Senior Engineering Manager, Game Experience

Openkrill; United States; Remote; USD 150,000 - 239,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Performance bonuses

Equity

Medical benefits

Job summary

Zwift, Inc. is seeking a Senior Engineering Manager for the Game Experience team. You will directly manage a senior team of engineers focused on Zwift's core game loop, ensuring fun, high-perf cross-platform experiences. You will guide architecture, quality, and live-service operations while fostering growth and autonomy.

You’ll balance leadership with hands-on technical stewardship, driving cross‑functional alignment and agile practices to deliver impactful features without crunch.

Qualifications

• 4+ years in a software engineering management role in games.
• 6+ years of hands-on software engineering in game development with C++.
• Strong understanding of game performance, profiling, memory management and cross‑platform architecture.
• Experience operating live-service game features with production quality and telemetry.
• Ability to define technical strategy and roadmaps while navigating ambiguity.
• Proven experience leading game engineering teams using modern agile practices.

Responsibilities

• Lead and support a senior engineering team of 6-8 engineers, coaching and hiring while fostering autonomy.
• Provide technical oversight for C++ gameplay systems and cross‑platform performance.
• Own the end‑to‑end SDLC for live-service game features with automated testing and telemetry.
• Drive delivery with Scrum/Kanban, manage roadmap, unblock the team, and ensure visibility.
• Coordinate cross‑functional alignment with design, product, program management, UX and QA.
• Set technical strategy and milestones, balancing long‑term health with shipping.

Skills

People management

C++

Game development

Cross-functional collaboration

Agile methodologies

Performance optimization

Tools

Unreal Engine

Custom game engine

Job description

Location: Remote- Eligible US Locations

About the role and about You:

As the Senior Engineering Manager for the Game Experience (GAMEX) team, you will directly manage a senior team of engineers focused on Zwift's core game loop - from new gamified experiences and competitive racing systems to real-time physics and experiences built on top of our widely-deployed game controller ecosystem. You will navigate technical and product ambiguity, drive alignment across game designers, product managers, program managers / producers, UX designers, engineers, and QA, and ensure our cross-platform C++ features are fun, engaging, and perform seamlessly across desktop, mobile, and Apple TV.

You will balance strategic leadership as a team/people manager with deep technical stewardship, guiding architectural decisions, setting a high bar for engineering quality, and fostering an environment where engineers can grow, deliver predictably (and without crunch), and do their best work.

If you're an experienced game engineering leader who excels at building agile, high-performing teams and owning complex game features from prototype to live production.

What you’ll do:

- Lead and support a senior engineering team: Directly manage a dedicated team of 6-8 engineers and be responsible for coaching, career development, performance management, and hiring while fostering a culture of high-autonomy engineering excellence.

- Drive technical architecture: Provide technical oversight for C++ gameplay systems, partnering with your engineers to ensure scalable and maintainable designs, optimal cross-platform performance, memory management, and long-term technical health.

- Own the end-to-end software development life cycle: Zwift is a continuously evolving live-service game. You will own the operational excellence of your features in production, championing automated testing, feature flagging, phased rollouts, and real-time telemetry to safely experiment and iterate in a live environment.

- Drive predictable delivery: Lead efficient, agile team processes (Scrum, Kanban, etc.) that empower the team to plan, iterate, and deliver predictably. You will manage incoming requests, own your team's roadmap, unblock your team, mitigate risks, and maintain clear visibility for stakeholders.

- Navigate ambiguity: You'll drive cross-functional alignment between engineering, game design, product management, program management / producers, UX, QA, and hardware teams to establish a clear technical strategy and milestones for your team and projects.

What we’re looking for:

- 4+ years in a software engineering management role (e.g., Engineering Manager, Technical Director, or Lead Programmer/Engineer), with experience directly managing, coaching, and growing engineers in the games industry.

- 6+ years of hands-on software engineering experience in game development, with deep fluency in C++ and commercial or custom game engines.

- Strong understanding of game performance, profiling, memory management, and multi-platform game architecture.

- Experience operating and maintaining features within a live-service game, with high standards for production quality, operational monitoring, phased deployments, feature flag management, and support.

- Demonstrated ability to independently define technical strategy and team roadmaps while successfully navigating ambiguity and cross-team dependencies.

- Proven ability to lead game engineering teams using modern agile practices to run sprints, mitigate delivery risks, and establish reliable release schedules in an iterative environment.

Bonus points:

- Experience integrating game clients with backend services, persistence layers, and cross-platform mobile ecosystems like iOS, iPadOS, and Android.

- Experience in console game development, including optimizing for performance and stability in constrained platforms (memory, processing power).

- Experience integrating modern, AI-assisted development tools to unlock team productivity, balanced with mechanisms to help teams audit, maintain, and scale the use of agentically generated code.

- Experience building gameplay systems that take advantage of external hardware controllers or physical inputs.

- Experience with live-game experimentation, A/B testing, and using analytics tools or data pipelines to inform decisions (e.g., Amplitude, Databricks).

- Interest in building products that support our engaged Zwift community of cyclists, runners, and fitness enthusiasts.

For All US Based Full-Time Positions:

The base salary for this position ranges between 149,500 to 238,500. The base salary will be based on a number of factors including the role offered, the individual's job-related knowledge, skills, qualifications, and geographic location.

In addition to base salary, Zwift is proud to offer a comprehensive and competitive benefits package for all eligible employees which also includes:

• performance bonuses
• equity
• a full range of medical, financial, and other perks and benefits

If Zwift determines in any stage of our interviews that any AI tools are being used without disclosure or citation, your candidacy will be disqualified.

We strongly believe that different backgrounds and ideas are a competitive advantage; we hire candidates of any race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, marital or family status, disability, Veteran status, and any other status. Zwift is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please let us know by emailing [e-mail].

Zwift, Inc. is an Equal Opportunity Employer.