North America
Side is a global game development partner helping studios bring games to life across co‑development, art, audio, QA, player support, and more. We work alongside developers and publishers to solve production challenges at every stage, from active development through live operations.
Description
Lead Generalist Programmer
We’re looking for a Lead Generalist Programmer to help drive technical delivery across a range of game development engagements. This role is for a senior engineer who is equally comfortable leading people, collaborating with clients, and getting hands‑on in code. You should bring strong technical depth in both Unity and Unreal, experience guiding teams through production, and the judgment to move between gameplay systems, tools, optimization, and platform‑specific problem solving as projects demand.
What you’ll do
Lead and mentor engineers across active co‑development and game development projects
Act as a senior technical partner to production, design, art, and client stakeholders
Contribute hands‑on to implementation in Unity and Unreal, depending on project needs
Architect and review systems across gameplay, tools, UI, integration, optimization, and platform support
Establish engineering best practices for code quality, performance, maintainability, and delivery
Help scope work, identify technical risk early, and provide realistic production recommendations
Support hiring, onboarding, and growth of engineering talent within the team
Communicate technical tradeoffs clearly to both technical and non‑technical audiences
Partner with internal leadership and external clients to align technical execution with project goals
Requirements
What we’re looking for
5+ years of professional game programming experience
Experience leading or mentoring engineers in a production environment
Strong hands‑on development experience in both Unity and Unreal Engine
Strong coding skills in C# and C++
Experience shipping games or major features on at least one of the following: PC, console, or mobile
Deep understanding of game architecture, pipelines, debugging, profiling, and optimization
Ability to work across multiple gameplay‑adjacent domains such as gameplay systems, UI, animation systems, tooling, or integration
Strong understanding of technical risk, production tradeoffs, and scalable engineering practices
Excellent communication skills with the ability to work directly with clients, partners, and cross‑functional teams
Nice to have
Experience in a co‑development, outsourcing, or service‑based studio environment
Experience with console development and certification constraints
Familiarity with backend or online systems integration
Experience building internal tools and workflows for designers, artists, or production teams
Exposure to AWS, CI/CD pipelines, or live‑service workflows
Experience helping scope projects, write technical proposals, or support business development conversations
Benefits
This will be a contract role to start with the intent to convert to perm.
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