Senior Gameplay Systems Engineer

Who We Are

Founded in 2023, 2K Sports Lab is the newest stand alone studio at 2K looking to push game development boundaries to bring 2K's next groundbreaking sports franchise to life. We're building a world-class team at our new Vancouver, BC location where our goal is to deliver an exceptional experience through bold ideas, technical excellence, and creative collaboration. We're seeking passionate and driven professionals across all areas of game development to help shape this ambitious vision. If you’re interested in tackling unique challenges and think you have what it takes to level up our team, we encourage you to apply!

What We Need

We are seeking a highly qualified and passionate Senior Software Engineer to drive the development of our next-generation, large-scale actor simulation technology at 2K Sports Lab. This is a critical role responsible for building the foundational systems that bring dense, believable, and performant worlds to life, specifically focusing on crowd, NPC, and pedestrian systems. The ideal candidate possesses deep, low-level C++ expertise and significant experience working within the Unreal Engine 5 (UE5) environment.

What You’ll Do

• Architect and Implement highly performant, scalable simulation systems (Crowd, NPC) that support thousands of concurrent, active agents in the game world.
• Develop and maintain our character pipeline and runtime
• Build Level of Detail (LOD) systems and culling techniques to gracefully handle the computational load of distant or non-critical actors without compromising visual fidelity.
• Collaborate with AI and Design teams to translate high-level design goals into robust, maintainable, and fun player-facing features.

What Will Make You A Great Fit

• 5+ years of professional game development or relevant simulation engineering experience.
• Exceptional command of modern C++ (C++17/20) and a deep understanding of memory management, performance profiling, and optimization on modern hardware.
• In-depth, hands-on experience and familiarity with the Unreal Engine 4/5  source code.
• Proven track record building and scaling Agent Behavior systems, preferably using UE5's MassEntity/Smart Objects or equivalent proprietary technology.
• Expertise in Animation Pipeline Engineering, including knowledge of IK, motion warping, and efficient data structures for skeletal mesh updates.

Beneficial Qualifications

• Experience with machine learning or procedural generation techniques for agent behavior or world population.
• Previous experience shipping a AAA title developed on Unreal Engine.

The pay range for this position in British Columbia at the start of employment is expected to be between CAD 96,400 - CAD 142,660 per year. However, actual pay offered is based on market location and may vary further depending on individualized factors for job candidates, such as job-related knowledge, skills, experience, and other objective business considerations. If hired, the company reserves the right to modify base pay (as well as any other discretionary payment or compensation or benefit program) at any time, including for reasons related to individual performance, company or individual department/team performance, and market factors.

As an equal opportunity employer, we are committed to ensuring that individuals with disabilities are provided  suitable accommodations to enjoy equal employment opportunities, including the ability to participate in the job application or interview process,. Please contact us if you need an accommodation as part of your application process or otherwise have questions about the Company’s accommodation policy and review process.

Please be aware that 2K does not conduct job interviews or make job offers over third-party messaging apps such as Telegram, WhatsApp, or others.  2K also does not engage in any financial exchanges during the recruitment or onboarding process, and will never ask a candidate for their personal or financial information over an app or other unofficial chat channel.  Any attempt to do so may be the result of a scam or phishing attack, and you should not engage.  2K’s in-house recruitment team will only contact individuals through their official Company email addresses (i.e., via a 2k.com email domain).

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