Senior Programmer

United States Digital Space LLC; Basingstoke; On-site; GBP 75,000 - 95,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

On-site parking

Company pension

Sick pay

Team lunch and snack days

Travel season ticket loan

Job summary

The company Limited is hiring a Senior Programmer to join a core engineering team building a large-scale real-time strategy game. You will own major systems, mentor junior engineers and shape the architecture of a custom engine designed for stability and high performance under heavy load.

You will work across gameplay, networking, tools and engine infrastructure, tackling design, implementation and shipping of complex systems from start to finish.

Qualifications

• 7+ years professional programming experience in the games industry.
• Multiple shipped titles from recognised game studios.
• Expert knowledge of C#; strong C++ experience is a significant plus.
• Deep understanding of game engine architecture.
• Extensive experience with performance profiling and optimisation.
• Experience mentoring other programmers and leading technical decisions.
• UK-based or willing to relocate.

Responsibilities

• Design, implement and own major gameplay, simulation and engine systems
• Profile and optimise CPU, memory and network performance across the codebase
• Lead architecture decisions for simulation, networking and tools
• Mentor and review code from junior and mid-level programmers
• Build internal tools for design, content and QA workflows
• Contribute to multiplayer netcode and server infrastructure
• Establish coding standards, documentation and code review practices
• Solve hard problems involving large datasets, concurrency and numerical precision

Skills

C#

C++

Game engine architecture

Performance profiling

Multithreading

Mentoring

Code review

Networking/servers

Education

Degree in Computer Science, Mathematics, Physics or related field

Tools

Unity

Unreal Engine

Git

Perforce

CI/CD tooling

Job description

Job Posting - Senior Programmer

Date posted: July 2026 Pay: £75,000.00 - £95,000.00 per year Job description: Senior Programmer Status: Accepting applications - awaiting seed funding close before formal offers Company: the company Limited Location: United Kingdom Work arrangement: On-site, full-time Salary: Competitive (based on experience) Start date: Month 1 of seed funding

Benefits:

• On-site parking
• company pension
• sick pay
• team lunch and snack days
• travel season ticket loan

About the Role

You will join the core engineering team building a large-scale real-time strategy game. As a senior programmer, you will own major systems, mentor junior team members, and help shape the architecture of a custom engine built for stability, consistency and performance under heavy load.

You will work across gameplay systems, networking, tools and engine infrastructure. This is a hands-on role for someone who can design, implement and ship complex systems from start to finish.

This is not:

• Front-end web development or business applications
• Blueprint-only scripting without engine-level understanding
• Lightweight mobile or hyper-casual game development

This is:

• Hardcore systems programming for a large-scale PC game
• Ownership of major engine or gameplay systems
• Performance-critical code running under heavy load
• Simulation, networking, rendering integration and tools
• Problem-solving at the intersection of mathematics, memory layout and parallel execution

Quality benchmark:

You should have shipped multiple titles at recognised studios and be comfortable leading the design of complex C# or C++ systems. We are looking for engineers who think in terms of throughput, correctness and long-term maintainability.

Relevant reference titles:

Supreme Commander, Sins of a Solar Empire, StarCraft, Factorio, Dyson Sphere Program - games where scale, persistence and simulation consistency matter.

Responsibilities

• Design, implement and own major gameplay, simulation and engine systems
• Profile and optimise CPU, memory and network performance across the codebase
• Lead architecture decisions for simulation, networking and tools
• Mentor and review code from junior and mid-level programmers
• Build internal tools for design, content and QA workflows
• Contribute to multiplayer netcode and server infrastructure
• Establish coding standards, documentation and code review practices
• Solve hard problems involving large datasets, concurrency and numerical precision

Requirements

Essential:

• 7+ years professional programming experience in the games industry
• Multiple shipped titles from recognised game studios
• Expert knowledge of C#; strong C++ experience is a significant plus
• Deep understanding of game engine architecture
• Extensive experience with performance profiling and optimisation
• Strong debugging skills in complex, multi-system codebases
• Solid understanding of memory management, data-oriented design and threading
• Experience mentoring other programmers and leading technical decisions
• UK-based or willing to relocate

Desirable:

• Experience with Unity or Unreal Engine
• Degree in Computer Science, Mathematics, Physics or related field
• Strong mathematical background, especially linear algebra, geometry and numerical methods
• Experience with consistent simulation, lockstep multiplayer or replay systems
• Graphics programming, rendering pipelines or shader experience
• Networking and multiplayer server experience
• Build systems, CI/CD and tooling experience
• Version control expertise (Git or Perforce)