Lead Software Engineer - Game UI/UX

As a Lead Software Engineer - Game UI/UX at CaptureAge, you will play a crucial role in planning, designing, and implementing high quality user experiences for the Age of Empires franchise and beyond. You will collaborate closely with cross-functional teams including designers, artists, and engineers to create seamless and visually stunning UI elements that enhance gameplay, immersion, and usability.

As a Lead, you will be responsible for a team of 2-4 software engineers and own their performance management, career planning, and workforce analysis. We are excited to find someone who is passionate about UI/UX game development and challenging cross-platform design problems!

This is a fully remote role, with work fitting UTC-6 to UTC+3 time zones to align with team collaboration.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead and mentor a team of engineers including, but not limited to, workforce planning, performance management, and career planning

• Provide hands-on leadership and technical expertise, guiding your team in solving complex development problems

• Own multiple complex features from inception to delivery

• Architect, design, and implement scalable and efficient UI systems and features for games across multiple platforms (PC and console)

• Collaborate with UX designers to translate wireframes and mock-ups into feasible, interactive, and responsive user interfaces

• Optimize UI performance and responsiveness through efficient rendering techniques and code optimization

• Implement UI animations and transitions to enhance player experience

• Conduct code reviews and provide constructive feedback to maintain high code quality and standards

• Stay updated with the latest UI/UX trends, tools, and technologies to continuously improve our development processes

Qualifications

• Professional experience as a Lead Software Engineer specializing in UI/UX development

• Proven experience leading a team of engineers

• Proficiency in programming languages such as C++, C#, or similar languages used in game development

• Shipped multi-platform experience, ideally including consoles (PC, Mobile, Xbox,..)

• Experience with UI frameworks such as WPF, Unity UI, Unreal Motion Graphics, or equivalent

Skills

• Strong understanding of UI design principles, usability, and user-centred design methodologies

• Excellent problem-solving skills and the ability to debug complex issues related to UI/UX

• Interested in the ongoing balance between UI/UX ideals and engineering/timeline practicalities

• Comfortable and confident working in legacy codebases and navigating ambiguity

• Uses step-by-step prototypes to keep stakeholders aligned

• Strong communication and collaboration skills

• Strong written and verbal English skills

Nice to Have

• Deep knowledge and experience with Xbox Accessibility Guidelines / Accessibility in games

• Solid understanding of graphics pipelines, rendering techniques, and performance optimization for UI

Application Process

Please answer our form that briefly outlines why you are interested in this role and why your experience and skills make you a good fit. To demonstrate your attention to detail, include the phrase “Elite Skirmisher” somewhere when filling the application form.

About CaptureAge

CaptureAge is a company that grew out of the Age of Empires community and is now partnered with Xbox Game Studios to provide game development services in AAA titles like Age of Empires II and Age of Empires Mythology. We have a small (40+) but growing team of passionate game developers, from artists to software engineers.

Inclusivity and Fairness

The people making games should be as diverse as the people playing them and we encourage applications from all backgrounds and identities. As a fully remote and internationally distributed company we are a team that enjoys and celebrates a diversity of voices and perspectives.

Compensation

Our compensation is determined by considering competitive market rates, experience, and cost of living. As a fully international company, we strive to ensure competitive compensation aligned with the local cost of living and market standards.

Fully Remote – Location / Time Zones

We are a fully remote company with team members in 20+ countries across many time zones. We prefer team members who fit within broadly American/African/European time zones (UTC-8 to UTC+3) but we are open to applications from anywhere.

Hours/Time Management

We have a flexible approach to time-management, and we believe in giving team members the opportunity to control their own schedules. We'd like to see a world in which work can fit around your life, not the other way around! In practice this means a few pre-agreed sync points a week, with the rest of your working time entirely up to you – we do not have mandatory core hours.

Async Biased

We lean towards async working arrangements and design our processes and working environment with this in mind.

Consensus Driven

We try to foster a genuinely collaborative and consensus driven approach to our work rather than top-down direction and micro-management.