Senior Build Tools Engineer

The Creative Assembly Ltd; Horsham; Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Work from Anywhere (annual)

Private medical and dental insurance

Life insurance

Relocation package

Job summary

Creative Assembly in Horsham is seeking a Senior Build Tools Engineer to drive the evolution of multi-project build pipelines, CI reliability, and scalable backend services. You will design, implement and review high‑quality C++/C# code, mentor others, and collaborate with test automation and game teams across the studio.

You will balance hands‑on development with architectural thinking, while operating in a hybrid setup and contributing to the studio's ongoing build and release improvements.

Qualifications

• Strong experience designing, operating and improving build systems, CI/CD pipelines or DevOps platforms at scale.
• Strong programming ability in C++, plus C# or an equivalent scripting language.
• Deep debugging skills across complex multi-component systems.
• Experience with console automation (PS5/Xbox).
• Experience with online store APIs (e.g. Steam/MS).
• Familiarity with Perforce or similar version control systems in large team environments.
• Familiarity with branching strategies and their application in large-scale, multi-project environments.
• Strong communication skills, with the ability to influence across disciplines and engineering leadership.
• Comfortable balancing hands-on technical work with broader architectural thinking.

Responsibilities

• Own and drive the evolution of CA’s multi-project build pipelines, including pre- submit, post-submit, scheduled tests, console and PC workflows.
• Define and drive improvements in CI reliability, error detection, logging standards and quality guardrails in CI.
• Strengthen the development and reliability of deployment pipelines that deliver builds to internal teams, QA and external platforms, ensuring consistent and repeatable releases across all target destinations.
• Design, build and maintain backend services such as build storage infrastructure, symbol servers, archiving systems and dashboards, ensuring they scale with studio demand.
• Write and review production-ready code, primarily in C++ and C#, setting expectations for quality, maintainability and testing.
• Join the rotating weekly support responder role to triage build/test issues across all infrastructure channels.
• Establish key metrics and dashboards that surface issues early, track reliability trends, and demonstrate measurable improvement over time.
• Identify bottlenecks in hardware utilisation, storage strategy, CI capacity, and build roadmap to address them.
• Support other engineers, contributing to knowledge sharing, documentation, and improved engineering practices.
• Work with the test automation team to integrate comprehensive quality gates into CI workflows, ensuring fast and actionable feedback for development teams.

Skills

Build systems

C++

C# scripting

Debugging

Console automation

Perforce

CI/CD pipelines

Cross-team collaboration

Tools

PowerShell

Job description

Join Creative Assembly and craft deep and detailed games that last, entertaining millions of players across the globe for decades. The Role Creative Assembly’s Total War Infrastructure Team is seeking a Senior Build Tools Engineer to drive technical improvements and contribute to the architecture of our build systems, toolchain, CI and automated testing infrastructure that supports all Total War development teams. This is a high-impact role. Your work will directly influence developer productivity, CI stability, build cadence, automation reliability and the studio’s ability to deliver multiple large-scale projects in parallel across multiple platforms. We are looking for someone who not only delivers but also drives technical priorities, someone who can see where the platform needs to evolve and make those changes happen. You will work closely with build engineers, tools programmers, test automation teams, IT, QA and multiple game teams across the studio. As a senior engineer, you will be expected to lead initiatives, shape technical standards, mentor others and act as a point of escalation for complex issues across the infrastructure space. This is a hybrid role. We’re looking for someone who can be in the Horsham studio 1-2 days per week to collaborate closely with the team and stay connected to on-site workflows.

