Are you an experienced Lead Full-Stack Developer who wants to architect the web and platform systems behind a large-scale live-service MMO?
We’re hiring a Lead Full-Stack Developer to own the architecture, engineering standards, and team growth for the web and platform layer of an online multiplayer game. This includes account systems, social features, community tools, content delivery, and the services that connect the live experience beyond the game client.
About the role...
This is a foundational leadership role in early production. You’ll report to the CTO and manage a growing team of web and platform engineers while staying hands-on with architecture and code.
You’ll make key decisions around backend services, frontend architecture, cloud infrastructure, deployment pipelines, and data modelling. The systems you build will support player accounts, social features, marketplace functionality, live-service integrations, and long-term scalability.
This is not a maintenance role. You’ll be building and scaling systems from the ground up.
What you’ll do:
People leadership and team development
- Lead and grow a team of full-stack and platform engineers
- Set priorities, assign work, and balance workload across production cycles
- Run regular 1:1s, performance reviews, and development plans
- Represent web engineering in cross-discipline planning and resourcing discussions
- Foster a culture of code quality, ownership, and continuous improvement
- Support hiring through technical reviews and interviews
Backend architecture and services
- Architect and build scalable backend microservices using TypeScript, Node.js, and Express
- Design systems using MongoDB for persistence and Redis for caching, session management, and pub/sub messaging
- Define service boundaries, API contracts, and data models for long-term scalability
- Build services supporting player accounts, authentication, social systems, marketplace, inventory, and integrations
- Implement observability and monitoring practices using tools such as Grafana and similar platforms
Cloud infrastructure and DevOps
- Own CI/CD pipelines using Azure Pipelines (or equivalent)
- Deploy and orchestrate services using Docker and Kubernetes on Azure (or similar cloud platforms)
- Establish deployment strategies that enable rapid iteration while maintaining stability
- Design for high availability, performance, and reliability in a live-service environment
Frontend engineering
- Build responsive, accessible interfaces using TypeScript, React, and Next.js
- Implement state management solutions such as Redux
- Ensure frontend systems are built for internationalisation, performance, and accessibility
- Collaborate closely with UI/UX design for clean implementation workflows
Platform integration
- Define integration points between web systems and the game client (authentication, account management, analytics, social systems)
- Collaborate with gameplay and online services teams to ensure seamless cross-platform experiences
- Partner with production on milestone planning, sprint scoping, and capacity forecasting
What we’re looking for:
Experience
- 7+ years of professional software development experience
- At least one shipped product or live service
- 2+ years in a senior or lead role with direct team leadership experience
- Proven experience making architectural decisions in cross-functional teams
Technical skills
- Strong backend experience with TypeScript, Node.js, and Express
- Production experience with MongoDB and Redis
- Strong frontend experience with React and Next.js
- Experience designing and maintaining CI/CD pipelines
- Experience with Docker and Kubernetes
- Experience working with Azure Cloud or equivalent cloud platforms
- Strong understanding of scalable, service-oriented architecture
Nice to have
- Experience building backend systems for games, social platforms, or real-time applications
- Experience with event-driven architectures, WebSockets, or pub/sub at scale
- Familiarity with OAuth2/JWT authentication flows
- Experience with observability tools such as Grafana
- Additional backend language experience (e.g., Go)
- Contributions to open-source projects or technical writing
Why join
- Shape the foundational platform architecture of a live-service MMO
- Lead and grow a high-impact engineering team
- High ownership in early production with long-term technical influence
- Remote-first culture with autonomy and collaborative decision-making
If you’re a hands-on engineering leader who enjoys building scalable systems from scratch and guiding teams through early architectural decisions, we’d love to hear from you. Apply now, or email Jack Baxter - jb@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.
