Who We Are
Founded in 2023, 2K Sports Lab is the newest stand alone studio at 2K looking to push game development boundaries to bring 2K's next groundbreaking sports franchise to life. We're building a world-class team at our new Vancouver, BC location where our goal is to deliver an exceptional experience through bold ideas, technical excellence, and creative collaboration. We're seeking passionate and driven professionals across all areas of game development to help shape this ambitious vision. If you’re interested in tackling unique challenges and think you have what it takes to level up our team, we encourage you to apply!
What We Need
We are seeking a passionate C++ Gameplay Systems Software Engineer to help build the runtime systems that drive crowds, pedestrians, background NPCs, and other non-player actors at scale. This is an important role responsible for contributing to the foundational systems that bring dense, believable, and performant worlds to life.
The ideal candidate has strong modern C++ fundamentals, hands-on Unreal Engine (UE5) experience, and an interest in building performant real-time simulation systems. Experience with crowd systems, NPC behavior, animation runtime systems, or large-scale actor optimization is highly valuable. You do not need to have worked on every system listed below. We are looking for engineers with strong C++ fundamentals, production Unreal experience, and the ability to reason about performance-sensitive runtime systems.
What You’ll Do
● Design and implement C++ runtime systems for large-scale crowd, NPC, and pedestrian simulation.
● Collaborate with AI, Animation and design to translate behavior goals into maintainable, performant gameplay systems.
● Build scalable LOD, significance, visibility, and culling systems for thousands of active or semi-active agents.
● Profile CPU, memory, and animation costs using Unreal Insights and platform tools.
● Contribute to our character pipeline and runtime
What Will Make You A Great Fit
● 3+ years of professional game development or relevant real-time simulation experience.
● Strong modern C++ skills, including memory, performance, debugging, and data-oriented design fundamentals.
● Production experience with Unreal Engine 4 or 5.
● Experience building gameplay, AI, animation, character, or simulation systems.
● Comfortable profiling and optimizing runtime systems under CPU, memory, and frame-time constraints.
● Strong communication skills and ability to collaborate across engineering, design, animation, and art.
Beneficial Qualifications
● Experience with UE5 MassEntity, StateTree, ZoneGraph, Smart Objects, or similar ECS/agent-behavior systems.
● Experience with large crowds, NPC populations, pedestrian systems, or background-life simulation.
● Familiarity with procedural generation or machine-learning-assisted approaches for agent behavior, population, or animation selection.
● Previous experience shipping a AAA title developed on Unreal Engine.
The pay range for this position in British Columbia at the start of employment is expected to be between $71,400 and $105,660 per Year. However, base pay offered is based on market location, and may vary further depending on individualized factors for job candidates, such as job-related knowledge, skills, experience, and other objective business considerations. Subject to those same considerations, the total compensation package for employees in regular roles may also include other elements, including a bonus and/or equity awards, in addition to a full range of medical, financial, and/or other benefits, provided that temporary or intern roles will not be eligible for many of these payments or benefits. Details of participation in compensation and benefit plans (if applicable) will be provided if an employee receives an offer of employment.
As an equal opportunity employer, we are committed to ensuring that individuals with disabilities are provided suitable accommodations to enjoy equal employment opportunities, including the ability to participate in the job application or interview process,. Please contact us if you need an accommodation as part of your application process or otherwise have questions about the Company’s accommodation policy and review process.
Please be aware that 2K does not conduct job interviews or make job offers over third-party messaging apps such as Telegram, WhatsApp, or others. 2K also does not engage in any financial exchanges during the recruitment or onboarding process, and will never ask a candidate for their personal or financial information over an app or other unofficial chat channel. Any attempt to do so may be the result of a scam or phishing attack, and you should not engage. 2K’s in-house recruitment team will only contact individuals through their official Company email addresses (i.e., via a 2k.com email domain).
#LI-Hybrid
Skills Required
- 3+ years of professional game development or relevant real-time simulation experience
- Strong modern C++ skills including memory, performance, debugging, and data-oriented design
- Production experience with Unreal Engine 4 or 5
- Experience building gameplay, AI, animation, character, or simulation systems
- Comfortable profiling and optimizing runtime systems under CPU, memory, and frame-time constraints
- Strong communication skills and ability to collaborate across engineering, design, animation, and art
2K Compensation & Benefits Highlights
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Retirement Support — A 401(k) plan and an Employee Stock Purchase Plan are part of the standard package as presented on the careers site. Employer-verified listings also confirm these retirement programs.
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — Paid parental leave, generous compassionate leave, and a companywide end‑of‑year break are highlighted alongside paid holidays and PTO. These offerings indicate broad coverage for time away from work.
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Wellbeing & Lifestyle Benefits — Fitness reimbursements, on‑site/virtual classes, stocked kitchens, free or subsidized meals, commuter benefits, and dog‑friendly offices are widely cited, with some studios calling out mental‑wellness support like Headspace. These perks extend support beyond core insurance into day‑to‑day wellbeing.
2K Insights
What We Do
2K is headquartered in Novato, California and is a wholly owned label of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. (NASDAQ: TTWO). Founded in 2005, 2K Games is a global video game company, publishing titles developed by some of the most influential game development studios in the world. Our studios responsible for developing 2K’s portfolio of world-class games across multiple platforms, include Visual Concepts, Firaxis, Hangar 13, CatDaddy, Cloud Chamber, 31st Union, and HB Studios. Our portfolio of titles is expanding due to our global strategic plan, building and acquiring exciting studios whose content continues to inspire all of us! 2K publishes titles in today’s most popular gaming genres, including sports, shooters, action, role-playing, strategy, casual, and family entertainment. Our team of engineers, marketers, artists, writers, data scientists, producers, thinkers and doers, are the professional publishing stewards of our growing library of critically-acclaimed franchises such as NBA 2K, 2K PGA, Battleborn, BioShock, Borderlands, The Quarry, The Darkness, Mafia, Sid Meier’s Civilization, Marvel’s Midnight Suns, WWE 2K, and XCOM. At 2K, we pride ourselves on creating an inclusive work environment, which means encouraging our teams to Come as You Are and do your best work! We encourage ALL applicants to explore our global positions, even if they don’t meet every requirement for the role. If you're interested in the job and think you have what it takes to work at 2K, we encourage you to apply!
Why Work With Us
We pride ourselves on creating an inclusive work environment, which means encouraging our teams to Come as You Are and do your best work! We push ourselves creatively to do the best work of our careers. We’re direct, open, and you’ll probably meet some new best friends – along with their dogs – sitting nearby. In short, it’s kinda awesome.
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2K Offices
Hybrid Workspace
Employees engage in a combination of remote and on-site work.
We are a blend of onsite, hybrid, and remote roles. Please refer to individual job descriptions for more details on location.
