Lead; Unreal Programmer Code Tileyard North

Who We Are

At Cast Iron Games, we build technically ambitious games in a calm, focused environment, where every team member has a voice. Based in Tileyard North, we collaborate with high quality partners on high-quality projects, guided by clarity, consistency, and mutual respect.

We’re a young and growing studio, but our team is made up of experienced developers who’ve worked across AAA and independent titles. Together, we’re building a supportive, balanced environment where great work happens without crunch.

We’re now looking for a Lead (Unreal) Programmer to focus on performance, optimisation, and platform delivery, someone who can guide technical problem‑solving, support team growth, and help us ship confidently across multiple platforms.

As Lead Unreal Programmer, you’ll work across codebases to identify performance issues, resolve low‑level technical challenges, and lead the team in shipping games that meet platform standards and run smoothly on real hardware.

You’ll collaborate with production, QA, design, and other engineers to profile builds, tackle bottlenecks, and ensure we meet platform compliance requirements. You’ll also provide technical leadership, mentoring others, setting quality standards, and ensuring robust code makes it into builds across all platforms.

This is an ideal role for someone who loves getting into the weeds of real‑time performance, threading, memory constraints, and platform quirks, but who also enjoys helping others learn, grow, and deliver their best work.

• Lead technical performance efforts across projects. CPU/GPU profiling, optimisation, and memory tuning
• Collaborate with QA and other engineers to debug and fix runtime issues (performance, crashes, hitches, etc.)
• Guide the team in preparing and shipping builds for multiple platforms (console and PC)
• Work closely with production to ensure compliance, certification, and platform‑specific requirements are met
• Own technical planning for platform deliverables
• Mentor junior and mid‑level engineers, supporting skill growth and autonomy
• Review code and provide constructive feedback to ensure quality, performance, and maintainability
• Collaborate with design and art teams to assess performance impact of content and tools
• Help shape our engineering practices and tech culture with humility and clarity

• Extensive experience working in Unreal 4 or 5 on shipped or late‑stage games
• Proficiency in C++, Blueprints, and Unrealʼs component‑based architecture
• Strong experience with profiling tools (e.g., Unreal Insights, Render Doc, PIX, platform SDK tools)
• Working knowledge of threading, memory management, and system bottlenecks
• Hands‑on experience debugging and optimising across multiple hardware platforms
• Familiar with console and PC platform APIs, submission requirements, and compliance challenges
• Comfortable using Perforce or similar source control, and task/bug tracking tools such as Jira

• Experience leading a team or acting as a technical point of contact
• Confident breaking down work, estimating scope, and managing risk
• Able to collaborate across disciplines to resolve cross‑functional technical issues
• Committed to fostering a collaborative, respectful, and supportive engineering culture
• Skilled at giving clear feedback, both technical and developmental

• Shipped a title using Unreal 4 or 5 on console such as Xbox, Play Station, Switch
• Familiar with platform certification processes (TRCs/XRs/LOTs)
• Experience supporting late‑stage optimisation or porting projects
• Built tooling or automation to support QA and build processes
• Comfortable navigating platform abstraction layers or writing hardware‑specific logic

• A people‑first studio with a clear focus on craft, clarity, and collaboration
• A high‑trust team where experience is valued and voices are heard
• A respectful, experienced team with a strong engineering culture
• The opportunity to ship performance‑optimised, cross‑platform games you're proud of
• Projects that offer real variety. Different game engines, new challenges, constant growth
• Creative surroundings at Tileyard North, with a…