Job description
Instrument is a digitally native design and technology company built to help brands unlock their full potential. Since 2005, our team of makers, thinkers, and storytellers has partnered with leading brands like Google, Nike, Uber, ŌURA, and Eventbrite to craft digital experiences that create impact and drive results.
Unlike traditional agencies, we don’t just design—we build. Our work lives at the intersection of taste and technology, powered by curiosity, thoughtful curation, and a commitment to delivering the most fitting solution for every brief. We bring this to life across three core offerings: Brand, Marketing, and Product.
We’re a hands-on, highly collaborative team of multi-hyphenates who move fast from idea to execution. With offices in Portland and NYC and a distributed team across the U.S. and Europe, we scale for big moments and stay nimble for the quick ones—always building teams around the unique needs of each project.
We’re a place for people who never stop learning—those excited to stretch their craft, experiment with new tools, and grow through collaboration. We believe great work comes from a mix of perspectives—people with different paths, passions, and lived experiences.
We’re proud to be an equal opportunity workplace, supporting diversity and providing reasonable accommodations so everyone can do their best work. We believe great work comes from a mix of perspectives—people with different paths, passions, and lived experiences. Come join us and help shape what’s next.
We’re looking for a Senior Game / Visual Designer to join a highly confidential project exploring a new kind of narrative, text-driven interactive experience. This role sits at the intersection of game systems, immersive visual design, and emerging technology, and is ideal for someone who loves designing worlds as much as interfaces.
You’ll partner closely with a small, senior team to define how players move through — and emotionally experience — a richly layered, story-forward system.
What You’ll Do
- Create immersive, “in-world” interfaces that feel native to the narrative rather than overlaid on top of it.
- Design and document complex gameplay loops that support narrative progression, player choice, and state-based outcomes
- Shape how players receive information through visual, textual, and sensory cues — including state changes, progression signals, and emotional feedback.
- Help define and curate guidelines for AI-generated assets (portraits, environments, landscapes), ensuring stylistic cohesion and narrative integrity.
- Work closely with creative, design, and technical partners to ensure systems, visuals, and storytelling are deeply aligned.
What You’ll bring
- 5–8+ years of experience in game design, interactive narrative, or systems-driven visual design
- Strong understanding of diegetic UI and immersive interface design
- Proven experience designing complex systems, loops, and progression models
- Exceptional visual sensibility paired with clear systems thinking
- Comfort working with ambiguity and helping define new frameworks from scratch
- Ability to document thinking clearly for cross-functional teams
- Major Plus: TTRPG literacy (D&D, narrative tabletop systems, or similar) – Familiarity with branching narratives, player agency, and emergent storytelling is a big win.
Pay Range
- The expected pay range for this role is $61-$78 per hour (on a W2), but will depend on the level in which you are engaged
- Our company has three regional pay bands that it adheres to depending on your location, we reference them as US 1, US 2, and US 3.
- US 3 is our base pay. Examples of cities in US 3 are Portland, Houston and Miami.
- US 2 pay is 7.5% higher than US 3 to meet the market rates. Examples of cities in US 2 are Los Angeles, Chicago and Seattle.
- US 1 pay is 15% higher than US 3 to meet market rates. Examples of cities in US 1 are Brooklyn and San Francisco.
- If you are curious which region you are in, please apply and get connected with our recruiting team
What We Offer
Flexible, Hybrid Work Environment
Great Compensation with Annual Reviews (Learn more about our Pay Philosophy)
401(k) Matching with Immediate Vesting
Robust Medical, Vision, and Accident Insurance
Generous Paid Holidays and unlimited PTO
Sabbaticals
Monthly Wellbeing Stipend
Career Management and Leadership Training
We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, or assessing responses. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please contact us.