What you’ll be doing

• Own and drive the evolution of CA’s multi-project build pipelines, including pre- submit, post-submit, scheduled tests, console and PC workflows.
• Define and drive improvements in CI reliability, error detection, logging standards and quality guardrails in CI.
• Strengthen the development and reliability of deployment pipelines that deliver builds to internal teams, QA and external platforms, ensuring consistent and repeatable releases across all target destinations.
• Design, build and maintain backend services such as build storage infrastructure, symbol servers, archiving systems and dashboards, ensuring they scale with studio demand.
• Write and review production-ready code, primarily in C++ and C#, setting expectations for quality, maintainability and testing.
• Join the rotating weekly support responder role to triage build/test issues across all infrastructure channels.
• Establish key metrics and dashboards that surface issues early, track reliability trends, and demonstrate measurable improvement over time.
• Identify bottlenecks in hardware utilisation, storage strategy, CI capacity, and build roadmap to address them.
• Support other engineers, contributing to knowledge sharing, documentation, and improved engineering practices.
• Work with the test automation team to integrate comprehensive quality gates into CI workflows, ensuring fast and actionable feedback for development teams.

What we are looking for

• Strong experience designing, operating and improving build systems, CI/CD pipelines or DevOps platforms at scale.
• Strong programming ability in C++, plus C# or an equivalent scripting language.
• Deep debugging skills across complex multi-component systems.
• Experience with console automation (PS5/Xbox).
• Experience with online store APIs (e.g. Steam/MS).
• Familiarity with Perforce or similar version control systems in large team environments.
• Familiarity with branching strategies and their application in large-scale, multi-project environments.
• Strong communication skills, with the ability to influence across disciplines and engineering leadership.
• Comfortable balancing hands-on technical work with broader architectural thinking.

Desirable

• Experience with hardware build farms, build node provisioning and cost-effective on-prem resource management.
• Strong understanding of build storage, archiving strategies and performance constraints.
• Experience with large-scale CI environments.
• Experience in improving tooling UX, dashboards, and workflow automation.

ABOUT CREATIVE ASSEMBLY

We care deeply about the experiences we create and put our players at the heart of our decisions. We are all game makers; no matter our role we are empowered to make significant contributions to our games, supported by skills development and growth opportunities. Most roles at Creative Assembly are hybrid with 3 days a week in the studio. CA has the right to change requirements based on the needs of the business. We offer many benefits to support you and your family including:

• Work from Anywhere for a temporary period each year (restrictions apply such as VISAs)
• Enhanced holiday allowance, maternity and paternity breaks, flexibility with our core hours, and no-notice holidays
• Performance-based discretionary bonus scheme
• Bespoke relocation package for you and your dependents
• Private medical and dental insurance, life insurance and free health care screening
• Additional benefits ranging from free games and work parties to discounts on technology
• Wellbeing support and virtual confidential counselling

We are an equal opportunities employer and encourage applications from suitably qualified and eligible candidates regardless of sex, race, disability, age, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy or maternity, religion or belief. Our studio sites have disabled access.

WORKING THE SEGA WAY

We believe that making the best games relies on having the best people, so we make sure that we look after ours… For our gaming buffs, you can get involved in our lunchtime get gaming sessions in our games lounge and Club SEGA, regular gaming tournaments and free SEGA games on Steam. If you're more of a foodie, you can take advantage of fresh fruit and cereal every single day. Fitness fanatics will love our discounted gym membership, ride to work scheme, workout area and bootcamps in the business park. You can find your zen with weekly yoga classes as well as in-house massage therapy. You'll have access to a comprehensive benefits package that includes life assurance, income protection, private healthcare & dental insurance schemes and an enhanced contributory pension scheme. We offer competitive salaries and a fantastic bonus scheme so that you can stay motivated and focused on making SEGA the best it can be. We hold regular lunch & learn sessions, company updates at incredible venues in Central London and Christmas parties that you’ll want to brag to your mates about! What’s not to love? We pride ourselves on having flexible working hours to ensure that you have a life outside of the office. We want people of all backgrounds to see themselves represented and included in our work, so we actively seek to diversify our team and bring more voices to the table. All applicants are welcome! And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Check out our Careers Website to find out why we are a workplace you’ll never want to leave!