Senior Netcode Engineer

Reposted 11 Days Ago
Be an Early Applicant
Hiring Remotely in California, USA
Remote or Hybrid
153K-230K Annually
Senior level
AdTech • Artificial Intelligence • Gaming • Machine Learning • Software • Virtual Reality • Metaverse
Unity is the leading platform to create and grow games and interactive experiences.
The Role
Develop and enhance critical subsystems in the Unity engine, creating high-performance APIs and managing resources for cross-process and networked environments.
Summary Generated by Built In

The opportunity
The team that brought Unity to visionOS and enabled real-time interaction via Play-to-Device is growing in preparation for something even more ambitious: adapting PolySpatial to stream Unity content into other game engines and 3D environments—in-process, cross-process, and over the network.

We're looking for engineers eager to help us invent how different real-time 3D runtimes communicate and render under real-world constraints. You’ll work at the intersection of core engine tech, high-performance networking, distributed systems, and graphics. This is your opportunity to build the fundamental infrastructure for the next generation of interconnected game and 3D ecosystems.

You'll architect and implement a networking stack to synchronize game state between distinct engines. This goes beyond standard multiplayer replication: it requires new authority models, replication strategies, and rollback/prediction schemes that work when client and server run on different engines. If you thrive on architecting multiplayer systems from first principles, then optimizing every byte and packet to make it performant, this role offers the scope and complexity you're looking for.

What you'll be doing

  • Design and build networking systems to stream Unity simulation state to external hosts while balancing bandwidth, latency, convergence, and visual consistency.
  • Invent new  synchronization models from first principles designed to mitigate latency, including engine-agnostic interpolation/prediction/rollback, and distributed authority models.
  • Optimize bandwidth through bit-level serialization, delta-compression, and message dispatch schemes
  • Diagnose and fix end-to-end desyncs, race conditions, and jitter when two engines disagree about reality under real-world network conditions

What we're looking for

  • Networking Mastery: Transport layers, reliability, topology design, serialization, and realtime synchronization (generalized prediction, rollback, and interpolation) for high-performance games.
  • Engine-Level Netcode: Track record shipping scalable multiplayer systems for latency-sensitive games (FPS, action, MMO, or similar). You haven't just used a networking library—you've written or heavily extended one
  • Distributed systems experience: Large-scale systems (MMORPGs, cloud gaming, simulations) where synchronization and determinism matter
  • Low-Level Fluency: Strong C++ and C# skills. Comfortable capturing raw packets to diagnose timing issues or optimize at the bit level.

You might also have

  • Fluency with diverse networking models (authoritative server, deterministic lockstep, peer-to-peer)
  • Background with cloud game servers, containerization, and orchestration (GCP, AWS, Azure).
  • Experience in network security, encryption, or cheat prevention.
  • Exposure to Unity DOTS or similar high-performance, data-oriented frameworks

Additional information

  • Relocation support is not available for this position
  • Work visa/immigration sponsorship is not available for this position

Benefits
At Unity, we want our team members to thrive. We offer a wide range of benefits designed to support well-being and work-life balance.

Please note: Benefits eligibility, specific offerings, and coverage vary based on the country and employment status.

While specific benefits vary, here are some of the ways we strive to take care of our eligible team members globally: Comprehensive health, life, and disability insurance | Commute subsidy | Employee stock ownership | Competitive retirement/pension plans | Generous vacation and personal days | Support for new parents through leave and family-care programs | Office food snacks | Mental Health and Wellbeing programs and support | Employee Resource Groups | Global Employee Assistance Program | Training and development programs | Volunteering and donation matching program

Life at Unity
Unity [NYSE: U] is the leading platform to create and grow games and interactive experiences. Creators, ranging from game developers to artists, architects, automotive designers, infrastructure experts, filmmakers, and more, use Unity to bring their imaginations to life across multiple platforms, from mobile, PC, and console, to spatial computing.

As of the third quarter of 2024, more than 70% of the top 1,000 mobile games were made with Unity, and in 2024, Made with Unity applications had an average of 3.7 billion downloads per month. For more information, please visit Unity.

Unity is a proud equal opportunity employer. We are committed to fostering an inclusive, innovative environment and celebrate our employees across age, race, color, ancestry, national origin, religion, disability, sex, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, or any other protected status in accordance with applicable law. Our differences are strengths that enable us to support the growing and evolving needs of our customers, partners, and collaborators. If you have a disability that means there are preparations or accommodations we can make to help ensure you have a comfortable and positive interview experience, please fill out this form to let us know.

This position requires the incumbent to have a sufficient knowledge of English to have professional verbal and written exchanges in this language since the performance of the duties related to this position requires frequent and regular communication with colleagues and partners located worldwide and whose common language is English.

Headhunters and recruitment agencies may not submit resumes/CVs through this website or directly to managers. Unity does not accept unsolicited headhunter and agency resumes. Unity will not pay fees to any third-party agency or company that does not have a signed agreement with Unity.

Your privacy is important to us. Please take a moment to review our Prospect Privacy Policy and Applicant Privacy Policy. Should you have any concerns about your privacy, please contact us at [email protected].

#SEN #LI-LM1

*Note: Certain locations require a good faith disclosure of the base salary range for the role. The actual salary for the successful candidate may differ based on location, experience, and other job-related factors.

Gross pay salary
$153,400$230,200 USD

Top Skills

C#
C++
Coreclr
Embedded Runtimes
Mono
Unity
Wasm
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The Company
HQ: New York, NY
4,500 Employees
Year Founded: 2004

What We Do

Unity [NYSE: U] is the world’s leading game engine, powering play for more than 3 billion consumers each month. The top mobile games in the world, the most played PC indie titles, the most innovative console games, and virtually all of the top XR and Web Games are developed, deployed, and grown in Unity. Unity also enables teams across industries like automotive, manufacturing, and healthcare to design, simulate, and collaborate in 3D — closing the gap between ideas and reality.

Why Work With Us

We believe the world is a better place with more creators in it. This is at the core of our business because we believe our technology can change the world. Our products give content creators the tools to not just entertain but to create innovative RT3D experiences and deliver better processes for almost every industry.

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