This is a hybrid role (3 days per week) based out of London.
Iconic Interactive is an AI-native game development and research studio exploring the future of interactive entertainment, digital actors, and intelligent worlds. We are looking for a versatile a full-stack software engineer to focus on our internal tooling effort.
The Role:
You’ll take ownership of Iconic’s internal tooling, building the systems and UX that will power the next generation of games and enable creators to rapidly build entirely new kinds of experiences.
Working closely with game design teams both internally and with our external partners, you’ll identify requirements, translate them into intuitive tools and workflows, and build and maintain the full-stack applications that bring them to life. You’ll respond directly to developer feedback and continuously evolve the tools, empowering teams of all sizes to create and ship experiences that haven’t been possible before.
As part of a small, focused team, you’ll have significant autonomy and end-to-end ownership of the features you build. You’ll collaborate closely with artists, writers, designers and engineers to develop and maintain narrative systems, balancing great creator UX with performant, scalable and maintainable code.
What You’ll Do:
- Build and own the tools and workflows that enable teams to create AI-powered experiences
- Develop intuitive full-stack applications for designers, artists and writers
- Work directly with internal teams and external partners to understand their needs and turn them into great tools
- Build and maintain narrative systems and creator-facing workflows
- Iterate quickly based on developer feedback and real-world use
- Write performant, scalable and maintainable production code
What We’re Looking For:
- Strong experience with building Typescript & React frontends in a maintainable and scalable way.
- Experience with React performance optimisation, and frontend state management systems such as Tanstack Query or Zustand.
- Strong proficiency with Python
- Familiarity with Git and software engineering principles
- Confidence in collaborating across disciplines, and learning new tools every day
- An appreciation for game design and development principles
Nice to Have:
- Proficiency or familiarity with machine learning concepts and using large language models.
- Proficiency with C/C++
- Experience with SQL & Django or similar ORMs
- Experience with Unreal Engine, Unity or similar game engines
- Experience with Linux systems & devops
- Familiarity with cross-platform software compilation and packaging (e.g. dynamic and static linking)
Why Join Us
Be a foundational member of a team innovating at the intersection of AI, art, and storytelling. You'll help shape the research direction, culture, and technical foundations of a company building toward something genuinely new.
What we offer:
- Competitive salary and equity compensation
- 25 days annual leave + bank holidays
- Private healthcare
- Based in London with hybrid work
- Inclusive & friendly company culture with socials and game breaks
Skills Required
- Strong experience building maintainable and scalable TypeScript and React frontends
- Experience with React performance optimization
- Experience with frontend state management systems such as TanStack Query or Zustand
- Strong proficiency in Python
- Familiarity with Git and software engineering principles
- Confidence collaborating across disciplines and learning new tools
- Appreciation for game design and development principles
- Proficiency or familiarity with machine learning concepts and large language models
- Proficiency with C or C++
- Experience with SQL and Django or similar ORMs
- Experience with Unreal Engine, Unity, or similar game engines
- Experience with Linux systems and DevOps
- Familiarity with cross-platform software compilation and packaging, including dynamic and static linking
What We Do
Iconic is building the engine and tools that power a new era of interactive entertainment, uniting engineering and creative craft under one vision. Our mission is to create intelligent systems that give worlds their own sense of emotion, agency, and intent, allowing them to listen, react, and evolve alongside the player. Every experience we build is crafted from the ground up to demonstrate what our technology makes possible.
