---
title: 'Design Director at Haven Interactive Studios - English'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/design-director-haven-interactive-studios-english-canada-montreal-trdy7hedw841'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-11'
---

# Design Director at Haven Interactive Studios - English

- **Company:** Haven Interactive Studios - English
- **Location:** Canada Montreal, Canada
- **Posted:** 2026-06-19
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-11
- **Apply:** https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/havenenglish/jobs/6098187004

## Job description

Position: Design Director

## Role Overview

We are looking for an experienced Design Director to join the Haven team. The Design Director will take the core pillars from the Creative Director and articulate them into balanced, scalable, and engaging systemic loops.

You will own the structural blueprint of the game—ensuring that the player fantasy, narrative context and creative pillars translate beautifully into moment-to-moment gameplay, short-term loops, and long-term progression tracks.  Additionally, you will hire, lead and organize a design team,  mentoring designers to ensure the game vision and direction is executed at a AAA standard.

- Reporting: The Design Director will report directly to the Creative Director for the project.

## Key Responsibilities

1. Design Direction & Vision Articulation

- Translate the Vision: Partner closely with the Creative Director to deconstruct abstract creative themes into clear, rationalized gameplay pillars and meta-structures.
- Align Fantasy & Narrative: Construct a comprehensive gameplay vision that weaves the game’s thematic fantasy and narrative context directly into cohesive mechanical elements.
- Systemic Architecture: Apply an innovative yet analytical approach to build robust moment-to-moment gameplay, short-term hooks, and long-term retention loops that perfectly suit the game's direction.
- Establish Creative Constraints: Define clear direction, intent, and structural boundaries for the design team, giving them a focused framework to maximize their creative freedom and innovation.
- Design Review & Validation: Establish high quality bars; review and validate all design work produced by the team to ensure mechanic solidity, balance, and alignment with the core vision.

1. Team Management & Studio Collaboration

- Manage & Mentor: Direct a team of game designers (Junior to Senior), conducting regular 1-on-1s, providing actionable performance feedback, and actively supporting their professional growth.
- Cultivate Design Standards: Maintain a structured, collaborative design environment that champions clear communication, objective analysis, and constructive criticism.
- Cross-Discipline Alignment: Act as the primary design ambassador for Engineering, UI/UX, Audio, and Live Operations, ensuring cross-functional clarity regarding design intent and vision.

## Qualifications & Skills

## Experience Required

- AAA Track Record: Minimum of 6+ years of experience in game design, with at least one shipped major AAA multiplayer title in a Senior, Lead, or Principal role.
- Pre-Production & Lifecycle Experience: Proven experience defining core loops during early conception and preparing complex systems for live-service stability.
- People Management: Minimum of 2+ years of direct experience managing, mentoring, and developing game designers.

Technical & Soft Skills

- Innovative & Analytical Thinker: A unique blend of out-of-the-box creative thinking and sharp analytical skills, capable of inventing fresh ideas and grounding them into logical, quantitative rules.
- Vision Communication: Exceptional verbal and written communication skills; an expert ability to articulate, argument, and pitch design concepts clearly to both the development team and studio leadership.
- Live-Service & Multiplayer Literacy: Deep experience navigating multiplayer architectural constraints, including matchmaking logic, playlist structures, anti-cheat considerations, and progression balancing within a live-service context (broadly applicable beyond traditional PvP frameworks).
- Early Prototyping Comfort: Ability to work lightly within a game editor to quickly validate and prototype design ideas during early conception phases.

## Preferred Qualifications

- Working knowledge of Unreal Engine.
- A strong passion for gameplay innovation and a keen understanding of evolving trends in the global gaming market.

Please note, Sony Interactive Entertainment conducts background checks at the offer stage for all new employees (which may include criminal background checks for some roles) and will need to process personal information to support these checks.

Please refer to our[Candidate Privacy Notice](https://www.playstation.com/legal/careers-privacy-notice/) for more information about what personal information we collect, how we use it, who we share it with, and your data protection rights.

## About Haven Interactive Studios - English

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Haven Studios is a Montreal-based PlayStation game development studio creating original, AAA live-service multiplayer experiences for PlayStation 5 and PC.
- **Entity Type**: Private (wholly owned subsidiary of Sony Interactive Entertainment, acquired in 2022)
- **Headquarters**: Montreal, Quebec, Canada
- **Founded**: 2021
- **Founders**: Jade Raymond (CEO & Founder)

## Core Business
- **Primary industry/industries**: Computer Games (AAA Video Game Development)
- **Target customers**: B2C (console and PC gamers)
- **Mission or purpose statement**: "A place that makes space for all to wonder, to build memories, to create, to play" — the studio is built around core values of **kindness, adaptability, and courage** to make space for creative excellence.

## Products & Services
- **[Fairgames]**: A competitive heist experience coming to PS5 and PC, unveiled in 2023. A live-service game built upon a systemic and evolving world focused on delivering freedom, thrill, and playfulness. The studio is also known to be working with internal AI tools (e.g., adapting Stable Diffusion for art creation).

