Lead Game Engineer

Role Description

As our Lead Game Engineer, you will...

• Team Leadership
  • Manage, mentor, and grow a team of game engineers: set goals, run 1:1s, give feedback, and support career development.
  • Plan, recruit, and interview technical roles within the Gameplay Engineering team.
  • Own team processes: planning, code review standards, on-call/bug triage, and how work gets scoped and estimated.
  • Create a healthy, high-trust engineering culture at a small-studio scale.
• Hands-on Development
  • Review pull requests and unblock engineers on hard technical problems.
  • Debug and resolve complex cross-system issues, especially around multiplayer sync, performance, and stability.
  • Prototype or build out gameplay systems directly when the team needs an extra pair of hands.
• Cross-functional Collaboration
  • Partner closely with game design, art, and production to scope features and keep engineering aligned with the creative vision.
  • Partner with the Technical Director to create a realistic technical roadmap.
  • Communicate engineering status, risks, and trade-offs clearly to studio leadership.

Qualifications

• 6+ years of professional game development experience, with shipped title(s) built in Unreal Engine.
• 2+ years of experience directly managing or leading engineers (formal management, tech lead, or team lead experience).
• Strong C++ skills and deep familiarity with Blueprint workflows.
• Hands-on experience with online multiplayer systems, including replication, client-server architecture, netcode, and the performance/debugging challenges that come with them.
• Solid grasp of software architecture and design patterns, and the judgment to know when to apply them versus keep things simple.
• Experience working cross-functionally with design, art, and production in a real production environment.
• Comfortable operating with high ownership in a lean team where you wear multiple hats.
• Strong communication skills: able to explain technical trade-offs to non-engineers and rally a small team around a plan.

Requirements

• Experience shipping a live-service or online multiplayer game post-launch (patching, live ops, backend services).
• Experience at an independent or mid-size studio.
• Experience with performance profiling and optimization.

Benefits

• Competitive salaries and pay transparency.
• Stock options.
• Medical, dental, and vision coverage (100% for individuals, 90% for dependents).
• Life insurance, short-term and long-term disability, and additional benefits.
• 401(k) contributions (U.S.) / RRSP + DPSP contributions (Canada).
• Paid parental leave.
• A fully distributed remote studio across North American time zones.