Lead Software Engineer - Backend

Kwalee is one of the world’s leading multiplatform game publishers and developers, with well over 750 million downloads worldwide for mobile hits such as Draw It, Teacher Simulator, Let’s Be Cops 3D, Traffic Cop 3D and Makeover Studio 3D. Alongside this, we also have a growing PC and Console team of incredible pedigree that is on the hunt for great new titles to join TENS!, Eternal Hope and Die by the Blade. 

With a team of talented people collaborating daily between our studios in Leamington Spa, Bangalore and Beijing, or on a remote basis from Turkey, Brazil, the Philippines and many more places, we have a truly global team making games for a global audience. And it’s paying off: Kwalee games have been downloaded in every country on earth! If you think you’re a good fit for one of our remote vacancies, we want to hear from you wherever you are based.

Founded in 2011 by David Darling CBE, a key architect of the UK games industry who previously co-founded and led Codemasters for many years, our team also includes legends such as Andrew Graham (creator of Micro Machines series) and Jason Falcus (programmer of classics including NBA Jam) alongside a growing and diverse team of global gaming experts. Everyone contributes creatively to Kwalee’s success, with all employees eligible to pitch their own game ideas on Creative Wednesdays, and we’re proud to have built our success on this inclusive principle. Could your idea be the next global hit?

What’s the job?

As the Lead Software Engineer - Backend you will write code that will run on 100s of servers thousands of times a second helping our games run smoothly, you will have to work out how to deal with massive amounts of data efficiently, train machines to crunch data and generally play around with the latest and greatest in tech.

You love to write efficient code and tackle hard puzzles, you like working with a committed team. 

What you tell your friends you do

“I’m the hero of the day, when actually I only needed to fix one line of code”

 What you will really be doing

• Contributing to the design and architecture of our servers using Python with Flask deployed on AWS EC2 Servers.

• Building Lambda pipelines to process large amounts of data.

• Implementing server features to robustly support millions of mobile game players.

• You’ll be working with a worldwide multi cluster Couchbase and Elasticsearch database, but always looking for the next technology that makes sense.

• Interfacing with other teams on any server-related issues affecting them.

• Leading a team of developers both onsite and remotely, closely supported by our CTO. 

How you will be doing this

• You’ll be part of an agile, multidisciplinary and creative team and work closely with them to ensure the best results.

• You'll think creatively and be motivated by challenges and constantly striving for the best.

• You’ll work with cutting edge technology, if you need software or hardware to get the job done efficiently, you will get it. We even have a robot!

Team

Our talented team is our signature. We have a highly creative atmosphere with more than 200 staff where you’ll have the opportunity to contribute daily to important decisions. You’ll work within an extremely experienced, passionate and diverse team, including David Darling and the creator of the Micro Machines video games.

Skills and Requirements

• A proven track record of writing high quality database and program code for servers with Python. We are considering different levels of experience (from several months to years).

• The ability to write quick scripts to accelerate manual tasks. 

• Knowledge of NoSQL databases (Couchbase, MongoDB, Cassandra, Memcache,etc.) could be useful but it’s not mandatory.

• Knowledge of Unix, Linux or equivalent development environments

• Some experience in game development would be a plus, although it’s not necessary.

• Team leadership / management experience 

We offer

• We want everyone involved in our games to share our success, that’s why we have a generous team profit sharing scheme from day 1 of employment

• In addition to a competitive salary we also offer private medical cover and life assurance

• Creative Wednesdays! (Design and make your own games every Wednesday)

• 20 days of paid holidays plus bank holidays 

• Hybrid model available depending on the department and the role

• Relocation support available 

• Great work-life balance with flexible working hours

• Quarterly team building days - work hard, play hard!

• Monthly employee awards

• Free snacks, fruit and drinks

Our philosophy

We firmly believe in creativity and innovation and that a fundamental requirement for a successful and happy company is having the right mix of individuals. With the right people in the right environment anything and everything is possible.

Kwalee makes games to bring people, their stories, and their interests together. As an employer, we’re dedicated to making sure that everyone can thrive within our team by welcoming and supporting people of all ages, races, colours, beliefs, sexual orientations, genders and circumstances. With the inclusion of diverse voices in our teams, we bring plenty to the table that’s fresh, fun and exciting; it makes for a better environment and helps us to create better games for everyone! This is how we move forward as a company – because these voices are the difference that make all the difference.