Software Engineer (Connected Play)
Nex is on a mission to help families rediscover the joy of movement. Created by parents for parents, Nex combines technology and play to deliver fun, social, and interactive experiences powered by natural body motion, encouraging kids and adults to move more, play more, and have fun together. Nex Playground, the company’s award-winning active play system, is purpose-built to get families moving year-round, with safety and privacy as core considerations in its intentional design. It is certified kidSAFE+ COPPA compliant and built to support healthy, active play for all ages and abilities.
Nex Playground features a growing library of 50+ experiences, including motion and dance games, fitness and educational experiences, and Nex Originals. Content includes collaborations with partners like Hasbro, Sesame Workshop, and NBCUniversal. Nex has been recognized by Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies, TIME’s Best Inventions, and Parents’ Best Entertainment System for Families, and has earned Red Dot, IDEA, and Core77 international design awards. We encourage you to explore Have Fun and Is Motion Gaming Back?, as they offer a deeper look into our culture, values, and explain how our approach to motion gaming differs from previous generations.
Location: Hong Kong
Type: Full Time
The Role
As our Software Engineer (Connected Play) you will help families play together, even when they are apart. You will work within our game teams to implement secure, real-time multiplayer features, transforming our single-device hits into shared experiences that connect living rooms.
You will focus on the gameplay implementation of our connected features. You will solve the unique engineering challenges of synchronizing motion gaming — ensuring that a tennis swing in New York feels instant and fair to a player in London. You will help bring connected experiences to titles like Tennis Smash: Racketville, Bowling Strike and HomeRun Heroes: StarStrikers.
What You'll Do
- Implement real-time multiplayer features, ensuring physics, scores, and player movements are synchronized accurately across devices.
- Implement safety-first networking features. You will build restricted matchmaking and communication systems (e.g., non-verbal emotes, pre-set phrases) that keep our ecosystem safe for children.
- Refactor single-player codebases, adapting existing game logic to support multiplayer without breaking the original "game feel."
- Solve gameplay networking challenges, such as smoothing out jittery movement (interpolation) and optimizing bandwidth for average Internet connections.
- Collaborate with Game Artists to ensure visual effects and animations sync perfectly for every player.
- Collaborate with the Developer Experience Team, acting as the primary user of their SDKs and providing feedback to help improve the developer experience.
Must-Have
- 3+ years of professional software development experience.
- Strong proficiency in C# and the Unity ecosystem.
- Deep understanding of Networking Fundamentals. You are fluent in concepts like RPCs, state synchronization, and authority (host vs. client).
- Proficiency with Unity Network Stacks. You have hands-on experience building features with Photon Fusion, Mirror, or Netcode for GameObjects etc.
- Experience with asynchronous programming in Unity (UniTask, async/await or coroutines).
- Ability to write clean, maintainable, and performant code.
Should Have
- A growth mindset and the energy to thrive in a fast-paced, high-growth environment.
- An obsession with code quality and a sense of personal ownership over the product's final polish.
- Passion for building scalable frameworks and tools that empower every discipline to deliver their best work efficiently.
- Genuine excitement for deep technical challenges, such as real-time state synchronization, scalable backend architecture, and seamless matchmaking.
Nice to Have
- Experience shipping a multiplayer game.
- A love for staying active and healthy, with a passion for helping others do the same.
- An interest in playing games and excitement about game development.
We Offer
- Competitive compensation package.
- Flexible working hours and vacation policy.
- Product-driven culture that treasures talents and individual growth.
- Front-row seat and hands-on experience with cutting edge technologies in the evolving gaming field
Nex is located in San Jose, California, USA and Hong Kong. Learn more about us at nex.inc/who-we-are.
We encourage applications even if you don’t meet more than 50% of the requirements — we believe that experience comes in many forms!
Nex is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, gender identity, and sexual orientation), national origin, ancestry, age, physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, military or veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law. This policy applies to all individuals at every stage of the employment relationship, including all current and prospective employees, and covers all employment decisions including recruitment, hiring, job assignment, promotion, compensation, benefits, training, discipline and termination.
We are committed to providing a workplace free from discrimination and harassment and to fostering an inclusive environment for all employees.