At Hypersonic Laboratories, we're looking for a Lead of Engineering to take technical ownership of HELIX, our in-house open-world multiplayer game creation framework.
The role is hybrid, involving 2 days a week at our Guildford, UK studio.
Hypersonic Laboratories is building HELIX, the ultimate open-world multiplayer sandbox. We’re seeking an experienced, product-focused technical leader to take charge of the technical vision and execution of HELIX. You’ll operate as a founding engineer or technical cofounder, helping scale our modular, multiplayer-first sandbox framework built on Unreal Engine 5.
This is a hands-on leadership position: you’ll be actively coding while also working closely with production to manage a small core team of engineers and scripters, guiding the development process, and ensuring our systems meet the scale and ambition of our platform.
The ideal candidate would have 10+ years of experience and at least 3 shipped Unreal Engine titles, deep Unreal expertise (including networking, plugins, and tools), and a passion for building powerful and extensible systems. You’ll work directly with leadership to ensure HELIX ships on time, on spec, and with excellence.
Leading and mentoring the engineering team, providing code reviews, technical guidance, and architectural oversight.
Overseeing and implementing systems across gameplay, networking, tooling, UI, online services, backend, and DevOps.
Spearheading the adoption of AI/ML-driven workflows and tooling across the engineering org.
Championing engineering culture, team cohesion, and sustainable development practices.
Supporting with hiring to grow the engineering team according to project needs and studio values.
10+ years of professional experience as a game/engine programmer, including technical leadership on shipped titles or platforms.
~ At least 3 shipped titles built with Unreal Engine.
~ Deep expertise in Unreal Engine —including networking, gameplay systems, Lyra framework, motion matching, custom plugins/tools, and engine extensions.
~ Proven experience building and scaling engineering teams.
~ Strong background in gameplay programming, multiplayer architecture, and online subsystem integrations (e.g. Competence in backend systems, scalable services, and DevOps pipelines.
~ Proficiency in CI/CD, debugging, and performance optimization.
~ Familiarity with web technologies (HTML/CSS/JS) for platform or dashboard/launcher related features.
~ Experience building or contributing to game development tools for teams or communities.
You thrive in fast-paced, collaborative environments where efficiency, agility, and a strong team culture lead to significant and meaningful impact.
You’re excited by ambitious creative tools and believe in enabling others through technology.
Ready to join our team as our new Engineering Lead?