Principal/Lead Engineer
Role Overview
We’re looking for a Principal/Lead Engineer to work on a Simulation Game. This is a highly hands-on role, with more than ninety percent of your time spent directly in the build. In this role, you're responsible for leading technical strategy, execution and eventually a small team of engineers. You’ll contribute to and strengthen the ambition of our internally developed simulation games, spanning prototyping to pipelines to long-term engine decisions, balancing velocity with stability, enabling fast iteration and clean, maintainable systems. You’ll work closely with a small, multidisciplinary team to build imaginative and replayable simulation games that connect with players, always balancing believability with fun.
Key Responsibilities
1 - Lead Engineering
You're responsible for the engineering of our game and taking a design vision and turning it into reality. You'll need to be a versatile, hands-on engineer with great gameplay and architectural sensibilities, moving from prototyping to rapid implementation and striking the right balance between code quality and speed.
Success looks like:
- Rapid prototyping that validates ideas quickly and cheaply.
- Technical solutions that empower creativity and iteration.
- Close collaboration between design, art & code teams.
- Engineers are laser focused on things that deliver maximum value to players.
- Solid infrastructure in place (build servers, code repositories, etc).
- Clear data and playtesting feedback loops driving continuous improvement.
2 - Lead Technical Strategy and Execution
Own the games’s technical roadmap from prototyping to production-ready pipelines. You will decide where to build, buy, outsource or adopt new technologies, always prioritising momentum and long-term leverage.
Success looks like:
- Reliable, performant codebases built for the now but with an eye on the future.
- A data pipeline leveraging smart use of tools, plugins, and new technologies where it adds real value.
- Stable builds that enable creative experimentation rather than blocking it.
- Establishing and maintaining technical infrastructure and workflows, such as source control and build pipelines, to enable the team to work efficiently and reliably
3 - Manage Engineering Team & Contractors
As the game grows, you'll be responsible for recruiting and managing a small but world-class engineering team. We anticipate this being 3-4 hires over the coming couple of years, supported by a network of contractors who increase our leverage.You’ll also help foster healthy collaboration across Design, Art, and Production so ideas move smoothly from concept to in-build work, and the team can deliver cohesive, player-focused experiences.
Success looks like:
- Best-in-class engineering team including hiring, interviewing, onboarding, mentoring.
- Multi-talented / well rounded, autonomous engineers, a mix of seniors and juniors.
- Strong gameplay and architectural sensibilities in the engineering team.
- An empowered engineering team that is able to do their best work.
- A strong network of reliable contractors we can pull in to support our projects.
Requirements
- Proven experience as a Technical Director, Lead or Principal Engineer, or similar leadership role on shipped games, ideally in the simulation genre.
- Background in Unreal, with deep understanding of scalable, systemic architectures.
- Expertise in rapid prototyping, optimisation, and live iteration workflows.
- Comfortable leading small teams and mentoring across disciplines.
- Pragmatic approach to technology, focusing on what moves the game forward.
- Experience integrating technologies and third-party assets to accelerate progress.
- Passion for simulation games and a drive to turn tech excellence into player delight.
- Located within a UK/EU timezone.
Benefits
Our benefits include a 2-week company summer break and a 2-week winter break to rest and recharge, in addition to your normal holiday allowance.