Lead Software Engineer — Premier RTS
Job Description
Description
Blackbird Interactive is a creative-fueled, future-driven, independent game studio where the best talent in the industry can find long-term careers to help grow their abilities while working on a wide range of projects, which encompass world-class IPs as well as our own creations across multiple genres.
In 2022, we announced that our studio is implementing afour-day work week as well as supporting in-studio, remote within Canada, and hybrid work arrangements as permanent options to our employees.
Location: Canada – Remote-friendly (min 50% Pacific-time overlap required) ·
Employment type: Four-day work week (32 hrs), full-time permanent.
About the role:
You’ll set technical direction for a high-profile remaster of a beloved RTS. You’ll lead modernization and polish across core gameplay and systems, champion quality-of-life improvements, and raise the technical bar across a large-scale RTS codebase: owning pillars end-to-end and partnering closely with design and art.
What you’ll lead:
- Technical direction & architecture for data-driven, multithreaded gameplay systems within a mature proprietary engine; define standards, patterns, and reviews that scale across PC.
- New modes & live-ops delivery — lead prototyping through launch and iteration of multiplayer experiences and post-launch systems in modern C++.
- Quality-of-life upgrades — champion UX/onboarding improvements, eliminate long-standing issues, and strengthen mod-support pipelines.
- Simulation & AI — guide work on deterministic simulation, path-finding, combat logic, and unit behaviours to deliver tight, tactical play.
- Performance & stability — enforce budgets, profile and optimise to hit 60 fps during 1,000-unit battles, improve load times, and expand automated test coverage.
- Cross-disciplinary collaboration — sync with design, art, animation, and audio; run playtests and turn feedback into shippable features.
- People leadership — mentor and grow engineers via pairing, coaching, and actionable reviews; foster best practices and support career development.
Qualifications:
- 5+ years building and shipping games in modern C++ within large codebases; proven ownership of complex gameplay systems.
- Shipped multiple commercial titles or substantial live-ops updates with notable gameplay contributions.
- Strength in data-driven design, rapid iteration, and balancing creative intent with technical realities.
- Excellent cross-discipline communication; gives and receives constructive code feedback.
- Comfortable with Perforce/Git and modern debugging/profiling tooling; advocates for automation and quality.
Nice to have:
- RTS or large-scale simulation experience (AI, pathfinding, deterministic sims).
- Engine-level systems, networking for multiplayer, and content-pipeline/tools experience.
$125,000 – $160,000 a year
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Company
Blackbird Interactive Inc
Location
Vancouver
Country
Canada
Salary
100.000
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