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not publicly disclosed (acquired by Sony Interactive Entertainment in 2022; terms not disclosed)
- **Key Metric**: Annual Revenue reported at approximately **$1.3M USD** (LinkedIn data) for the private entity; Total Funding: Acquired by Sony in 2022 with an initial investment from SIE in 2021.
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: **Sony Interactive Entertainment (PlayStation Studios)** — Haven is the 18th studio to join PlayStation Studios and their first Canadian game development studio.
- **Growth Signals**:
    - Founded in March 2021 with ~10 people, grew rapidly to over **60 employees** by time of acquisition (March 2022), and now employs **210 people**.
    - **10 active job postings** as of mid-2025, with job posting trends showing +400% quarterly growth and +100% yearly growth, indicating significant active hiring.
    - Talent sources include top studios: **Ubisoft Montréal (45 hires)**, Eidos-Montréal (20), Legion Labs (15), Behaviour Interactive (10), and Google/Stadia (14).

## Competitive Advantages
- **AAA PlayStation Backing**: Full creative freedom and financial stability under Sony Interactive Entertainment, with access to PlayStation's technology and distribution ecosystem.
- **Founder’s Pedigree**: Led by industry legend **Jade Raymond** (co-creator of Assassin’s Creed, founder of Ubisoft Toronto and Motive Studios), giving the studio instant credibility and talent magnetism.
- **Elite Talent Density**: The team is composed of seasoned developers from The Sims, Assassin’s Creed, Rainbow 6: Siege, Tomb Raider, and Star Wars Battlefront. 32% of staff are Senior-level, 29% are Specialists.
- **Culture-First Approach**: Explicitly built around kindness, adaptability, and courage — the studio prioritizes a healthy, non-crunch culture as a differentiator in an industry known for burnout.

## Strategic Focus
- **Current priorities**: Delivering the debut title **Fairgames** (competitive heist game) for PS5 and PC. The studio is building a live-service game designed to be a "forever game" with ongoing content updates.
- **Growth**: Scaling the team aggressively (210 employees currently, active hiring across engineering, design, production, and community). Job postings have quadrupled quarter-over-quarter.
- **Technology**: Using Unreal Engine, building internal AI tools (Stable Diffusion adaptation), and leveraging microservices, Kubernetes, and observability infrastructure for live operations.

## Why Work Here
- **Culture**: "Kindness, adaptability, and courage make space for creative excellence" — a clear anti-crunch, pro-creativity philosophy.
- **Compensation & Benefits**: Rated **4.8/5.0 for Compensation** and **5.0/5.0 for Work-Life Balance** on employee reviews. Industry-leading salaries and benefits are explicitly mentioned in their hiring page.
- **Environment**: Described as a "fearless" and "collaborative" space where diversity, equity, and inclusion are fundamental values. The interview process is designed to be straightforward ("no endless back-and-forth with dozens of exhausting day-long panels").
- **Work Policy**: Based in Montreal (with a small US office presence). The studio operates primarily from Montreal, Canada.
- **Engineering Culture**: Rated **4.9/5.0 overall** (15 reviews). Strong emphasis on technical art, AI programming, and full-stack observability. Tech stack includes Unreal Engine, Python, TypeScript, Kubernetes, Docker, React, and MySQL.
- **Notable Perks**: High employee retention from top studios, access to PlayStation's IP and technology, and the chance to work on a high-visibility AAA title from day one.

## Sources
1. [havenstudios.com](http://havenstudios.com/en)
2. [havenstudios.com/careers](https://havenstudios.com/en/careers)
3. [linkedin.com/company/haven-studios-inc](https://ca.linkedin.com/company/haven-studios-inc)
4. [sonyinteractive.com (Acquisition Press Release)](https://sonyinteractive.com/en/press-releases/2022/sony-interactive-entertainment-to-acquire-haven-entertainment-studios-inc/)

## Other roles at Haven Interactive Studios - English

- [Sr AI Game Designer](https://feeny.ai/job/sr-ai-game-designer-haven-interactive-studios-english-canada-montreal-1bdgbptxp1zs) — Canada Montreal, Canada
- [Design Director](https://feeny.ai/job/design-director-oliver-agency-north-america-houston-3f1vjqs4mq87) — Houston, TX
- [Design Director](https://feeny.ai/job/design-director-oliver-agency-north-america-new-york-xj54qsgmwsg1) — New York, NY
- [Design Director](https://feeny.ai/job/design-director-oliver-agency-north-america-denver-38me3h4fsw62) — Denver, CO
- [Design Director](https://feeny.ai/job/design-director-oliver-agency-north-america-san-francisco-t3p10rpa3s2q) — San Francisco, CA
- [Design Director](https://feeny.ai/job/design-director-chime-financial-inc-san-francisco-4493c2p1nfkf) — San Francisco, CA
- [Design Director](https://feeny.ai/job/design-director-monks-kuala-lumpur-tpdgwnq4tga1) — Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
- [Design Director](https://feeny.ai/job/design-director-jellyfish-mumbai-7px6d5s6qxhd) — Mumbai, India
- [Design Director](https://feeny.ai/job/design-director-mammoth-brands-new-york-ff8g85dx8wyj) — New York, NY
- [Design Director](https://feeny.ai/job/design-director-lume-deodorant-new-york-9mhp4swsy7a0) — New York, NY