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

Blackbird Interactive is a creative-fueled, future-driven, independent game studio where the best talent in the industry can find long-term careers to help grow their abilities while working on a wide range of projects, which encompass world-class IPs as well as our own creations across multiple genres.

In 2022, we announced that our studio is implementing a four-day work week as well as supporting in-studio, remote within Canada, and hybrid work arrangements as permanent options to our employees.

We are looking for a Lead Software Engineer to help port a proprietary AAA game engine to current gen console systems. You will lead the technical direction and execution across performance-critical platform systems including memory, CPU scheduling, streaming and I/O, and platform SDK integration. Targets include PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and Switch 2, as well as PC. This role is remote-friendly in Canada with Pacific-time overlap required.

What You’ll Lead and Deliver:
• Lead the effort to port and harden a proprietary AAA game engine for current gen consoles, ensuring performance, stability, and production readiness.
• Own the platform and console roadmap for core engine-facing systems across PC and consoles, balancing performance, reliability, and delivery timelines.
• Drive engine-level performance improvements focused on frame-time stability, hitch reduction, load-time reduction, memory efficiency, and scalability across CPU cores.
• Architect and optimize memory systems including allocators, pools, tagging, lifetime tracking, streaming heaps, fragmentation mitigation, OOM safety, and platform budget enforcement.
• Build and evolve I/O and streaming foundations including async file I/O, decompression pipelines, asset streaming, prioritization, bandwidth and latency hiding, and patch-friendly data layouts.
• Improve CPU scheduling and concurrency including job systems, task granularity, contention reduction, cache locality, false sharing mitigation, and thread affinity strategies.
• Lead platform integration and abstraction layers with clean separation between platform-specific code and cross-platform engine systems. Maintain SDK-facing pipelines and compliance readiness.
• Establish performance guardrails including budgets, best practices, validation checks, regression detection, automated benchmarks and captures, and telemetry for early detection of issues.
• Partner cross-discipline with gameplay, rendering, audio, content, and build and release teams to align features and content goals with platform constraints and budgets.
• Mentor and raise the bar through design reviews, debugging approaches, and best practices. Contribute to hiring, onboarding, and team standards.
• Communicate clearly to production and stakeholders on constraints, trade-offs, risks, and actionable plans for platform readiness.

You'll Thrive Here if you:
• 5+ years of professional game development or performance-critical systems experience, with demonstrated technical leadership through project ownership, mentorship, and setting standards.
• Expert-level modern C++ and systems debugging skills including multithreading, low-lock patterns, profiling-driven optimization, and low-level investigations.
• Deep understanding of console constraints and performance fundamentals including CPU architecture, cache and memory hierarchy, storage, I/O characteristics, and platform-specific trade-offs.
• Track record of shipping or supporting production console titles and improving stability, frame pacing, memory behavior, and load times in real-world conditions.
• Comfortable defining and enforcing budgets for CPU, memory, and I/O, and partnering with content teams to keep the game performant and stable.
• Strong ownership mindset with a focus on maintainable solutions, practical prioritization, and team success under deadlines.

Pluses:
• Shipped at least one title on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and or Nintendo hardware, especially in platform, performance, or engine roles.
• Hands-on expertise with custom allocators, memory tagging, fragmentation analysis, and crash and telemetry-driven stability improvements.
• Proven experience with streaming and async loading systems including decompression, on-demand loading, prioritization, and large-world or content-heavy constraints.
• Experience with job systems and frame-time stability work including contention, false sharing, CPU and GPU sync points, and task scheduling strategies.
• Strong familiarity with platform profiling workflows and internal diagnostics including PIX and equivalent console tooling.