Senior Engine Programmer

Rushdown-Studios; City of Saratoga Springs (NY); Híbrido; USD 100 000 - 150 000; Tempo integral

Vantagens oferecidas por esta oferta de emprego

Salary: 100k-150k

Paid holidays

Flexible PTO

Video game budget

401(k)

Resumo da oferta

Rushdown Studios in Saratoga Springs, NY is seeking a Senior Engine Programmer to design, optimize, and maintain core engine technologies for multiple games.

You will work across data formats, serialization, and tooling, with strong C++ skills and multithreading. Local candidates are preferred with a hybrid Tue-Thu office schedule; remote US East is welcome for the right fit.

Competitive compensation includes $100,000-$150,000/year, plus holidays, PTO, a video game budget, and a 401(k) plan.

Qualificações

• Five or more years of professional C++ experience in game engine work.
• Experience shipping commercial games and writing portable, maintainable code.
• Experience designing or maintaining binary formats, serialization, or data pipelines.
• Strong CS fundamentals: data structures, algorithms, memory, concurrency.
• Experience profiling and optimizing CPU, memory, I/O; multithreaded programming.
• Willingness to put player experience first; proactive communication.

Responsabilidades

• Design, develop, and maintain the engine's data systems using modern C++ and archive formats.
• Build next-gen data formats with versioning, merging, and fast runtime loading.
• Develop tools to migrate content to new formats without data loss.
• Make data builds deterministic and cacheable for reproducible outputs.
• Profile and optimize loading and streaming on PC and consoles.
• Write clean, intuitive code that is easy to extend by others.
• Collaborate with tools, editor, build, designers and gameplay programmers.
• Solve crashes and performance bottlenecks across platforms.

Conhecimentos

C++

Game engine development

Binary file formats

Serialization systems

Multithreaded programming

Performance profiling

Team collaboration

Ferramentas

Unreal Engine

Python

Lua

Descrição da oferta de emprego

Founded by games industry veterans, Rushdown was created with a simple philosophy in mind: We believe that when talented developers are consistently challenged and given clear ownership of their work, extraordinary things will happen. As a co-dev game studio, we now focus on solving some of the most difficult problems that face multiplayer games — and we bring our experience working on games like PUBG, League of Legends, and Rocket League with us. We truly love the work we do and we want to funnel our passion and expertise into features and games that billions of players will enjoy worldwide.

Our Role

Rushdown Studios is looking for a Senior Engine Programmer to join us in support of our partner studio! In this role, you’ll work alongside our team to build, optimize, and maintain central technologies capable of servicing multiple games with unique needs.

Our ideal candidate is a self-motivated and demonstrated team player with the ability to juggle and jump between different tasks as necessary. Prior game development experience is required for this role, but we encourage you to apply even if you don’t meet all of the requirements listed below!

Work Location: Rushdown Studios is based in Saratoga Springs, NY and we have a strong preference for local candidates willing to work from our office on our hybrid basis (i.e., Tuesday-Thursday) or fully remote candidates in the Eastern United States. However, we're always open to expanding our list of remote-eligible states for the right candidate, as well.

Disclaimer: Please note that this is not a gameplay engineering role. Graphics and rendering experience is not required for this role.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and maintain the engine's data systems using modern C++, including the archive formats for the engine.
• Build next-generation data formats that support versioning, merging, and fast runtime loading.
• Develop tools that migrate existing content to new formats without losing data.
• Make data builds deterministic and cacheable to ensure the same inputs always produce the same output.
• Profile and optimize loading and streaming on both PC and console platforms.
• Write clean and intuitive code that can easily be understood by external developers and extended in the future.
• Collaborate with tools, editor, build, designers and gameplay programmers to understand how content is made and where it slows down.
• Solve crashes, performance bottlenecks, and data problems on both PC and console platforms.

Requirements

• Five (5) years or more of professional experience with C++, including industry experience building and maintaining proprietary game engine technology.
• Experience developing and shipping commercial games, as well as the broader ability to write clear, maintainable, and portable code.
• Experience designing or maintaining binary file formats, serialization systems, or asset and data pipelines.
• Strong understanding of computer science fundamentals (e.g., data structures, algorithms, concurrency, memory layout).
• Experience profiling and optimizing CPU, memory, and I/O performance.
• Experience with multithreaded programming, synchronization, and parallel processing.
• Willingness to selflessly put player experiences first, before even your own code and ego.
• Proactive approach to communication, particularly when it comes to unblocking yourself and navigating obstacles as part of a team.

Nice-to-Haves

• Experience with content pipelines, editor tooling, or level streaming in proprietary engines or Unreal Engine.
• Familiarity with mod-friendly content formats, plugin and archive systems, or community modding tools.
• Experience with compression, content-addressed storage, or incremental build systems.
• Familiarity with scripting languages (e.g., Python, Lua) for tools and pipeline automation.
• Experience with console development, including optimizing for specific platforms and navigating related performance constraints.
• Compensation: $100,000-150,000/year. Please note that final base pay will ultimately depend upon a combination of factors, including your prior experience, general qualifications, and broader skill set.
• 9 Paid Holidays plus Flexible PTO and Annual Winter Break Closure
• Medical, Dental, and Vision Insurance
• Annual Video Game Budget
• 401(k) Retirement Plan

EEO Statement

At Rushdown Studios, we believe that we're made better by each of the different perspectives that our team members bring to the table. We said it above, and we'll say it again: We want to hear from you, even if you don't meet all of the requirements for a specific role.

We're also an equal opportunity employer and we do not discriminate on the basis of race; color; ancestry or national origin; religion; physical or mental disability; age; sex, including pregnancy; sexual orientation; gender, gender identity, or gender expression; medical condition; genetic information; or marital, military, or veteran status.