tombola

Head of Game Design

tombola  •  Sunderland, GB (Onsite)  •  13 days ago
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Job Description

As Head of Game Design, this role will lead the creative vision and player experience across the Game Studio portfolio. Working across bingo, slots, instant win, table games and free-to-play products, the role will shape innovative, engaging and commercially successful gaming experiences for players.

This is a senior creative leadership role, combining strategic thinking with deep expertise in gameplay mechanics, player psychology and visual storytelling. Leading a multidisciplinary team of Designers, Artists and UI specialists, the role will ensure games are not only compliant and high-performing, but genuinely entertaining and industry-leading.

What you'll be doing

Creative vision & innovation

  • Help shape and deliver the Game Studio and Content strategies across the portfolio

  • Define the visual direction, gameplay mechanics and overall player experience of tombola games

  • Lead the development of innovative game concepts, themes and social features that differentiate the brand in the iGaming market

  • Explore and adopt emerging technologies, including Gen AI, to support and enhance the game design process

  • Ensure player journeys are intuitive, engaging and optimised across all platforms

Artistic & design excellence

  • Provide creative direction and support to the Art and Illustration teams

  • Ensure all visual assets meet high-quality standards and align with brand guidelines

  • Collaborate closely with the Game Engine team to balance gameplay mechanics, mathematics and creative execution

  • Support the design of social and community-led features that encourage long-term player engagement and retention

  • Champion a data-led design approach, using user testing and behavioural insights to refine player experiences

  • Ensure designs are accessible, inclusive and optimised for a mobile-first audience

Team & stakeholder collaboration

  • Lead, mentor and develop a multidisciplinary creative team including Game Designers, Artists, UI Designers and Interaction Designers

  • Foster a culture of inclusion, creativity, collaboration, feedback and continuous improvement

  • Work closely with the Head of Game Production and Head of Technology to align creative direction with roadmap priorities and technical delivery

  • Act as a subject matter expert on game design trends and creative best practice

  • Present concepts, creative rationale and recommendations to senior stakeholders and external partners

What we're looking for

  • Strong expertise in game mechanics, narrative design, UI/UX principles and creative production processes

  • Ability to translate high-level ideas into clear design specifications and creative briefs

  • Experience within the iGaming or wider games industry in game design-focused roles

  • Strong understanding of player behaviour and engagement, particularly within bingo and slots environments

  • Experience leading and developing creative teams within fast-paced environments

  • Commercial awareness with the ability to balance creative ambition alongside mathematical, regulatory and operational requirements

  • Experience using design and prototyping tools such as Adobe Creative Suite and Figma

  • Understanding of how design integrates into development workflows and tools such as Jira

  • Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to present and advocate for creative vision effectively

tombola

About tombola

tombola is a technology company operating in the online gambling market. We came bouncing into the online bingo world in 2006, but our roots in bingo date way back to the 1800’s. We’ve grown rapidly over the years and entered the world of online slots in 2016 with tombola arcade. We’ve just embarked on a new chapter becoming part of Flutter entertainment, a FTSE100 company and the worlds biggest gaming company.

Staying true to our roots the tombola campus remains in Sunderland overlooking the River Wear and we invested in our international brands that help us take our Mackem business all around the world. We started in Italy, before venturing to Spain and beyond to Denmark and Sweden, along with our largest overseas office on The Rock of Gibraltar.

We’re completely unique in that all of our games are exclusive to us as they’re all designed, developed and managed in-house. We actively encourage our team to be involved from the ideas stage through to the live launch of a game and beyond. We innovate and we ask our people to push the boundaries of new technologies and give our customers the best experience possible.

We are built on a philosophy of taking a responsible approach, and putting the player first, always. We proactively engage with our customer community, ensuring our players are in control and receive great value for money. That’s really important to us. We encourage low-stake and aim to create a fun community that our players love.

We’re ambitious, we’re growing quickly and we’re looking for awesome people to join our already awesome team. #tombolalife is a lot of fun - we take pride in what we do, we work hard and we work together. We’re excited about the future and the team that will make an impact.

Come join the fun!

http://www.tombola.co.uk/careers

Industry
IT & Software
Company Size
501-1,000 employees
Headquarters
Sunderland, GB
Year Founded
Unknown
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