[Hiring] Advanced Gameplay Engineer @The Walt Disney Company

Role Description

Disney Digital Entertainment is on a mission to create the ‘digital front door’ for The Walt Disney Company, bringing all of the magic of Disney together into a new interactive universe. We are building an expert development team that will be building game experiences that will herald the next generation of Disney to the world. Working with top-class industry talent, this role is perfect for the accomplished game engineer looking to create something epic - collaborating with an incredible group of game developers focusing on individual experiences to build a wonderfully rich and cohesive product that is truly “Disney”.

We are looking for a uniquely talented Advanced Gameplay Engineer to join us on this journey! If you are an experienced game programmer with a love of Disney/Pixar, Star Wars, 20th Century, and Marvel properties, you’ll want to check out this opportunity! This role will report to the Director, Gameplay Engineering.

What You Will Do

• Leverage your experience and knowledge to help implement several interactive games and experiences based on Disney’s robust portfolio of characters and worlds including Disney/Pixar, 20th Century, Marvel and Star Wars.
• Be an active, hands-on participant in the process, directly writing code and working daily with design/production/art to establish and achieve goals for each game experience.
• A significant portion of this work will involve implementation of experiences using SceneGraph and Verse (UEFN/Unreal Editor Fortnite) as a base.
• This role will require a willingness and ability to operate within the limitations of that ecosystem and grow with it as the functionality matures.
• There may be additional work within the native Unreal Engine environment (C++/Blueprints), however the primary responsibility will still come back to SceneGraph and Verse. This is not a 100% C++ position.
• Help the team understand and debug a large legacy Unreal Engine project. This job may involve helping to extend that codebase to meet our needs.
• Empower designers by serving as their main support avenue during game development. Find creative ways to overcome limitations, maintaining a positive outlook along the way.
• Work closely with other members of the engineering team to ensure that implementation quality is maintained. Be an advocate of stability and flexibility.
• Champion Disney and team values. Maintain a ‘guest-first’ mentality by being an advocate for the player experience.
• As an advanced-level engineer, you will help drive critical leading edge projects for the company.
• Serve as a key member of a growing game development team at Disney.

Qualifications

• 8 years of experience developing console/PC/mobile games or other digital interactive entertainment.
• Experience with Unreal Engine 4/5+ at the native (C++) level. Capable of understanding and working in an existing legacy C++/Blueprint-heavy project.
• Some experience with UEFN/Verse, at least at the hobby-ist level.
• Participated in the creation and release of a major product, in a hands-on programming role. Was one of the main authors of a significant gameplay system.
• Served as a programmer during the prototype phase of a project. Understands the difference in requirements/goals between prototyping and production.
• Understands and implements the following concepts at a production-quality, AAA level:
  • C++ code (Performance Impact, Memory Management, Inheritance, etc.)
  • Client/Server architecture (Replication, Client-side Prediction, Movement Syncing, etc.)
  • Game Mathematics (Linear Algebra, Vector Math, Kinematic Physics, Collision, etc.)
• Able to mentor and to guide junior engineers.

Requirements

• A Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or equivalent combination of education and experience.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with publishing and supporting live UEFN content.
• Graphics Programming, Mobile experience, and familiarity with Online Services are all bonuses.
• Has a broad, current understanding of Fortnite and the various devices that are available for User Generated Content (UGC).
• Experience developing and supporting products in the AAA space.

Benefits

• Disney offers a rewards package to help you live your best life. This includes health and savings benefits, educational opportunities, and special extras that only Disney can provide.
• Learn more about our benefits and perks at Disney Careers .