Hello! I'm fresh to the industry and currently have a position within QA in the game industry but I've always wanted to pursue my ultimate goal as being a Game Designer. Does anyone have any recommendations on steps I could take or skills I MUST develop to be considered for the position? Any information would be super helpful! Thank you in advanced!

Obviously, to become a designer you need to design some games. Try submitting some concepts. Make sure the concepts are professional in look and content, and appropriate to your employer. That only works if you're in QA at a game publisher or platform holder (if you work at a QA lab, there's nowhere to submit your concepts). Also see these:

Play the Upgrade-to-Designer Game (to move up within a company)

The Submission Process (for individuals to submit a game to a publisher from outside the company - offers info/clues useful to know if submitting from within)

Hey, @Tom Sloper

Thank your thoughtful response and list of resources! I work with a fairly large publishing company so I should be able to apply this to my focus. In the mean time, I'll take your advice and try working on a portfolio to submit concepts during my free time off work!

An actual “game designer” is usually a high level position.

To get it, it would be good to have design skills of your own.

Make something or join a team on your free time.

depending on how official they are, make sure there are no contractual conflicts.