Senior Gameplay Engineer

***This position is full-time in office***

About the Role:

Sony PlayStation Studios is seeking outstanding talent to join our passionate and creative family in crafting our next high-profile AAA console title.

We are a newly established AAA studio based in Los Angeles, driven by a team of seasoned industry leaders and experienced game developers. Our mission is to create the next groundbreaking AAA original IP while reimagining the development process with a lean and highly efficient approach to creativity. We're seeking talented individuals who share our vision and are eager to join us on this journey.

We are seeking a Senior Gameplay Engineer based on location in our LA studio, who will report directly to the Director of Engineering. The ideal candidate will have a combination of solid gameplay experience, exceptional technical and leadership skills, and collaborative mindset, paired with a passion for games.

Responsibilities:

As a Senior Gameplay Engineer, you will play a critical role in implementing the core mechanics and systems that define overall gameplay experience. In this role, you will work closely with designers, artists, and your engineering peers, to help bring gameplay ideas to life, ensuring they are polished, engaging, and performant. This role requires a deep passion for games, strong problem-solving skills, and desire to collaborate across disciplines.

• Design, develop, and maintain some of the key systems that make up the overall gameplay technology stack, including weapons, abilities, player movement, networking, and AI.

• Write clear and efficient code that adheres to the highest degree of industry and studio standards.

• Identify and help optimize gameplay code to ensure exceptional gameplay feel for our players - while keeping scalability and maintainability in mind.

• Collaborate with designers to prototype and refine gameplay features that align with the project's creative vision.

• Provide guidance to the team, helping identify tradeoffs between various technical/architectural choices, with the goal of translating creative ideas into practical solutions.

• Actively take part in playtesting to help identify and convert playtest feedback into actionable steps for engineering team.

• Collaborate with QA to test gameplay systems efficiently, debug and resolve issues in a timely manner.

• Assist Senior Leadership and Production team in planning upcoming features, identifying risks and mitigations.

• Actively participate in architectural discussions, contribute to technical documentation, and code review process.

• Help develop iteration and workflow tools to streamline the process of authoring and rapid iteration of gameplay systems.

Qualifications

• Minimum 4+ years of demonstrable game development experience, with at least 2 years in gameplay related disciplines working alongside a team of designers and engineers.

• You have a strong interest, instinct and passion for gameplay feel and enjoy working with creative disciplines to deliver exceptional experiences for players.

• Experience working in Unreal Engine (UE4 and/or UE5) for 4+ years. AAA experience is a plus.

• Strong proficiency in C++, and familiarity with common scripting languages.

• Experienced in designing and implementing some of the key gameplay features such as weapons, abilities, player movement, networking, and AI.

• Excellent debugging and problem-solving skills, with a focus on delivering stable and polished features.

• You are experienced in breaking down complex problems into smaller, incrementally achievable goals.

• Effective communication skills and the ability to work effectively in a multidisciplinary, distributed team.