Studio: New World Interactive
Job Opening: Lead Gameplay Programmer
Location: Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Type: Full-Time
Responsibilities:
- Manage a team of 8 gameplay programmers – your priority is ensuring team members are on track with production. In addition to your daily sprint tasks, you’ll frequently check-in with your programmers and remove any obstacles they are facing. You will ensure each individual’s unique needs are being supported in order to encourage the strong engagement of your team. Our studio values growth, which requires you to provide your team with excellent mentorship opportunities for them to develop their skills by focusing on their strengths. You’ll share valuable feedback on a regular basis, conduct consistent 1:1’s and lead performance reviews along with the Technical Director.
- Oversee the gaming architecture with the goal of improving future development – you will collaborate closely with the Technical Director to architect and program in a way that makes future games easier to create. You will balance modular design, development, and future thinking with the speed required to meet production deadlines. Having refined your own decision-making abilities as it relates to gameplay programming, you’ll be able to apply and champion these skills with the team. As an example, knowing when to document a bug for later vs. ensure you don’t create technical debt. Because you are up to date with new versions of Unreal Engine, you will know what features are coming online, which ones to experiment with, and ultimately implement.
- Develop code to enhance our networking and animation programming capabilities – when you’re not managing your team, you’ll write code with a goal to make the multiplayer experience as fluent and consistent as possible. You will also collaborate with the Design, Animation and Audio teams to perfect coding for animations that correspond to the game’s logic and algorithms. The percentage of your time you spend coding will vary from 10%-40% of your time in any given week, depending on the needs of the team.
Qualifications & Skills:
- You’re an exceptional people manager – you’re a pro at making your team feel connected, allowing each of them to feel supported in their roles and contributing to the game and the studio as a whole. You have an impressive history of mentoring and leading people because you love to see others develop and grow, and you’re able to hold a boundary when necessary. You love connecting with your team, and don’t mind spending most of your days deepening relationships with them.
- You exemplify accountability – you have no problem being accountable for your team and holding your team accountable. You will do this through ongoing feedback to ensure that your team is constantly improving as they are going. You know the right balance of being fair and firm.
- You set an example for communication – you’re able to provide clear direction during touchpoints, you welcome feedback and guidance from different directions and you’re not afraid to ask for help when needed. Ultimately, you want to provide a platform for members to voice their thoughts, be forthcoming with their questions while empowering them to make their own suggestions.
- You have a track-record of success – your maturity in your profession reflects your intricate level of knowledge of gameplay programming principles and abilities and wide range of video gaming experience. You’ve likely worked at AA or AAA studios and at this point in your career, you’re looking to join a smaller team and have a bigger impact on the screen. You thrive in an environment where people value discussion and conversation without being overly attached to their perspective.
Required Software:
- Engine – Unreal
- IDE – Visual Studio or Rider
