Principal Network Programmer

About the role

Frontier has a new and exciting opportunity for a Principal Network Programmer working on Elite Dangerous, our highly successful AAA title. Elite Dangerous supports a thriving community of active players with regular updates adding new features and content into the game. The future success of the game depends upon an innovative network architecture developed to distribute the simulation, replication and persistence of game state between clients linked in peer-to-peer connections, game servers running islands of related clients, and web services bringing all the players together.

Within a talented and passionate gameplay team you will develop a deep understanding of the network architecture and be the main point of contact for development of features running on the game server. You will help to populate the galaxy with ever more intricate locations, to tell the evolving story of the characters and organisations inhabiting the galaxy, and personalise the experience that each player has exploring new frontiers.

What we can offer

In return we offer a reward package to attract the best including a competitive salary, private healthcare for you and your family, and a range of flexible benefits from which you can select to suit your needs. You’ll share in the success that you help to deliver through a generous company bonus scheme and share scheme participation, including a significant equity grant (through a Long Term Incentive Plan). If required, we can also offer support with re-relocation including a minimum relocation allowance of £5000 (tax free). Check out the benefits section on our website for further details on our total reward package.

Frontier is a studio with a long, successful and varied history of AAA development and this is an exciting time to join us, following our move to self publishing, and the breakout successes of Elite: Dangerous, which the role would be working on, and Planet Coaster. We're expecting Jurassic World: Evolution to continue our story; it's already one of the most anticipated games of 2018. If that sounds interesting, why not contact us for an informal chat or apply on-line?

Job Description

Key Accountabilities

• Holding the vision for how the game servers interact with each part of the game
• Collaborating with designers and programmers to implement game features with server-side components
• Supporting new content being created for server-side systems
• Understanding and driving improvements to the game network architecture
• Investigating emerging issues with game server performance and reliability
• Pro-actively contributing to both the network programming and cross-discipline teams
• As a senior member of the programming team, you will be expected to support the development of colleagues, including graduates.

About You

• Ability to communicate effectively with team members
• Enthusiasm for giving players a great game experience
• Enjoys exploring and mastering complex game architectures
• Good analytical and problem solving skills
• Ability to give and receive constructive feedback in order to strive for continuous improvement
• Ability and willingness to develop others through effective mentoring and coaching skills
• Ability to see the bigger picture and make a wider strategic contribution.

Qualifications, Skills & Experience

• A proven track record at Senior/Principal level in a similar role is essential
• Advanced understanding of C++ and object oriented programming
• Thorough knowledge of common game networking challenges
• Experience with game scripting, ideally using Lua scripts
• Familiarity with Linux development is a plus.

Interested? Aardvark Swift are exclusively handling the applications for this position. For more information or to apply, contact Jordan Bateman at Jordan@aswift.com or on +44 (0)1709 834777.