Engineering Lead

Are you an experienced Engineering Lead ready to shape the future of an ambitious open-world multiplayer sandbox?

Skillsearch is proud to be partnering with an independent game studio on their next big project, built in Unreal Engine 5. We’re looking for a hands-on Engineering Lead to take technical ownership of the game and help bring this vision to life. This is a rare opportunity to play a foundational role in an exciting new IP.

This is a hybrid role with 2 days per week on-site at the studio in Guildford.

Please note: the studio is unable to offer visa sponsorship or transfers at this time.

What you’ll be doing:

• Taking full technical ownership of the project, setting direction and standards across all systems

• Leading and mentoring the engineering team with hands-on code contributions and architecture planning

• Building systems across gameplay, networking, UI, tools, backend, online services, and DevOps

• Driving the adoption of AI and ML tooling to support gameplay and production

• Hiring, onboarding, and growing a high-performing engineering team

• Championing a strong, collaborative engineering culture in a fast-moving environment

What we’re looking for:

• 10 or more years of experience in game or engine programming, with leadership on shipped titles

• Strong Unreal Engine background, especially in networking, gameplay systems, Lyra, motion matching, and custom tools

• Proven success in building and scaling engineering teams from the ground up

• Deep experience in multiplayer architecture and online integration (e.g., EOS, Steam)

• Solid understanding of backend systems, scalable services, DevOps, CI/CD, and optimisation

Is this role of interest and you think you'd be a good fit? Get in touch with Sam at Skillsearch: sm@skillsearch.com

Years of experience and salary levels are shown purely as a guide. We will only consider applications from candidates that can demonstrate the skills or experience required for the role.

Please be aware that while we would love to respond to every application we receive, due to high numbers we cannot guarantee this. We do however appreciate any time you invest into the application and will make sure to get in touch should anything in future more closely fit your skillset.