Our client is a leading developer, publisher, and marketer of interactive entertainment software. Their videogames are available for play on all major videogame platforms including the Playstation3 computer entertainment system, Xbox360 video game system from Microsoft, Nintendo Wii, and Nintendo DS.

Job title: Lead Game Programmer

Role:

Leads a programming team toward the achievement of the goals defined by the Technical Director. Assists in setting the short-term objectives of the team, with some input into the long term objectives. Accountable for developing, writing, documenting and debugging gameplay and other code for new and upgraded software products.

Functional responsibilities:

•Develops, writes, tests and debugs gameplay and other code for new and upgraded software products.

•Works closely with game designers to develop gameplay systems which closely meet their requirements and provide an enjoyable user experience.

•Leads a programming team in the development of software products.

•Supports the attainment of a few, defined short term outcomes for assigned team.

•Performs systems analysis, design, programming, maintenance and time estimates for assigned complex software products.

•Leads the technical design process.

•Develops programming schedules for the group, and works with production to track the team’s progress.

•Assigns programming modules and tasks to individual team members.

•Work involves a high level of interaction with the members of the team.

•Works with managers to evaluate and make feature, schedule and resource trade offs.

•Work is reviewed relative to defined operational milestones of assigned team.

•Mentors and coaches team members.

•Coordinates work and priorities with peers and managers of other groups and disciplines.

•Controls quality of the team’s work through code reviews.

•Considers issues outside of functional area to ensure success of project.

•Participates in the hiring process as a key interviewer, demonstrating the ability to accurately assess the skills and potential of interview candidates and make sound hiring decisions.

Skills required:

•Experienced with all aspects of the project cycle.

•Able to contribute globally with technical plans.

•Able to deal with complex situations and problems effectively.

•Excellent team management skills and experience in motivating individuals.

•Mastery of core and advanced C++ language features. Will regularly mentor more junior staff on the use of programming language features

•Capable of designing large, complex, reusable systems with limited assistance from others

•Capable of debugging most high- and low-level problems in an efficient manner

•Excellent understanding of the performance trade-offs of different technical solutions on all relevant development hardware platforms

•Capable of producing accurate, achievable project plans for programming teams.

•Capable of mentoring more junior staff in most areas of game programming

•Able to lead interviews of technical candidates, and make effective recruitment decisions based on these interviews

•Able to work and communicate effectively (both verbally and in writing) with the other disciplines (art, audio, design, production, QA, etc.), and senior management throughout the organisation.

•Strong problem solving skills.

•Good understanding of 3D maths.

•A proven ability to work closely with designers and an understanding of how to develop gameplay systems which provide designers with the facility to rapidly iterate key gameplay parameters.

Education and experience:

•Good Bachelors degree in a relevant subject (Computer Science, Mathematics, Physics with some programming modules) or equivalent experience

•Eight or more years of software development experience and/or critical contributions to two or more shipped titles

•Experience in leading a technical team

•Thorough command of the relevant programming languages and a thorough knowledge of software design practices including modularity, event driven architecture, object oriented design, graphics and animation techniques, interface design practices, portability, extensibility and testability.

Person specification:

•Enthusiasm for on-going learning and development.

•Self motivation.

•An ability to think clearly and operate effectively under pressure