Lead Engine System Engineer

About The Hiring Team

Lightspeed LA is the first U.S.

-based, AAA game development studio for Tencent Games, focused on building open‑world games that emphasize an ambitious living world, sophisticated player‑driven gameplay, and mature, thoughtful storytelling. We are developing the first in a series of genre‑defining titles.

We foster an open and transparent environment where everyone feels comfortable giving constructive feedback on all aspects of our games. We encourage showing work in progress, celebrate its promise, and maintain a #No

Blame culture that blames the problem, not the person. This is a safe place to fail and view failure as the natural result of pushing boundaries and trying new things. We create together, face challenges together, and succeed together.

Light Speed LA is seeking a talented and enthusiastic Lead Engine System Engineer to join our studio in Irvine, California. The ideal candidate will have a strong passion for games and for enabling content creators to deliver polished experiences for players while pushing the boundaries of what we can do today. Join our team of industry veterans and help us build a culture of respect that pushes boundaries while having lots of fun.

• Work with and lead a core technology engineering team to develop key engine systems, focusing on performance and optimization.
• Collaborate with design, production, and engineering leadership to manage schedules and backlog.
• Implement, debug and optimize engine systems in C/C++ and other languages.
• Help establish budgets for engine systems and pipeline tools to validate them.
• Refactor existing systems and tools to handle large worlds with dynamic content.
• Utilize profiling tools to identify CPU and GPU performance issues.
• Evolve existing systems iteratively into state‑of‑the‑art solutions.
• Author lean, high‑performance, maintainable code.
• Cultivate strong cross‑disciplinary working relationships based on honesty and transparency across various departments.
• Provide technical leadership across multiple engine systems and features.
• Mentor, develop, and learn from engineering colleagues.
• Be a leadership resource for engineers across the entire engine team.
• Help build and maintain an open and energetic team culture.
• Conduct regular one‑on‑one meetings with team members to provide guidance, feedback, and support their professional development.
• Participate in recruitment and onboarding of new team members, ensuring a highly skilled team that aligns with project requirements.
• Facilitate team‑building activities to promote a positive and collaborative working environment.

• A passion and enthusiasm for playing and developing exceptional games.
• Experience bringing multiple large‑scale game titles to completion on PC and consoles.
• 7+ years of professional game programming experience.
• At least one shipped/published AAA title.
• Experience using profiling tools to identify CPU performance issues.
• Excellent understanding of PC and console hardware bottlenecks and optimization strategies.
• Experience with game console hardware.
• Deep understanding of multithreaded programming.
• Experience managing direct reports.
• Experience performing in a senior or principal software engineering role or equivalent.
• Ability to collaborate with other engineers, designers, artists, and game developers.
• Ability to work well in a fluid, changing environment as creative challenges evolve.
• Deep knowledge of engine systems involving physics, streaming, audio, and other engine systems.
• Expert in C++, debugging, and 3D mathematics.
• Enjoy working closely with creative and technical team members.
• Value lean, simple, efficient, well‑tested code.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.

• Experience working with either AAA proprietary engines or third‑party engines like Unreal and Unity.
• Understanding of game asset pipelines.

Location:

Irvine, California, USA
Base pay range: $ to $ per year. Pay may vary based on job‑related knowledge, skills, and experience. Eligible for a sign‑on payment, relocation package, and restricted stock units, evaluated on a case‑by‑case basis. Benefits include medical, dental, vision, life and disability coverage; participation in the company’s 401(k) plan; up to 15–25 days of vacation per year (depending on tenure); up to 13 holidays per calendar year;

up to 10 days of paid sick leave per year. Benefits may be adjusted to reflect location, employment status, tenure, and position level, and may be prorated for new hires.

As an equal‑opportunity employer, we firmly believe that diverse voices fuel our innovation and allow us to better serve our users and the community. We foster an environment where every employee of Tencent feels supported and inspired to achieve individual and common goals.