Hire Remote Engine Programmers

Hire Engine Programmers Who Build What Everyone Else Builds On

Engine programmers are the foundation of every game team. The memory allocator that prevents fragmentation, the asset pipeline that imports 10,000 textures in 30 seconds, the job scheduler that uses all 16 CPU cores, the platform abstraction layer that makes the same code ship on PS5 and Nintendo Switch — none of that exists without engineers who understand computer architecture at a level most programmers never reach.

We match you with senior Engine Programmers who’ve built core technology for game studios — proprietary engines, engine modifications, build systems, asset pipelines, and the platform-specific low-level code that determines a game’s performance ceiling. Engineers who think in cache lines and memory layouts, not frameworks and abstractions.

Start in days, not months. Pay 50% less than equivalent US-based engine engineering talent.

What Our Engine Programmers Build

Core Engine Systems

Memory management systems (pool allocators, linear allocators, custom heap managers), entity component systems, scene management, resource management and streaming, threading architecture, and the foundational engine services that gameplay and rendering systems depend on.

Asset Pipeline & Build Systems

Offline asset processing pipelines — texture compression, mesh optimization, audio encoding, shader compilation, and the build graph execution systems that process thousands of assets efficiently and incrementally. FASTBuild, Incredibuild, custom build graph tools.

Platform Abstraction Layers

Cross-platform code that runs correctly on Windows, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, and Nintendo Switch without platform-specific ifdefs everywhere. Controller input abstraction, platform file system, achievement and DLC systems, and platform certification compliance code.

Profiling & Debugging Infrastructure

Custom profiling instrumentation (Tracy, custom telemetry), memory leak detection, CPU and GPU performance visualization, in-game console systems, and the debugging tools that let gameplay and rendering programmers identify problems fast.

Scripting & Design Tool Systems

Scripting engine integration (Lua, AngelScript, Python), visual scripting systems, hot-reload pipelines that let designers iterate without full rebuild cycles, and the reflection systems that expose C++ objects to scripting and tools.

Engine Programming Technology Stack

Languages: C++17/20, platform assembly (x64, ARM), Python (tooling), Lua/AngelScript (scripting)

Memory: TLSF, mimalloc, custom pool/linear/stack allocators, valgrind, Address Sanitizer

Build: CMake, FASTBuild, Incredibuild, Gradle (Android), Xcode build system

Profiling: Tracy, Intel VTune, Radeon GPU Profiler, Sony Razor GPU, PIX, custom instrumentation

Platforms: Windows (Win32, DirectX 12), PS5 (GNM, proprietary), Xbox (GDK), Switch (NVN)

Parallelism: std::thread, TBB, custom fiber-based job systems, SIMD (SSE4, AVX2, NEON)

Client Success Story: Mid-Size Studio — New Asset Pipeline Cuts Content Integration Time 80%

A game studio with 35 artists was losing 4+ hours per day to an asset pipeline that required manual intervention for common failures — source file version conflicts, texture import settings applied inconsistently, and shader compilation errors that silently produced wrong output. Our Engine Programmer designed and implemented a new asset pipeline: a DAG-based dependency tracker that detected only changed assets and processed them in parallel, standardized import setting templates applied per-folder by convention rather than manual configuration, and automated validation passes that failed loudly on malformed assets before they reached the build. Content integration time dropped 80%. Asset-related build failures dropped from 15/week to under 1/week. The studio’s 35 artists reported the pipeline change as their highest-satisfaction technical improvement in 2 years.

Client Success Story: AA Studio — Custom Memory System Eliminates Frame Spike Source

A studio shipping a console title was experiencing 3–4 frame spikes every 2–3 minutes in gameplay — invisible in development builds but clearly visible on retail hardware at 60fps. Profiling identified the cause: the default C runtime heap allocator was fragmenting under sustained allocation pressure from gameplay systems, causing periodic consolidation passes that consumed 8–12ms. Our Engine Programmer implemented a custom tiered memory system: a per-frame linear allocator for transient gameplay allocations, a pool allocator per common allocation size class, and a general-purpose heap using TLSF for remaining allocations. Frame spikes: eliminated. Heap fragmentation after 4 hours of play: reduced from 23% to under 2%.

