Lead Backend Engineer

This is a fully remote position, open to applicants in United States, +1 more country.

📋 Description

• Lead, mentor, and develop a team of backend engineers.

• Establish objectives, conduct one-on-ones, provide feedback, and facilitate career advancement.

• Develop hiring strategies and interview candidates for technical positions.

• Oversee team processes such as planning, code review standards, on-call/bug triage, and work scoping and estimation.

• Foster a healthy, high-trust engineering environment.

• Review pull requests and assist engineers in overcoming complex technical challenges.

• Guide the evolution of backend architecture and contribute production code to critical-path systems.

• Manage reliability, service level objectives, incident response, and infrastructure costs.

• Collaborate with game design, marketing, and production to define features and align engineering with the creative vision.

• Work alongside the Technical Director to develop a feasible technical roadmap.

• Communicate engineering progress, risks, and trade-offs to studio leadership.

• Report directly to the Technical Director.

• Direct the Backend Engineering team.

• Collaborate with Gameplay, Technical Direction, Production, Design, Marketing, QA, and the wider engineering organization.

⛳️ Requirements

• A minimum of 6 years of professional backend experience, with a strong preference for games/live-service development.

• At least 2 years of experience in directly managing or leading engineers.

• Proficient in Kotlin or Java.

• Familiar with Kubernetes, Grafana, Terraform, and load-testing tools.

• Practical experience in scaling backend systems for a global audience.

• Competent in debugging, monitoring, and alerting backend systems.

• Strong understanding of software architecture and design patterns.

• Experience collaborating cross-functionally with design, marketing, and production on a shipped or in-development game.

• Ability to operate with high ownership in a lean team setting.

• Excellent communication skills.

• Experience in taking a live-service game through launch and post-launch operations (preferred).

• Background in an independent or mid-size studio (preferred).

• Must be legally authorized to work in the United States or Canada.

• Willingness to work within North American time zones (EST–PST).

🏝️ Benefits

• Stock options.

• Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage (100% for individuals, 90% for dependents).

• Life insurance.

• Short-term and long-term disability coverage.

• Additional benefits.

• 401(k) contributions (U.S.).

• RRSP + DPSP contributions (Canada).

• Paid parental leave.

• Fully remote studio distributed across North American time zones.

• Competitive salaries and pay transparency.