Lead Backend Engineer (Steel Hunters)

Job Overview

Join the Steel Hunters team, the newly announced free-to-play mech shooter game, by Wargaming, one of the biggest publishers of free-to-play games in the world.
 
This strategic and tactical game in Unreal Engine 5, blends mech hero combat with Battle Royale and Extraction gameplay in a rich, futuristic setting, where players fight over a rare resource called Starfall. Each Hunter comes with its own abilities and progression paths, setting the stage for intense, memorable battles. For more information: https://www.youtube.com/@SteelHuntersOfficial

Our studio leadership are industry veterans, and we believe we’re building a great studio culture in the best studio space in Guildford. If you think you have the talent to join a world-class team, we’d love you to join us! 

The role will be focused on maintaining a high-quality backend of a free-to-play Unreal Engine-based game. This will involve working closely with all disciplines and leading the backend team to identify, design, implement and maintain the scalable backend services capable of supporting millions of players. 

Reports to

You will report to the Technical Director. 

What will you do?

• Lead technical direction. Set/adjust technical vision for the backend systems, including decisions on tech stack, frameworks, libraries, and tools 

• Promote the use of coding best practices, including clean code, SOLID principles, design patterns, and efficient system designs. Perform code reviews 

• Ensure scalability and performance, handle scaling challenges, optimize development, deployment, and operations processes 

• Manage the backend team including career development, performance reviews, 1-2-1s, mentoring, training, and recruiting

• Work closely with other team leads, producers and project managers 

• Work with outsourcing partners in the gaming industry 

What are we looking for?

• Expertise in designing large-scale distributed systems for gaming platforms, particularly those involving real-time multiplayer, microservices, and high-availability infrastructure 

• Extensive knowledge of game-specific architectures (microservices, actor systems), ability to design efficient, low-latency data exchange systems between clients and servers 

• Experience in promoting effective development processes, fostering collaboration, adherence to clean code practices, test-driven development 

• Extensive programming experience as a principal or above (Kotlin, Java, Python, C/C++, C#) 

• Deep understanding of RDBMS, NoSQL databases 

• Experience with cloud infrastructures to manage large-scale game services. Experience in using Docker, Kubernetes, and other containerization/orchestration tools 

• Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure as code (IaC) tools like Terraform, and ensuring automated deployment and scaling of game backends 

• Effective communication skills to collaborate effectively with other teams, including game designers, game and systems programmers, producers, and project managers 

• Ability to communicate technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders, ensuring that business needs are translated into scalable technical solutions while aligning technical direction with product goals 

What additional skills will help you stand out?

• Experience working with highly distributed teams 

• Experience operating a live free-to-play game service 

• Experience with Unreal Engine  

Work mode

Hybrid, 3 days of work from the office.

Benefits

Benefits and perks are tailored to the local market and culture. Our benefits in Guildford include:

• 5 weeks of Annual Leave per calendar year
• Dog-friendly office
• Onsite canteen (with an endless supply of snacks and drinks)
• Video game areas
• Health Insurance (including family coverage), Life Insurance, Pension contribution
• Mental well-being program (iFeel)
• Wellbeing perks (Mental Health Days, Dedicated Well-being room, Team of Mental Heath First Aiders)
• Career development and education opportunities within the company
• Employee discounts
• Personal Gaming Account 
• Company events 
• Seniority Awards 
• Referral program - you can recommend the best talents to the Company and receive a reward 
• Working in one of the main European hubs for game development
• Startup within a company with 25 years of experience on the market
• To learn more about our studio in Guildford, follow this link: https://dpsgames.com/studio

Please submit your CV in English to ensure smooth processing and review.