Game Director, Founders School - $400,000/year USD

Key Responsibilities

• Direct the development of the world's most compelling business simulation game by recruiting the team, establishing the vision, and shipping a product that transforms players into better entrepreneurs through gameplay.
• Establish and control the creative vision, gameplay architecture, and product roadmap for a business simulation game that imparts genuine entrepreneurial competencies through captivating gameplay.
• Assemble and manage a senior game development organization, recruiting outstanding talent and fostering a culture oriented toward rapid iteration and continuous refinement.
• Collaborate with Founders School leadership, educators, and business practitioners to convert real-world commercial principles into engaging gameplay systems.
• Integrate AI across the entire development process to expedite design, balancing, prototyping, content generation, and production operations.

Success in Your First Year

• Within 6 months, ship a playable vertical slice in which players advance through authentic business competencies by completing substantive gameplay objectives.
• Initial playtests reveal that teenagers reliably characterize the game as enjoyable before realizing the depth of their learning.
• Within 12 months, deploy a closed beta exceeding 1,000 players, attain 40%+ 30-day retention, and implement a development rhythm capable of delivering new simulation content sustainably.

Basic Requirements

• Track record shipping at least one commercially successful game that players authentically embraced, preferably within a team of 10 or fewer.
• Proven experience directing multidisciplinary game development from initial concept through public launch.
• Deep specialization in designing simulation, sandbox, systems-driven, strategy, or management game experiences.
• Daily practical application of generative AI tools to accelerate game design and production, with capacity to present recent examples demonstrating how you have incorporated AI into your process.
• Enthusiasm for entrepreneurship and authentic conviction in the importance of building profitable enterprises.
• Robust leadership, communication, and talent acquisition capabilities.
• Availability to work on-site in New York City.
• Authorization to work in the US without sponsorship.

Nice-to-have Requirements

• Background shipping sandbox, tycoon, builder, management, or simulation game titles.
• Experience designing entertainment products for audiences under 18.
• Experience embedding education or skill acquisition into entertainment offerings.
• Experience collaborating with high-profile brands, creators, or licensed intellectual property.
• Demonstrated history scaling a game team from early-stage concept through successful market launch.

About Founders School

Founders School is a four-year high school built for ambitious students who want to create, build, and solve meaningful problems. The program combines Alpha School's elite academics, real-world experience, and mentorship from world-class entrepreneurs around three commitments to every student: Build a million-dollar business. Identify problems in the world worth solving. Master AI before adults do. This is a place for people who'd rather build the thing than manage the thing. We're hiring the founding team that builds the dream high school for the most entrepreneurial and ambitious students in the country. Launching in NYC Fall 2026.