Technical Director

Summary

Join nDreams Studio Elevation, a fully remote VR studio, as their Technical Director. You will lead and mentor a team of engineers, overseeing technical implementation and architecture for game projects. Responsibilities include promoting efficient development, balancing product quality and resources, and influencing high-level product roadmaps. You will also manage and mentor staff, handle recruitment, and contribute to the company's technology strategy. This permanent, full-time role offers a competitive salary and benefits, including flexible hours, personal development time, holiday offerings, a pension scheme, health insurance, and life cover. The ideal candidate possesses advanced C++ knowledge, extensive game development experience, and strong leadership skills.

Requirements

• Advanced knowledge of C++ including high-performance programming
• An advanced understanding of several specialist area of game development – for example Gameplay/UX (user experience), Animation, Networking, UI (user interface), Tools, AI (artificial intelligence)
• A baseline comprehension of many other specialist areas of game development, sufficient to plan projects and system interoperability
• A thorough understanding of Unreal Engine’s C++ extensions, game framework and blueprint scripting
• Knowledge of Unreal Engine’s project structure, settings, cook/build systems, and plugin architecture
• Ability to debug the most complex issues with real-time 3D applications, both at a code level and using visual tools
• Fluent in applying 3D math principles to real-time programming – matrices, quaternions, vectors etc
• Ability to profile/optimise code to improve performance
• Good English communication skills with an ability to communicate complex technical information to non-technical staff
• Awareness of their own management style, techniques for managing performance, coaching and mentoring
• Programming in the games industry in a professional context, working on at least three titles that are released on a current-generation console, PC, VR (Virtual Reality) headset or mobile
• Personal responsibility for the technical design, implementation and maintenance of entire game projects, or areas of a large project that required multiple staff to implement
• A leadership role on at least one Unreal Engine 4 or 5 project
• Line-management and recruitment of technical staff
• Planning, roadmapping and reporting progress on technical features for high-quality game projects

Responsibilities

• Oversee technical implementation
• Own the overall architecture for a game project, including middleware, asset pipelines, tools, system interoperability, etc
• Promote efficient development. Identify opportunities for code reuse. Engineer for straightforward reuse in future
• Support an agile, fail fast methodology when discovering and exploring technical solutions
• Balance product quality, performance and development resources
• Plan and estimate effectively
• Evaluate product requirements, raise potential risks, and propose solutions
• Influence high-level product roadmaps, setting suitable technical milestones and gates for development. Input to the studio resourcing plan
• Own and communicate the technical approach for a studio, aligning it with the company-wide strategy
• Direct technical priorities for the studio. Interleave company, studio and project-level priorities
• Give feedback on and influence the business-wide technology strategy. Collaborate with the central Shared Technology group to ensure Elevation is contributing to and benefitting from company-wide development
• Document and communicate information
• Ensure the quality and accuracy of technical documentation for each project and the studio
• Communicate the architecture of game projects, describing how systems interact. Tailor information for technical or non-technical audiences
• Work with the Code Manager to support an effective and scalable programming team
• Empower staff with appropriate context, achievable goals, and honest, timely feedback
• Create scope for senior staff, delegating areas of responsibility and mitigating single points of failure
• Manage and interleave processes and workflows across the studio. Identify blockers and inefficiencies in development and help to solve them
• Encourage collaboration in the programming staff. Instil a truly cross-discipline mentality. Make time for them to exchange information and techniques with other studios and shared nDreams functions
• Act as the hiring manager for technical staff. Conduct interviews, effectively evaluating technical and behavioural competencies. Check bias (self and others) and make balanced hiring decisions
• Mentor Senior and Principal-level staff, helping to expand their scope and influence

Preferred Qualifications

• Pragmatism and supportive leadership. You can support a diverse workforce to sustainably deliver their best work, even under challenging circumstances
• Team-focussed. You work toward the best result for the team and business, delegating to or supporting others with their work as appropriate
• Cross-discipline mentality. At Elevation, code is not a siloed discipline, but programmers instead work with design, art, production etc. to empower one another and achieve shared goals. You would be an exemplar and evangelist of this approach
• Manages workload efficiently and sustainably, for yourself and others. You continuously reassess priorities to ensure urgent tasks are tackled promptly and important tasks aren’t neglected. You manage bandwidth concerns to avoid burn-out or underutilisation
• Calm under pressure. You can stay optimistic and professional as project circumstances change, remaining consistent and approachable to the wider team
• Enthusiasm for VR as a technology and industry. You know what makes a great VR game and hold a vision for the future of the medium. You can act as a guardian and evangelist of VR sensibilities, possibilities, and platform innovation

Benefits

• Competitive Salary and Benefits
• Flexible hours
• Duvets days
• Your birthday off
• Dedicated personal development time and support
• Regular socials
• Excellent holiday offering
• Pension scheme
• Health insurance
• Life cover