Please note that this role is only available to candidates currently located in Berlin, Germany.

The Associate Lead Writer is the primary creative authority for writing on Suzerain: Project Vanguard. This role leads the writing function, defines narrative direction, and is responsible for the quality, coherence, and voice of all written content. The Associate Lead Writer writes major portions of the game, mentors and reviews other writers, and ensures that all narrative material aligns with Suzerain canon and the project’s creative goals. The role collaborates closely with Narrative Design, Production, Game Design, and Tech, while remaining focused on writing craft, authorship, and editorial leadership.

Essential qualifications

• Proven experience as a lead writer or senior writer on narrative-driven games or interactive projects.
• Demonstrated ability to lead a writing team, provide editorial direction, and improve the work of other writers through feedback and revision.
• Strong authorship skills, with experience writing large volumes of dialogue, scenes, and decision-driven content.
• Excellent command of tone, voice, political nuance, and long-form narrative cohesion.
• Experience writing within an established fictional universe or shared canon while expanding it meaningfully.
• Ability to collaborate effectively with narrative designers, game designers, production, and technical teams.
• Strong organizational skills and experience maintaining extensive writing documentation.

Preferred qualifications

• Prior experience working on Suzerain-like games or strong familiarity with its writing style, format, and themes.
• Background in political science, history, or socio-political research relevant to systemic political storytelling.
• Experience mentoring junior writers or coordinating multiple writing contributors.
• Experience delivering writing-heavy projects within milestone-driven production schedules.
• Lead the writing function for Suzerain: Project Vanguard, setting narrative direction, priorities, and writing standards in alignment with the Suzerain universe.
• Own the new country’s written narrative foundation, including themes, tone, political tensions, institutions, factions, key figures, and historical context consistent with established canon.
• Write substantial portions of the project’s core content, including key scenes, dialogue, events, decisions, and consequence text in the Suzerain format.
• Create and maintain core writing-focused narrative documents, including story treatments, arc outlines, country bible, character bibles, location notes, and narrative pillars.
• Direct, mentor, and review work from the Narrative Designer and other writing contributors, providing clear editorial feedback, revisions, and guidance on craft, tone, and structure.
• Establish and enforce writing standards for voice, style, clarity, and political coherence across all narrative content.
• Coordinate closely with Narrative Design to ensure written content aligns with branching structures, state logic, and reactivity requirements, without owning narrative system design.
• Collaborate with game design and systems design to ensure writing supports mechanics, variables, UI presentation, and player-facing clarity.
• Work with Tech to define writing-related implementation needs, including variable hooks, state logic requirements, and tooling constraints that affect authored content.
• Review written content in implemented builds, identifying issues in pacing, clarity, logic, and continuity, and drive rewrites based on playtests and QA findings.
• Coordinate with Production to align writing deliverables with milestones, dependencies, and priorities from project start through completion.
• Maintain writing documentation and task tracking in Miro, Notion, and Codecks, keeping materials structured, searchable, and production-ready.

Job benefits

• Health & Wellbeing. Free Urban Sports Club membership for all Berlin-based permanent employees.
• Public Transportation. Fully covered Deutschland-Ticket (BVG) for nationwide public transport.
• Flexible Hours. Start your day between 8:00–10:00 CET with core hours from 10:00–15:00 CET.
• Hybrid Work. We embrace a hybrid work schedule, requiring in-office presence on 3 days, with the flexibility to work remotely for the remaining 2 days of the week (calculation is based on full-time position).
• Work from Abroad. Up to 10 remote work days per year from outside Germany.
• Team Events. Regular team events and access to the NLND community network.
• Feedback & Growth. Regular feedback sessions to support your development.
• Annual Bonus. Performance-based annual bonus.
• Vacation. 24 paid vacation days (full-time).

Compensation

The expected annual gross salary range for this role is approximately 40.000 - 50.000 EUR, depending on experience and qualifications.