Engineering Lead (Unreal)

JR United Kingdom; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 100,000 - 125,000; Full time

Job summary

An innovative firm is seeking a Lead of Engineering to spearhead the development of a groundbreaking multiplayer game creation framework. This hybrid role combines technical ownership with hands-on coding, allowing you to shape the future of an exciting open-world sandbox. With a strong focus on Unreal Engine, you will lead a talented team, mentor engineers, and drive the adoption of cutting-edge technologies. If you have a passion for empowering creators and thrive in a collaborative environment, this is the perfect opportunity to make a significant impact in the gaming industry.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience as a game/engine programmer with technical leadership.
• Deep expertise in Unreal Engine including networking and gameplay systems.

Responsibilities

• Lead the engineering team and manage technical direction for HELIX.
• Contribute code daily and oversee systems across gameplay and DevOps.

Skills

Unreal Engine

Game Programming

Technical Leadership

Multiplayer Architecture

Backend Systems

DevOps

CI/CD

Performance Optimization

Web Technologies (HTML/CSS/JS)

Tools

Lyra Framework

AI/ML Tools

Job description

Social network you want to login/join with:

At Hypersonic Laboratories, we're looking for a Lead of Engineering to take technical ownership of HELIX, our in-house open-world multiplayer game creation framework.

The role is hybrid, involving 2 days a week at our Guildford, UK studio.

Who are we?

Hypersonic Laboratories is building HELIX, the ultimate open-world multiplayer sandbox. We are a diverse, experienced, international team and have raised $11M from top gaming VCs.

About the role

We’re seeking an experienced, product-focused technical leader to take charge of the technical vision and execution of HELIX. You’ll operate as a founding engineer or technical cofounder, helping scale our modular, multiplayer-first sandbox framework built on Unreal Engine 5.

This is a hands-on leadership position: you’ll be actively coding while also working closely with production to manage a small core team of engineers and scripters, guiding the development process, and ensuring our systems meet the scale and ambition of our platform.

The ideal candidate would have 10+ years of experience and at least 3 shipped Unreal Engine titles, deep Unreal expertise (including networking, plugins, and tools), and a passion for building powerful and extensible systems. You’ll work directly with leadership to ensure HELIX ships on time, on spec, and with excellence.

What you will be doing

• Acting as technical owner of HELIX, setting the direction and standards across all technical systems.
• Leading and mentoring the engineering team, providing code reviews, technical guidance, and architectural oversight.
• Contributing code daily—this is a hands-on leadership role.
• Overseeing and implementing systems across gameplay, networking, tooling, UI, online services, backend, and DevOps.
• Collaborating with other departments (gameplay, art, production) to ensure engine features meet evolving needs.
• Spearheading the adoption of AI/ML-driven workflows and tooling across the engineering org.
• Recruiting, onboarding, and mentoring technical team members.
• Maintaining a high level of responsiveness, adaptability, and technical excellence in a fast-paced environment.
• Championing engineering culture, team cohesion, and sustainable development practices.
• Supporting with hiring to grow the engineering team according to project needs and studio values.

What we will need from you

• 10+ years of professional experience as a game/engine programmer, including technical leadership on shipped titles or platforms.
• At least 3 shipped titles built with Unreal Engine.
• Deep expertise in Unreal Engine—including networking, gameplay systems, Lyra framework, motion matching, custom plugins/tools, and engine extensions.
• Proven experience building and scaling engineering teams.
• Strong background in gameplay programming, multiplayer architecture, and online subsystem integrations (e.g. EOS, Steam, etc).
• Competence in backend systems, scalable services, and DevOps pipelines.
• Proficiency in CI/CD, debugging, and performance optimization.
• Familiarity with web technologies (HTML/CSS/JS) for platform or dashboard/launcher related features.
• Passion for empowering creators through extensibility, modularity, and clean systems architecture.

Nice to have

• Experience with UGC platforms, modding frameworks, or live service ecosystems.
• Experience building or contributing to game development tools for teams or communities.
• Previous work in fast-moving startup or small team environments.
• You thrive in fast-paced, collaborative environments where efficiency, agility, and a strong team culture lead to significant and meaningful impact.
• You enjoy working closely with other disciplines, wearing multiple hats, and iterating quickly.
• You’re excited by ambitious creative tools and believe in enabling others through technology.

Apply for the job

Ready to join our team as our new Engineering Lead? Then we'd love to hear from you!