Blackbird Interactive is a creative-fueled, future-driven, independent game studio where the best talent in the industry can find long-term careers to help grow their abilities while working on a wide range of projects, which encompass world-class IPs as well as our own creations across multiple genres.
Our studio operates as a remote-first workplace, offering flexible work arrangements.
At this time, we are only able to hire candidates who are legally eligible to work in Canada and reside within Canada.
We are looking for a Lead Software Engineer to help port a proprietary AAA game engine to current gen console systems. You will lead the technical direction and execution across performance-critical platform systems including memory, CPU scheduling, streaming and I/O, and platform SDK integration. Targets include PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and Switch 2, as well as PC. This role is remote-friendly in Canada with Pacific-time overlap required.
What You’ll Lead and Deliver
Lead the effort to port and harden a proprietary AAA game engine for current gen consoles, ensuring performance, stability, and production readiness.Own the platform and console roadmap for core engine-facing systems across PC and consoles, balancing performance, reliability, and delivery timelines.Drive engine-level performance improvements focused on frame-time stability, hitch reduction, load-time reduction, memory efficiency, and scalability across CPU cores.Architect and optimize memory systems including allocators, pools, tagging, lifetime tracking, streaming heaps, fragmentation mitigation, OOM safety, and platform budget enforcement.Build and evolve I/O and streaming foundations including async file I/O, decompression pipelines, asset streaming, prioritization, bandwidth and latency hiding, and patch-friendly data layouts.Improve CPU scheduling and concurrency including job systems, task granularity, contention reduction, cache locality, false sharing mitigation, and thread affinity strategies.Lead platform integration and abstraction layers with clean separation between platform-specific code and cross-platform engine systems. Maintain SDK-facing pipelines and compliance readiness.Establish performance guardrails including budgets, best practices, validation checks, regression detection, automated benchmarks and captures, and telemetry for early detection of issues.Partner cross-discipline with gameplay, rendering, audio, content, and build and release teams to align features and content goals with platform constraints and budgets.Mentor and raise the bar through design reviews, debugging approaches, and best practices. Contribute to hiring, onboarding, and team standards.Communicate clearly to production and stakeholders on constraints, trade-offs, risks, and actionable plans for platform readiness.
You'll Thrive Here if you
5+ years of professional game development or performance-critical systems experience, with demonstrated technical leadership through project ownership, mentorship, and setting standards.Expert-level modern C++ and systems debugging skills including multithreading, low-lock patterns, profiling-driven optimization, and low-level investigations.Deep understanding of console constraints and performance fundamentals including CPU architecture, cache and memory hierarchy, storage, I/O characteristics, and platform-specific trade-offs.Track record of shipping or supporting production console titles and improving stability, frame pacing, memory behavior, and load times in real-world conditions.Comfortable defining and enforcing budgets for CPU, memory, and I/O, and partnering with content teams to keep the game performant and stable.Strong ownership mindset with a focus on maintainable solutions, practical prioritization, and team success under deadlines.
Pluses
Shipped at least one title on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and or Nintendo hardware, especially in platform, performance, or engine roles.Hands-on expertise with custom allocators, memory tagging, fragmentation analysis, and crash and telemetry-driven stability improvements.Proven experience with streaming and async loading systems including decompression, on-demand loading, prioritization, and large-world or content-heavy constraints.Experience with job systems and frame-time stability work including contention, false sharing, CPU and GPU sync points, and task scheduling strategies.Strong familiarity with platform profiling workflows and internal diagnostics including PIX and equivalent console tooling.