Lead Software Engineer

Sci Play is a leading developer and publisher of digital games on mobile and web platforms, providing highly entertaining free‑to‑play games that millions of people play every day for their authenticity, engagement, and fun. Sci Play currently offers nine core games, including social casino games Jackpot Party Casino, Gold Fish Casino Slots, Hot Shot Casino and Quick Hit Slots, and casual games MONOPOLY Slots, Bingo Showdown, 88 Fortunes Slots, Backgammon Live and Solitaire Pet Adventure with offices all over the world.

We’re hiring a Lead Software Engineer for Gold Fish Casino Slots. It’s a nine‑figure‑revenue PHP codebase that has been shipping continuously for over a decade. The codebase has a history—ten years of overlapping initiatives, partial migrations, and code that needs love sitting next to code that does its job well. The job is to make this codebase substantially better, not to keep it from getting worse.

Technical depth is the minimum bar. The harder thing this role asks for is judgment about where to spend it. You need to discern priorities at two levels: technical execution order across a long arc of work, and your own scope. Most strong engineers can do one; we need someone who does both.

You will work with engineering leadership on roadmap and tradeoffs, set technical standards by example, mentor mid‑level engineers through complex work, and write code. This is a hands‑on role, not a planning role. Beyond the game server, you’ll also have influence in our admin tooling stack: a PHP backend with jQuery and Vue.js on the front end, which has its own rough edges and room for improvement.

• You use AI as a power tool, not a teammate. It speeds up investigation, learning, repetitive work, and drafting. You treat its output as a first draft, test it, own it. Engineering judgment stays with you.
• You're an excellent communicator. You surface tradeoffs and risks early with evidence, write clear design docs and PR descriptions, improve code reviews, and know when to escape and explain.

• 7+ years of professional software engineering experience, with significant time as a senior or lead engineer on a production system.
• Deep PHP knowledge, including Composer, DI containers (Symfony DI or equivalent), and static analysis.
• Ability to call priorities at both technical execution order and your own scope.
• Experience writing production‑grade code that considers load, failure modes, and system resilience.
• Judgment on testing: know when to add unit tests, heavier verification, or flag‑based shipping.
• Technical leadership or mentorship experience; your code, reviews, and design set the standard for the team.

• Relentlessly curious: you fix bugs, investigate origins, and anticipate system impacts.
• Critical thinker: you question patterns and verify before accepting.
• Designs for the existing codebase: you hold multiple patterns and decide when to converge or preserve.
• Team multiplier: you elevate other engineers through code review, design conversations, and pairing.
• Product‑mindful: you understand how your code affects real players and aim for behavior‑preserving refactors.

• Experience with large‑scale architectural refactors on legacy PHP.
• Production experience with modern observability stacks (metrics, tracing, profiling, structured logs).
• Experience in the live‑service games industry or another high‑throughput, revenue‑critical consumer service.
• Experience with Vue.js or jQuery.
• AWS or similar cloud technology.

• Competitive salaries
• Annual bonuses, matching 401(k)
• Fun environment: open office, ergonomic seating, standing desks, game room with current‑generation consoles and table games.
• Food: fully stocked kitchen with beverages and snacks; company‑paid lunches twice a week.
• Paid family leave
• Paid volunteer time
• Annual 2‑night company retreat

Read more about our values:

Don’t meet every single requirement? At Sci Play we are dedicated to building a diverse, inclusive, and authentic workplace. If you’re excited about this role but don’t meet every qualification, we encourage you to apply anyway—you may…