Principal Economy Designer

Level Up Your Career with Zynga!

At Zynga, we bring people together through the power of play. As a global leader in interactive entertainment and a proud label of Take-Two Interactive, our games have been downloaded over 6 billion times—connecting players in 175+ countries through fun, strategy, and a little friendly competition.

From thrilling casino spins to epic strategy battles, mind-bending puzzles, and social word challenges, our diverse game portfolio has something for everyone. Fan-favorites and latest hits include FarmVille™, Words With Friends™, Zynga Poker™, Game of Thrones Slots Casino™, Wizard of Oz Slots™, Hit it Rich! Slots™, Wonka Slots™, Top Eleven™, Toon Blast™, Empires & Puzzles™, Merge Dragons!™, CSR Racing™, Harry Potter: Puzzles & Spells™, Match Factory™, and Color Block Jam™—plus many more!

Founded in 2007 and headquartered in California, our teams span North America, Europe, and Asia, working together to craft unforgettable gaming experiences. Whether you're spinning, strategizing, matching, or competing, Zynga is where fun meets innovation—and where you can take your career to the next level.

Join us and be part of the play!

We are looking for a Principal Economy Designer to join a small team making an exciting new game in the casual space. Help us craft a rich, engaging, and sustainable in-game economy that delights players and drives long-term success. 

As a Principal Economy Designer, you will own the design, tuning, and ongoing evolution of a game’s economy. You will work closely with Game Designers, Product Managers, Analysts, and Developers to align on strategic goals and ensure that all game systems–progression, currency, upgrades, and monetization–feel rewarding, balanced, and deeply integrated into the player experience.

• Economy System Design: Design, balance, and maintain complex in-game economies, including multiple currencies, durable digital goods, reward loops, sinks, and sources across short and long-term progression systems.

• Data-Driven Tuning: Work with Live Ops, Product Management & Analytics to monitor player behavior and KPIs; iterate designs based on both qualitative and quantitative feedback. Develop strategies and design and execute ongoing experiments to improve game performance. 

• Monetization Strategy: Work with Product and Monetization teams to create systems that support fair, innovative, and engaging monetization strategies, including offers, events, and premium content.

• Progression & Pacing: Design progression systems that support onboarding, mid-game challenge, and late-game mastery. Ensure pacing is well-tuned to player motivation and business goals.

• Tooling & Implementation: Collaborate with engineering and tools teams to define requirements for economy tuning tools and dashboards; contribute to economy modeling and simulation frameworks.

• Live Operations Support: Support seasonal content, limited-time events, and economy-impacting changes with economy forecasts, simulations, and data-informed decision-making.

What You Bring: 

• 5+ years of experience in Economy Design in live free-to-play games.

• Proven track record on multiple live, free-to-play mobile titles, ideally in game genres such as coin looters and hero collectors.

• Proficiency in experimentation; extensive experience designing strategic, impactful, hypothesis-driven AB tests that drive meaningful results. 

• Expert level understanding of free-to-play systems and monetization mechanics, and proficiency in data analysis to identify problems and opportunities.

• Strong numeracy, modeling, Python, and Excel skills; experience with scripting or database tools is a plus.

• Passion for data-informed design; able to balance data insight with player empathy.

• Collaborative and articulate communication. Ability to clearly present problems and solutions with supporting data. Adept at aligning diverse stakeholders around a common vision. 

What we offer:

Zynga offers a world-class benefits package that helps support and balance the needs of our teams. To find out more about our benefits, visit the Zynga Benefits site

The pay range for this position in California at the start of employment is expected to be between $123,200 and $182,360 per Year. However, base pay offered is based on market location, and may vary further depending on individualized factors for job candidates, such as job-related knowledge, skills, experience, and other objective business considerations. 

Subject to those same considerations, the total compensation package for this position may also include other elements, including a bonus and/or equity awards and eligibility to participate in our 401(K) plan and Employee Stock Purchase Program.

Regular, full-time employees are also eligible for a range of benefits at the Company, including: medical, dental, vision, and basic life insurance coverage; 14 paid holidays per calendar year; paid vacation time per calendar year (ranging from 15 to 25 days) or eligibility to participate in the Company’s discretionary time off program; up to 10 paid sick days per calendar year; paid parental and compassionate leave; wellbeing programs for mental health and other wellness support; family planning support through Maven; commuter benefits; and reimbursements for fitness-related expenses. 

We are proud to be an equal opportunity employer, which means we are committed to creating and celebrating diverse thoughts, cultures, and backgrounds throughout our organization.  Employment with us is based on substantive ability, objective qualifications, and work ethic – not an individual’s race, creed, color, religion, sex or gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin or ancestry, alienage or citizenship status, physical or mental disability, pregnancy, age, genetic information, veteran status, marital status, status as a victim of domestic violence or sex offenses, reproductive health decision, or any other characteristics protected by applicable law.

As an equal opportunity employer, we are committed to providing the necessary support and accommodation to qualified individuals with disabilities, health conditions, or impairments (subject to any local qualifying requirements) to ensure their full participation in the job application or interview process. Please contact us at accommodationrequest@zynga.com to request any accommodations or for support related to your application for an open position.

Please be aware that Zynga does not conduct job interviews or make job offers over third-party messaging apps such as Telegram, WhatsApp, or others.  Zynga also does not engage in any financial exchanges during the recruitment or onboarding process, and will never ask a candidate for their personal or financial information over an app or other unofficial chat channel.  Any attempt to do so may be the result of a scamp or phishing attack, and you should not engage.  Zynga’s  in-house recruitment team will only contact individuals through their official Company email addresses (i.e., via a zynga.com, naturalmotion.com, smallgiantgames.com, themavens.com, gram.gs email domain).