Cross-Platform Game Systems Engineer Onsite Auckland

Blind Squirrel Games; Auckland; On-site; NZD 110,000 - 170,000; Full time

Job summary

Blind Squirrel Games seeks Generalist Programmers to build, optimize, and extend cross-platform game systems across gameplay, engine integration, physics, rendering, AI, and networking. You will own complex systems, guide technical decisions, and collaborate with a multidisciplinary team in Auckland.

The role focuses on high-performance, maintainable code, performance tuning, and supporting porting efforts across platforms. Onsite studio work in Auckland is required.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field, or equivalent professional experience.
• Minimum of three years of professional programming experience in the games industry; five or more years for senior roles.
• Experience contributing to shipped games; senior level requires credit on at least two AAA titles.
• Strong proficiency in C/C++ and ability to write high-performance, robust, maintainable code.
• Solid understanding of engineering pipeline, data structures, algorithms, memory management, and multithreaded programming.
• Strong debugging, profiling, and performance optimization skills.
• Working knowledge of linear algebra and trigonometry applied to game development.
• Familiarity with contemporary game engines and platforms, with experience contributing to an established codebase.
• Experience with PC development and cross-platform considerations.
• Ability to work independently, communicate effectively, and collaborate across development disciplines.
• Greater ownership of complex systems, sound architectural judgment, and mentoring abilities for senior roles.

Responsibilities

• Create high-performance, robust, and maintainable code in a cross-platform environment.
• Design, implement, maintain, and extend game systems, features, tools, and engine integrations.
• Evaluate existing technology architectures and contribute improvements that support ongoing development.
• Extend existing systems to meet long-term project needs.
• Collaborate with engineering, design, art, animation, production, and QA to translate requirements into practical technical solutions.
• Support porting by adapting systems to platform requirements, hardware capabilities, and resource constraints.
• Develop and optimize data structures and algorithms for game objects, scenes, and other systems.
• Apply linear algebra and trigonometry to collision detection, camera movement, projectile trajectories, and spatial transformations.
• Contribute to physics, animation, AI, rendering, and multiplayer systems as required by the project.
• Implement animation functionality such as blending, state machines, inverse kinematics, and procedural techniques.
• Support client-server communication, game state synchronization, network prediction, and latency compensation.
• Develop or optimize rendering pipelines, shaders, and post-processing effects.
• Use debugging tools, crash reports, and core dumps to diagnose runtime errors, memory issues, and stability problems.
• Profile and optimize CPU, GPU, memory usage, frame rates, and load times.
• Develop and improve asset pipelines, development tools, and automation.
• Work with external development partners to integrate contributions and resolve technical dependencies.
• Participate in code reviews and adhere to team coding standards and practices.
• Document systems and technical decisions to support collaboration and maintainability.
• Communicate progress, estimates, dependencies, and risks to your manager and project team.
• Contribute to architectural decisions, share technical knowledge, and mentor colleagues as appropriate to your experience.
• Perform other relevant duties and responsibilities that support company, department, and project objectives.

Skills

C/C++

Cross-platform development

Engine integration

Gameplay programming

Performance optimization

Multithreaded programming

Debugging

Technical leadership

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field

Equivalent professional experience

Tools

Unreal Engine

Unity

Godot

Source

DirectX / Vulkan / OpenGL

Job description

Blind Squirrel Games seeks Generalist Programmers to build, optimize, and extend cross-platform game systems across gameplay, engine integration, physics, rendering, AI, and networking. You will own complex systems, guide technical decisions, and collaborate with a multidisciplinary team in Auckland.

The role focuses on high-performance, maintainable code, performance tuning, and supporting porting efforts across platforms. Onsite studio work in Auckland is required.