As Giant Squid’s Lead Gameplay Engineer, you will be responsible for managing our gameplay programming team– the crew that builds the most user-facing aspects of our games. We are looking for a seasoned programmer with a great understanding of game design and feel, who will define the team's culture and will also be in charge of overseeing the quality and architecture of our gameplay code.

In addition to taking responsibility for implementing major gameplay features, this role will also involve mentoring other programmers to level up our whole team. We need a skilled communicator who is great at understanding how best to collaborate with others on the team in a positive, constructive way. You will work closely with directors and producers to build a deep understanding of the high level direction of the project, in order to provide early rounds of feedback to members of our gameplay team before their work gets put in front of other leads.

Giant Squid is a small but seasoned team of award-winning game developers, known for making ABZÛ and The Pathless. Our innovative and beautiful games spring from a team culture that is friendly, open, respectful, and inclusive. Our core gameplay focus is primarily on movement, atmosphere, emotional impact, and game feel rather than difficult skill tests and intricate mechanical systems. We are looking for an individual who is excited to help us create the kind of distinctive game experience that our studio is known for.

This is a full time remote position, and we operate as a fully-remote team with core hours designed around the Pacific Time (PT) time zone. Because this is a leadership position, we require your location be within 3 hours from Pacific Time.

Responsibilities

- Collaborate with design, art, and content teams to architect and implement feel-oriented gameplay systems and features
- Contribute directly to the codebase by writing stable, well-designed, well-documented game code
- Lead technical direction and technical design of all gameplay systems and features
- Guide technical artists and technical designers on best practices for creating features using Blueprint
- Support content team by ensuring all features and tools are designed and built with a careful eye toward usability and expressiveness
- Work with production team to generate tasks, maintain realistic estimates, and keep milestone deliveries on-schedule
- Coordinate and balance work across the gameplay team with attention to morale, efficiency, and individual growth opportunities
- Develop a programming team culture that values respect, cooperation, job satisfaction, and work/life balance
- Mentor and guide team members by way of code reviews, pair programming, and structured goal-setting

Qualifications

- Experience leading a team of gameplay engineers through the full production cycle (preproduction through release)
- Excellent modern C++ programming skills
- Seasoned understanding of what makes gameplay feel great
- Proactive and excellent communicator with strong interpersonal and listening skills
- Comfort and experience with debugging issues in code you did not write
- Experience optimizing performance within a large, mature codebase

Bonus

- Experience developing in Unreal Engine 4 or 5
- Experience shipping a game on a modern console (PS4, PS5, XB1, and/or Switch)
- Fluency with modern C++ language features (lambdas, std::optional, move semantics, coroutines)
- Experience developing low-violence, socially-responsible games
- Extensive experience with bug tracking, playtesting, and scheduling