Senior Core Engineer

LE130 Unity Technologies SF; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 225,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health, life & disability insurance

Commute subsidy

Employee stock ownership

Generous vacation & personal days

Job summary

Unity Technologies in San Francisco is seeking engineers to advance core engine infrastructure for real‑time 3D runtimes. You’ll own critical subsystems, optimize execution, and push performance across editor, build, and runtime code.

You’ll design scalable, cross‑process APIs, tackle loading and synchronization challenges, and work across physics, animation, and graphics domains to keep Unity ahead in a connected ecosystem.

Qualifications

• Experience building or fundamentally extending game engine cores.
• Ability to design modular, testable systems end-to-end.
• Strong knowledge of CPU caches, memory layout, and profiling.

Responsibilities

• Own and evolve subsystems across the engine stack from C++ to C# APIs.
• Design and implement high-performance APIs for embedded and networked configurations.
• Manage execution timing and resource contention across processes and networks.
• Orchestrate loading, tracking, serialization, and synchronization of assets.

Skills

Core Engine Expertise

Architectural Vision

High-Performance Coding

Engine-Wide Breadth

Tools

C++

C#

APIs

Serialization

Job description

The Opportunity PolySpatial is the core technology behind Unity's support for visionOS, streaming Unity games into Fortnite, and iteration tools like Play to Device, Scene Recording, and AI data capture and analysis. Underneath all of it is a single model for connecting devices, users, applications, and even different game engines, and we're constantly finding new places to put it to work. We're looking for engineers eager to help us invent how different real-time 3D runtimes communicate and render under real-world constraints. You’ll work at the intersection of core engine tech, high-performance networking, distributed systems, and graphics. This is your opportunity to build the fundamental infrastructure for the next generation of interconnected game and 3D ecosystems. You’ll own critical tech that enables Unity to run as a guest within other processes, engines, and distributed systems. This is deep engine work requiring a holistic understanding of execution models, serialization, asset lifecycles, and runtime performance—all operating reliably in host environments we don’t control. You'll design systems that allow Unity to load, run, and synchronize assets when we don't own the main loop, design clean, extensible architecture, then drop into assembly to shave off milliseconds.

What you’ll be doing:

• Own and evolve critical subsystems across the engine stack, from low-level C++ to high-level C# APIs across editor, build, and runtime code.
• Design and implement high-performance, extensible APIs intended for embedded, cross-process, and networked configurations.
• Develop schemes to manage execution timing and resource contention within or between processes and over the network with minimal overhead
• Orchestrate loading, change tracking, serializing, and synchronizing components and assets in bandwidth and latency-constrained environments.

What we’re looking for:

• Core Engine Expertise: Experience building or fundamentally extending game engine cores, middleware, or foundational systems (e.g., serialization, build pipelines, memory subsystems).
• Architectural Vision + Practical Implementation: Design modular, testable systems, then implement and debug them yourself end-to-end.
• High-Performance Coding: Strong C++ and C# skills, with practical understanding of CPU caches, branch behavior, memory layout, and profiling.
• Engine-Wide Breadth: Hands‑on experience across multiple engine domains (e.g., physics, animation, input, assets) and how they interact.

You might also have:

• Familiarity with compression, streaming, replication, authority models, RPCs, state diffing, delta encoding, or network protocols for real‑time interactive systems.
• Experience with determinism, replay systems and simulation consistency.
• Deep knowledge of multithreading, job systems, lock-free techniques, and/or Unity DOTS.
• Experience with MCP‑style tool interfaces, training data generation, machine learning, or agentic workflows.

Additional information

Relocation support is not available for this position.

Work visa/immigration sponsorship is not available for this position.

Base Salary Range:

• Zone A: $135,800 - $203,600 USD gross
• Zone B: $153,400 - $230,200 USD gross
• Zone C: $172,400 - $258,600 USD gross

Beyond base salary, this role may be eligible for equity awards and participation in our company incentive plans (such as annual discretionary bonuses or sales commissions). The final offer amount will depend on several factors, including geographic location and the candidate’s relevant experience, professional background, and skill set.

Benefits

• Comprehensive health, life, and disability insurance
• Commute subsidy
• Employee stock ownership
• Competitive retirement/pension plans
• Generous vacation and personal days
• Support for new parents through leave and family‑care programs
• Office food snacks
• Mental Health and Wellbeing programs and support
• Employee Resource Groups
• Global Employee Assistance Program
• Training and development programs
• Volunteering and donation matching program

Life at Unity

Unity [NYSE: U] is the world’s leading game engine, powering play for more than 3 billion consumers each month. The top mobile games in the world, the most played PC indie titles, the most innovative console games, and virtually all of the top XR and Web Games are developed, deployed, and grown in Unity. Unity also enables teams across industries like automotive, manufacturing, and healthcare to design, simulate, and collaborate in 3D – closing the gap between ideas and reality. For more information, please visit www.unity.com.

Unity is a proud equal opportunity employer. We are committed to fostering an inclusive, innovative environment and celebrate our employees across age, race, color, ancestry, national origin, religion, disability, sex, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, or any other protected status in accordance with applicable law. Our differences are strengths that enable us to support the growing and evolving needs of our customers, partners, and collaborators.

If you have a disability that means there are preparations or accommodations we can make to help ensure you have a comfortable and positive interview experience, please fill out this form to let us know.

At Unity, we're committed to creating a workplace that fosters collaboration and teamwork that allows you to harness your unique skills. Join us in creating industry tools to help creators of all levels bring their projects to reality. Learn more about our culture and values, and get a head start by reading about how our hiring process works.