Senior Game Engine Developer

Position Overview

• Location Type: Remote
• Job Type: FullTime
• Salary: $120K - $160K

Pocket Worlds is seeking a Senior Game Engine Programmer to help shape the future of Highrise by building and optimizing our custom game engine systems in Unity. You’ll work closely with artists, designers, and other engineers to extend and refine the core engine that powers our virtual world—enhancing avatar systems, improving rendering performance, and supporting scalable features that serve millions of users. This role is ideal for someone who thrives in a fast-moving, high-ownership environment and is passionate about building high-performance systems that bring immersive, social experiences to life. The success of this role will be measured by the performance, flexibility, and innovation you bring to Highrise's game engine and overall platform experience.

Requirements

• Experience: 8+ years of experience in game development, with at least 4 years focused on game engine programming.
• Unity Expertise: Deep experience building and optimizing systems in Unity, with extensive use of C#.
• Render Pipeline Knowledge: Strong understanding of render pipelines (URP, HDRP, or custom solutions).
• Avatar Systems: Experience working on or building avatar systems (rigging, animation, customization).
• Technical Leadership: Proven track record of technical leadership, ownership, and delivering scalable engine features.
• Passion: Passion for virtual worlds, UGC, and immersive experiences.

Responsibilities

• Own key systems within our Unity-based engine, with a focus on rendering, avatars, animation, and performance optimization.
• Collaborate cross-functionally with our content, design, and backend teams to deliver engine improvements that directly impact user experience.
• Improve engine scalability and efficiency to support our growing global player base.
• Dive deep into Unity’s render pipelines (URP/HDRP/custom) to extend and adapt them to our needs.
• Build systems that enable richer avatar customization, visuals, and performance across devices.
• Champion technical excellence through code quality, performance, and architectural decisions.
• Work autonomously and take full ownership of features—from design and prototyping to implementation and maintenance.

Company Information

• Company: Pocket Worlds
• Mission: To connect the world through shared experiences.
• Culture: Featured as one of the most innovative companies in the world by Fast Company. Silicon Valley startup culture, with serial startup founders out of Y Combinator. An elite team of seasoned veterans from some of the best companies in the world. Tackling a mission at a world-changing scale—solving big problems, not local wins. Profitable business with strong foundations and a dedicated, established user base.

Tech Stack

• Unity: (URP)
• Language: C#
• Backend: Python, Go
• Infrastructure: AWS, Kubernetes (kOps), Terraform, MongoDB, Redis, WebSocket Secure (WSS), REST, FlatBuffers