Technical Director Austin, TX

Austin, TX, United States

At NaturalMotion, we make games that wow people. We take pride in making titles that reach a large audience and in creating communities that last. For the past six years, NaturalMotion Studios have been named as one of the Best Places to Work in the UK games industry by gamesindustry.biz

We embrace a hybrid work environment. Within this role, you would work 2 days per week (Tuesday and Wednesday) and the remaining days at home. This role will be Connected to one of our offices in either London or Austin.

JOB PURPOSE We are looking for an experienced Technical Director to join us at NaturalMotion/Zynga to develop our next project using the Unreal Engine on mobile devices and other platforms, building upon the success of Star Wars: Hunters. We are seeking a Technical Director who excels at architecting and coding large AAA F2P games, and who proactively seeks out solutions, as well as encouraging ideas from others.

KEY ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES Drive the definition of the technical architecture for the game on the client side and the coordination with our server technology

Contribute to sever technology architecting over time

Collaborate with product managers and producers on analysing feature set complexity, planning releases and delivering code solutions on schedule

Work with the Art, UX and UI disciplines, to improve tools and processes for content creation, import pipelines, prototyping, production and testing

Ensure the creation of well-designed, adaptable and testable software for mobile and other platforms

Sometimes architect and write production ready code yourself

Mentor Senior and Principal engineers from a technical perspective, developing the next generation of Architects

Fostering a tech approach that embraces sustainable live operations, a regular cadence of game updates, and high-quality rapid releases

Ensure the correct management of technical debt

Capture and share knowledge across the team, NaturalMotion and Zynga

REQUIRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE Developed and released multiple games with Unreal Engine, as a technical director or architect, with at least one Game as a Service

Deep experience with C++, plus a detailed understanding of mobile CPU and GPU hardware

You are an authority when it comes to AAA game architecture

Expertise in multiple areas, such as – NPC behaviour, AI, multiplayer, UI / UX, meta game systems, F2P game mechanics, graphics, tools, systems, and game engines

Have deep understanding of design patterns, memory / performance optimisation, and importantly, how to summarise and share your knowledge

A great understanding of mentoring engineers of all levels throughout the game development cycle

Deep experience of being a strategic problem-solver, and be able to collaborate with peers across disciplines when problems stretch across different areas

Ability to present technical challenges, recommendations, and solutions to game leadership level

DESIRABLE  EXPERIENCE AND SKILLS Worked on PC and console projects

Experience with Server systems and architectures

Worked on third or first person shooter games

WHAT WE OFFER YOU Competitive salary, bonus plan and ESPP (Employee Stock Purchase Plan)

401K Company Match Contribution (US)

RRSP/DPSP company match contribution (Canada)

Health coverage, dental, disability, critical illness, EAP, and life insurance (Canada)

Medical, dental, vision, EAP, life insurance, and disability benefits (US)

Virtual mental health and neurodiversity support programs

Global Fitness reimbursement program

Financial wellness program with unlimited access to certified financial planners

Discretionary Time Off policy for many employees

Family planning support program

Generous paid parental, pregnancy-related disability, caregiver, and compassionate leaves

Subsidized Back-up child care

Zynga happy hours and frequent employee events

Flexible working hours on many teams

Culture of diversity and inclusion including employee resource groups

Work with cool people and impact millions of daily player

We are an equal opportunity employer and we are committed to building a diverse and talented workforce. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, sex, religion, colour, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, medical condition, disability, or any other class or characteristic protected by applicable law. We welcome job-seekers, players, employees, and partners from all backgrounds to join us!

We will consider all qualified job-seekers with criminal histories in a manner consistent with applicable law.

We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations to qualified individuals with physical or mental disabilities in order to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment. Please contact us at [email protected] to request an accommodation associated with your application for an open position.

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Zynga does not engage in financial exchanges during the recruitment or onboarding process. We do not conduct job interviews over third-party messaging apps such as Telegram, WhatsApp or others. We will never ask you for your personal or financial information over unofficial chat channels. Our in-house recruitment team only contacts individuals via official company email addresses (i.e., via a zynga.com or naturalmotion.com email domain).

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Zynga is a leading developer of the world's most popular social games that are played by millions of people around the world each day.

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