Blackbird Interactive

Backend Engineer

• Lead the effort to port and harden a proprietary AAA game engine for current gen consoles
• Own the platform and console roadmap for core engine-facing systems
• Drive engine-level performance improvements focused on frame-time stability
• Architect and optimize memory systems
• Build and evolve I/O and streaming foundations
• Improve CPU scheduling and concurrency
• Lead platform integration and abstraction layers
• Establish performance guardrails
• Partner cross-discipline with gameplay, rendering, audio, content, and build teams
• Mentor and raise the bar through design reviews

Lead Software Engineer, Platform and Console Systems – Proprietary C++ Engine

Systems Engineer

• Collaborate with level design, quest design, art, engineering, and production to support and implement the established creative vision through gameplay systems.
• Design and implement systemic gameplay features such as progression mechanics, combat systems, AI interactions, exploration mechanics, or simulation-driven content.
• Own systems end-to-end, including defining rules, variables, tuning parameters, failure states, and player-facing feedback.
• Implement systems directly using in-engine tools and scripting workflows, ensuring features function reliably across a wide range of player behaviors and edge cases.
• Work closely with other designers to ensure systems integrate smoothly into environments, encounters, and moment-to-moment gameplay.
• Build and maintain system logic, data structures, and state-driven behavior that interact correctly with other gameplay systems.
• Test, debug, and iterate on systems regularly, identifying balance issues, usability problems, and technical edge cases.
• Respond constructively to feedback from design leadership, engineering, and production, making adjustments to improve clarity, balance, performance, and player experience.
• Maintain a strong understanding of interconnected gameplay systems and anticipate how changes in one area may impact others.

Senior Systems Designer – 12-month Contract

Designer

• Collaborate with system design, level design, art, engineering and production to support and implement the established creative vision, raising questions or inconsistencies as they arise during development.
• Work within production schedules and constraints, implementing quest content in a timely and iterative manner while communicating risks or dependencies to appropriate team members.
• Author and implement quest content end to end, including quest logic, objectives, branching states, conditions, and in-game scripting.
• Write and integrate narrative content such as dialogue, character background, world lore, and mission context directly into playable content, ensuring it functions correctly in-game.
• Work closely with level designers to integrate narrative into spaces and encounters, adapting dialogue, objectives, and pacing to support gameplay while maintaining narrative consistency.
• Build and maintain quest state machines, manage variables and conditions, and ensure quests respond correctly to player choice, order of operations, and systemic interactions.
• Test, debug, and iterate on quest content regularly, identifying and fixing logic errors, progression blockers, and edge cases through hands-on implementation.
• Respond constructively to feedback, making revisions to improve clarity, flow, gameplay alignment, and player experience.
• Maintain an understanding of core gameplay systems and how they interact with quest logic, adjusting narrative implementation as needed to resolve conflicts or support player-driven outcomes.

Quest Designer – 12-month Contract

Product Designer

• Work closely with project leadership and our publishing partner to understand, reinforce, and help execute the established creative vision across gameplay systems and features.
• Lead and support a team of designers in the implementation, tuning, balancing, and polish of gameplay features, with a focus on delivering a cohesive, high-quality player experience.
• Provide clear guidance, feedback, and mentorship to designers, helping them translate high-level direction into effective, shippable designs while supporting professional growth.
• Collaborate closely with engineering to implement gameplay systems and tools that support design goals, scalability, and efficient iteration.
• Partner with art and audio teams to ensure gameplay systems are readable, expressive, and aligned with the intended player experience, reinforcing design intent through presentation.
• Communicate design goals, constraints, and priorities clearly across disciplines, ensuring teams remain aligned as features evolve.
• Identify execution risks, design gaps, or dependency issues early, working with production to adjust scope, sequencing, or implementation plans as needed.
• Contribute hands-on to the implementation of gameplay content and systems as needed, helping unblock the team, prototype solutions, or carry features through critical phases of development.

Design Lead – 12-month Contract

Art Director

• Provide creative and strategic leadership on a large-scale science fiction game.
• Oversee the execution of gameplay vision across systems, narrative, and player experience, ensuring consistency, quality, and cohesion as the project moves from development through delivery.
• Guide the design organization, align teams around shared goals, and ensure that gameplay systems meaningfully support exploration, player agency, and long-term engagement.
• Emphasize leadership, clarity, and decision-making at scale, balancing creative ambition with production realities while empowering design teams to do their best work.

Design Director

Producer

• Oversee one or more cross-discipline feature teams.
• Establish and maintain team schedules, evaluating and assessing capacity on a daily basis, proactively assessing and mitigating risk.
• Manage resource requirements, establish dependencies and balance priorities.
• Partner with technical and creative leadership to ensure project vision, deliverables and goals are clear.
• Maintain regular communication with the project team and coordinate dependencies with stakeholders.
• Manage scope and quality, proactively assess and mitigate risk

Game Engineer

• Integrate and maintain UE5 features across console platforms, including Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, and Nintendo Switch.
• Own automated packaging, deployment, and validation of builds for multiple platforms.
• Profile and tune CPU, GPU, memory, and loading performance to meet platform-specific targets.
• Work closely with production to ensure TRC/XR compliance and support submissions to first-party partners.
• Act as a key liaison between engine/platform tech and gameplay teams to resolve cross-platform issues and blockers.
• Improve the efficiency of platform development by building or enhancing internal tools and CI systems.

Senior/Intermediate Platforms Software Engineer, Unreal Engine 5

2D Artist

• Design, organize, implement, and maintain UI layouts and systems within Unreal Engine while ensuring a consistent visual style across the entire project interface.
• Create meaningful UI deliverables such as icons, wireframes, mockups, motion graphics, interactive prototypes, and concepts that support the product vision.
• Collaborate closely with game designers, UX, and UI engineers to translate design intent into robust, shippable UI solutions.
• Own UI features from concept through implementation, iteration, optimization, and final polish.
• Provide and receive constructive feedback and contribute positively as part of a collaborative team.

Technical UI Artist

3D Artist

• Work closely with Art Director and Concept Art to explore visual style for weaponry and machinery.
• Set the benchmark for exemplary machinery/weapon assets; showcase contemporary hard surface techniques and competency in Substance Painter.
• Collaborate with Designers and Programmers with a mindset for rapid iteration, testing quick block-out meshes in game, addressing feedback and testing changes.
• Work with Technical Artists in the development of the hard surface art pipeline and dependencies.
• Help establish best practices, and help write documentation/tutorials to further the goals of your team.
• Be a collaborative problem solver by presenting solutions.
• Proactively invest in growing your skills, knowledge and experience.