Senior Backend Game Developer

Hololabs is seeking a Senior Backend Game Developer to design, develop, and maintain robust and scalable backend systems for distributed real-time games and attractions. This role involves technical leadership, mentoring junior developers, and collaborating with cross-functional teams to architect efficient solutions. Responsibilities include driving innovation, implementing best practices, and ensuring the reliability, security, scalability, and performance of backend infrastructure and services.

Must Have

• Design, develop, and maintain robust and scalable backend systems for real-time games.
• Provide technical leadership and mentor junior developers.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to architect efficient solutions.
• Drive innovation and implement best practices for backend infrastructure.
• Ensure reliability, security, scalability, and performance of backend services.
• Assist in software development for interactive digital media experiences.
• Develop backend services and data streaming for low-latency multiplayer.
• Develop live operations software, testing tools, and deployment systems.
• Develop dashboards and user interfaces for managing backend services.
• Work closely with designers and other engineers to define, develop, and adjust products.
• Work directly with clients and be Hololabs’ technical point of contact.
• Design sustainable APIs and proactively maintain and manage their life cycles.
• Help to manage DevOps systems, including software interoperability and continuous integration.
• Play an active role in identifying and resolving issues in production systems.
• Play a proactive role in code optimization to improve performance.
• Create technical proposals, documentation, features briefs, and evaluation plans.
• Hold a degree in Computer Science or related discipline.
• Have 5+ years in professional software development.
• Work well as a technical team lead.
• Ability to create technical designs and communicate and organize a team to execute.
• Ability to perform code reviews and oversee other developers.

Good to Have

• Experience with cloud infrastructure (e.g., AWS).
• Experience defining and deploying infrastructure with Terraform.

About Hololabs

Hololabs is a creative technology studio and solutions partner, bringing interactive, immersive experiences to life with a focus on user engagement and play. Rooted in video game development, we’ve evolved to lead in immersive entertainment, location-based experiences, and emerging media like virtual and augmented reality. Collaboration is central to our approach; we team up with visionary partners to solve challenges, explore new ideas, and create experiences that resonate with audiences worldwide.

The Role

The role of a senior backend game developer is to design, develop, and maintain robust and scalable backend systems that power distributed real-time games and attractions. This involves providing technical leadership, mentoring junior developers, and collaborating with cross-functional teams to architect efficient solutions that meet business objectives and user needs. This role is responsible for driving innovation, implementing best practices, and ensuring the reliability, security, scalability and performance of backend infrastructure and services.

Job Description

• Generally assist the Corporation in development of software for interactive digital media experiences, including video games, mixed reality installations, theme park attractions, and their related backend systems.
• Develop backend services and data streaming systems for low-latency, real-time multiplayer interaction.
• Develop live operations software, testing tools, deployment systems, and other microservices for use in conjunction with the Corporation’s products and services.
• Develop dashboards, operational controls, and other user interfaces for managing backend services, deployment, and monitoring.
• Work closely with designers and other engineers to define, develop, and adjust these products.
• Work directly with clients and be Hololabs’ technical point of contact and subject matter expert liaising with both technical and leadership teams.
• Design sustainable APIs and proactively maintain and manage their life cycles.
• Help to manage DevOps systems, including software interoperability and continuous integration.
• Play an active role in identifying and resolving issues in production systems, architecture, or processes.
• Play a proactive role in code optimization to improve performance.
• Create technical proposals, documentation, features briefs, and evaluation plans for the above-mentioned duties.

Core Qualifications

• Hold a degree in Computer Science or related discipline.
• Have 5+ years in professional software development (school / hobby doesn’t count).

Required Skills

• Hands-on experience implementing a distributed multiplayer game or immersive experience.
• Solid understanding of concurrent programming principles.
• Experience with both Unity & Unreal Engine development
• Understand best practices for architecture, project structure, and building tools in C++ / C#.
• Experience with Unity Netcode and Unreal networking.
• Solid understanding of client vs server authority models, lag compensation, prediction, and multiplayer synchronization techniques.
• Experience with networking protocols such as WebSockets, TCP/UDP, gRPC, and UDP Multicast.
• Experience with efficient and scalable serialization techniques - eg, protobufs (Protocol Buffers).
• Experience with cross platform backend development (Windows + Linux).
• Experience using native SDKs from various languages such as Go, C++, C, and C#.
• Experience with modern C++.
• Have strong knowledge of object-oriented design, data structures, and extensible design patterns.
• Be disciplined in creating and maintaining modular codebases.
• Understand threads, memory management, and performance optimization.
• Experience with Win32 APIs.
• Experience with databases and data storage solutions - eg, PostgreSQL, Redis
• Experience with virtualization and containerization - eg, Docker, Kubernetes etc….
• Knowledge of Linux system administration
• Configuring remote access, managing users and groups, etc.
• Work well as a technical team lead
• Ability to create technical designs and then communicate and organize a team to execute.
• Ability to perform code reviews and oversee other developers, validating their code for function, form, and efficiency.

Nice to Have Skills

• Experience with cloud infrastructure - eg, AWS.
• Experience defining and deploying infrastructure with Terraform.

We Are an Equal Opportunity Employer

We are dedicated to fostering an inclusive and diverse environment for employees from all walks of life. Employment decisions are made without regard to race, color, religion, national or ethnic origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, or disability. We hire based on talent, and we’re excited to hear what you will bring to our team!

Please note that we can only consider applicants legally eligible to work in Canada (Citizen or Permanent Resident).