[Hiring] Senior Unity Developer @Magpie Literacy

Role Description

We’re seeking a pragmatic, mission-driven Senior Unity Developer to join our small, high-ownership team building Magpie’s next generation of learning games. You’ll wear many hats, work across boundaries, and lead two games from inception through alpha-ready delivery—shipping clear, consistent milestones along the way.

In this role, you’ll design and deliver the core gameplay systems that power joyful, effective reading experiences for students. You’ll work cross-functionally with Product, Learning Design, and Engineering to turn learning specifications into engaging gameplay, and you’ll own quality and performance—especially for web delivery (Chromebook-friendly).

You’re drawn to missions that matter. You think deeply about the systems behind learning, not just the visuals. You balance pragmatism with curiosity and build for the long term. The ideal candidate pairs strong technical execution with deep empathy for users, thrives in a collaborative startup environment, and is motivated by the opportunity to make reading joyful and accessible for all.

What You’ll Do:

• Design and build core gameplay architecture that is reliable, testable, and scalable (game states, core loop, progression, input, UI flow).
• Build and iterate on novel game components and reusable systems (animation/state machines, interaction systems, dialogue/tutorial systems, level/puzzle frameworks).
• Collaborate closely with product managers, learning designers, and fellow engineers to create new gameplay experiences and improve existing ones.
• Integrate with backend / live game services for personalization and persistence (APIs, data flows, offline/online resilience).
• Approach the games as products: understand learner and educator needs, identify friction, and take ownership of outcomes with metrics-informed decision making.
• Take ownership across all phases of development, from design to production, and monitor performance in live environments (especially WebGL).
• Implement a pragmatic automated testing strategy: unit tests + integration tests tied to game states, services, and core systems.
• Drive playtesting loops: instrument builds for fast feedback, triage issues, ship fixes, and improve stability.
• Write clean, efficient, and well-documented code following best practices.
• Ensure application performance, quality, and responsiveness across platforms (Chromebook-friendly, web constraints).
• Participate in code reviews, testing, and debugging to maintain high-quality deliverables.
• Mentor other engineers and contribute to their growth.
• Contribute to architectural decisions and help define technical standards and best practices.
• Stay up to date with emerging technologies and suggest improvements to enhance development processes.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of professional Unity development experience (shipping products).
• Demonstrated ability to own a game/system end-to-end: architecture → implementation → testing → bugfixing → release.
• Strong experience with state management, core loop implementation, and building reusable components.
• Production experience integrating client-side experiences with server-side services (APIs, persistence, personalization).
• Solid testing discipline (unit + integration), and comfort setting up testing patterns for a game codebase.
• Strong debugging skills and a bias toward shipping stable builds.
• Experience working with designers/product partners in an iterative development loop.
• Strong collaboration and communication skills in a small, cross-functional environment.

Bonus points

• WebGL and web performance optimization experience (Chromebook-friendly).
• Experience with analytics/instrumentation for playtesting and quality.
• Experience building educational games or child-friendly experiences.

Tech Stack

• Game Client: Unity (C#).
• Web Delivery: WebGL (performance optimization, profiling, memory constraints).
• Services & Integrations: APIs for personalization + persistence (backend partners).
• Tooling: GitHub, CI, testing frameworks, analytics/telemetry (as applicable).

Benefits

• Salary range of $150,000-$155,000 per annum.
• Competitive medical, dental, vision benefits.
• Opportunity to work remotely for a mission-driven company full of change-makers.
• Enjoy the freedom of flexible time off to balance work and personal life, ensuring you stay refreshed and productive.
• 401k with 4% guaranteed match.
• Work environment that values balance and harmony with a deep commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion.
• Opportunity to travel and meet your team members in-person 2x per year.

What Success Looks Like

• Delivers two learning games to alpha-ready on time, with clear monthly milestones shipped and validated through playtesting.
• Maintains a high-quality codebase with strong unit and integration test coverage for core game systems, reducing regressions and improving release confidence.
• Improves WebGL performance and reliability (Chromebook-friendly), resulting in smoother gameplay and fewer production issues for students and educators.
• Enables cross-functional collaboration by translating learning specifications into concrete, implementable gameplay systems—without sacrificing maintainability or long-term extensibility.

Join Us

At Magpie, your work will directly unlock the great reader in every child. If you’re ready to lead with purpose, build with urgency, and partner with a mission-driven team to solve one of America’s biggest educational challenges — we want to hear from you.