Why Companies Choose Our Engine Programmers

• Hardware-level thinking: They design systems around CPU cache behavior, memory layout, and instruction-level parallelism — not OOP abstractions
• Build and tooling expertise: A great engine is useless without fast iteration — they build the tools that make content creators and gameplay programmers productive
• Platform depth: They understand the actual hardware they’re shipping on, not just the abstraction layer on top of it
• 50% cost savings: Senior engine engineering at a fraction of US/UK market rates
• Fast start: Most engagements begin within 1–2 weeks

Engagement Models

• Individual Engine Programmer — One senior engine engineer for specific systems: asset pipeline, memory system, threading, or platform support.
• Core Technology Teams (2–5 engineers) — Multiple engine engineers for studios building proprietary engine technology or significantly modifying a licensed engine.
• Embedded Engine Support — An engine programmer embedded with your team on an ongoing basis, handling the low-level infrastructure work that frees gameplay engineers to focus on game features.
• Contract-to-Hire — Evaluate code quality and systems design approach before committing long-term.

How To Vet Engine Programmers

Our vetting identifies engineers with genuine low-level systems depth — not application programmers who know some C++.

1. Memory and hardware fundamentals — Cache coherency, memory bandwidth, NUMA, TLB behavior, and why they matter for game engine design. This is not optional for engine programming. Over 95% of applicants do not pass this stage.
2. Data-oriented design — SoA vs. AoS, cache line alignment, false sharing, and the design patterns that maximize CPU throughput for engine hot paths.
3. Concurrency design — Job system design, lock-free data structures (when to use them and when not to), fiber-based systems, and the correctness guarantees required for engine-level concurrency.
4. Systems design challenge — Design a memory allocator for a specific use case (per-frame transient allocations) with specific requirements (zero fragmentation, O(1) alloc/free, thread-safe). Evaluated on design reasoning and correctness.

What to Look for When Hiring Engine Programmers

Strong engine programmers think like hardware, not like application developers.

What strong candidates demonstrate:

• They discuss cache line size, false sharing, and memory access patterns without prompting
• They’ve designed and implemented at least one significant engine system (allocator, pipeline, job system) in production
• They profile with hardware performance counters, not just timer-based profiling
• They understand platform-specific constraints — they know why something that works on PC breaks on console

Red flags to watch for:

• “I’ve worked in Unreal Engine” — consuming an engine API is not engine programming
• No understanding of memory allocators beyond malloc/new — the default allocator is not acceptable in production game engines
• Concurrency experience limited to std::mutex — no understanding of lock-free programming or memory ordering
• No low-level debugging experience — has never used a memory profiler or disassembly debugger

Interview questions that reveal real depth:

• “Design a pool allocator for objects of a fixed size that can be used from multiple threads simultaneously. Walk me through the design, implementation, and correctness guarantees.”
• “Explain false sharing. Give me a concrete example of where it would appear in a game engine and how you’d fix it.”
• “Walk me through how you’d design an incremental build system for an asset pipeline that processes 50,000 assets across 20 asset types. What’s the dependency model?”

Related Services

• C++ Game Developers — Specialized game C++ engineers for gameplay systems and engine-level performance work.
• Graphics Programmers — Rendering specialists who build the graphics pipeline on top of the engine core.
• Tools Programmers — Engineers who build the editor tools, pipelines, and developer experience systems for game teams.
• DevOps Engineers — DevOps engineers who manage the CI/CD and build infrastructure that engine build systems run on.

Want to Hire Remote Engine Programmers?

We source, vet, and place senior Engine Programmers who build the core technology that game teams depend on — engineers who think in cache lines, design memory systems correctly, and build the infrastructure that determines whether a game can ship on time and perform on target hardware.

Get matched with Engine Programmers →

Ready to hire Engine Programmers who build game technology foundations? Contact us today and we’ll introduce you to senior engine engineers within 48 hours.