, while holding the bar high for quality and player impact.
  
  

Knowledge and Skills

• Deep understanding of card game mechanics, tuning, and player motivations.
• Strong project management skills and a great understanding of what players find fun.
• Ability to take initiative and manage responsibilities independently, demonstrating strong ownership and accountability.
• Being an advocate for simple, intuitive, and future-proof design
• A good understanding of when to control scope and when to encourage exploration to find the right balance when aiming for a specific deadline.
• Confident in speaking up or giving voice to dissenting opinions constructively.
• Proven ability to work collaboratively within teams and foster productive partnerships across all departments.
• Strong documentation practices that clearly communicate design intent and build alignment.
  
  

Extra Points

• Experience playing a CCG at a competitive or high skill level.
• Active player of a variety of mobile titles, especially turn-based strategy games.
• Experience working with or helping define content creation pipelines and tools for fast iteration and designer-friendly workflows.
• Experience implementing game content using a programming or scripting language
  
  

Required Application Materials

• Cover Letter
• Resume
  
  

Your Platform

At Blizzard Entertainment, we pour our hearts and souls into everything we create. Best known for iconic video game universes including Warcraft, Overwatch, Diablo, and StarCraft, we’ve been creating genre-defining games for millions of players around the world for more than 30 years. We’re on a quest: bring our dreams to life and craft the most epic entertainment experiences…ever. Hard work, iteration and polish go into the Blizzard “secret recipe,” but the most important ingredients come from talented people who share our vision. If that sounds like you, join us

Our World

Best known for iconic video game universes including Warcraft®, Overwatch®, Diablo®, and StarCraft®, Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. (www.blizzard.com), a division of Activision Blizzard, which was acquired by Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), is a premier developer and publisher of entertainment experiences. Blizzard Entertainment has created some of the industry’s most critically acclaimed and genre-defining games over the last 30 years, with a track record that includes multiple Game of the Year awards. Blizzard Entertainment engages tens of millions of players around the world with titles available on PC via Battle.net®, Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, iOS, and Android.

Our ability to build immersive and innovative worlds is only enhanced by diverse teams working in an inclusive environment.  We aspire to have a culture where everyone can thrive in order to connect and engage the world through epic entertainment. We provide a suite of benefits that promote physical, emotional and financial well-being for ‘Every World’ - we’ve got our employees covered!

The videogame industry and therefore our business is fast-paced and will continue to evolve. As such, the duties and responsibilities of this role may be changed as directed by the Company at any time to promote and support our business and relationships with industry partners.

We love hearing from anyone who is enthusiastic about changing the games industry. Not sure you meet all qualifications? Let us decide! Research shows that women and members of other under-represented groups tend to not apply to jobs when they think they may not meet every qualification, when, in fact, they often do! We are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment and strongly encourage you to apply.

Rewards

Requirements

We provide a suite of benefits that promote physical, emotional and financial well-being for ‘Every World’ - we’ve got our employees covered! Subject to eligibility requirements, the Company offers comprehensive benefits including:

• Medical, dental, vision, health savings account or health reimbursement account, healthcare spending accounts, dependent care spending accounts, life and AD&D insurance, disability insurance;
• 401(k) with Company match, tuition reimbursement, charitable donation matching;
• Paid holidays and vacation, paid sick time, floating holidays, compassion and bereavement leaves, parental leave;
• Mental health & wellbeing programs, fitness programs, free and discounted games, and a variety of other voluntary benefit programs like supplemental life & disability, legal service, ID protection, rental insurance, and others;
• If the Company requires that you move geographic locations for the job, then you may also be eligible for relocation assistance.
  
  

Eligibility to participate in these benefits may vary for part time and temporary full-time employees and interns with the Company. You can learn more by visiting https://www.benefitsforeveryworld.com/.

In the U.S., the standard base pay range for this role is $116,800.00 - $216,000.00 Annual. These values reflect the expected base pay range of new hires across all U.S. locations. Ultimately, your specific range and offer will be based on several factors, including relevant experience, performance, and work location. Your Talent Professional can share this role’s range details for your local geography during the hiring process. In addition to a competitive base pay, employees in this role may be eligible for incentive compensation. Incentive compensation is not guaranteed. While we strive to provide competitive offers to successful candidates, new hire compensation is negotiable.