Expert Gameplay Online Services Engineer
Who We Are
Founded in 2023, Small Axe is the newest stand alone studio at 2K looking to push game development boundaries to bring 2K's next groundbreaking sports franchise to life. We're building a world-class team at our new Vancouver, BC location where our goal is to deliver an exceptional experience through bold ideas, technical excellence, and creative collaboration. We're seeking passionate and driven professionals across all areas of game development to help shape this ambitious vision. If you’re interested in tackling unique challenges and think you have what it takes to level up our team, we encourage you to apply!
What We Need
We’re looking for an Expert Online Services SE to help architect and build the scalable multiplayer backbone of our next AAA sports title. As a recognized subject matter expert in online services, you will contribute to the technical direction for our backend platform and own large systems end-to-end, primarily developing custom backend services and, where it makes sense, bridging that work into Unreal Engine dedicated server and client code. You’ll partner with designers, artists, producers, and engineering leadership to create seamless connected experiences while elevating the engineers around you. We value deep technical expertise, a collaborative mindset, and adaptability as our team and technology evolve together.
What You Will Do
- Architect, build, and own large-scale backend services that power our online features, from initial design through launch and live operations
- Set technical direction and engineering standards for our online services, influencing architecture and best practices across teams
- Lead technical planning for major online initiatives, producing technical designs, work breakdowns, and dependency analysis that enable execution across multiple engineers and teams
- Provide input on infrastructure cost modeling and capacity planning, such as projecting cloud costs from expected player populations
- Partner with design, art, production, and engineering leadership to shape online features, clearly articulating trade-offs between player experience, cost, and schedule
- Set the bar for clean, performant, and well-tested code through hands-on development and code and design reviews
- Mentor and coach engineers at all levels, contribute to hiring, and help shape our engineering culture
- Collaborate with publisher technology teams, platform partners, and external vendors on online infrastructure and services
What Will Make You A Great Fit
- 7+ years building backend services and online systems for games
- Expert proficiency in Go building production backend services
- Shipped and scaled live online services for millions of players
- Deep expertise in distributed, event-driven systems and networking protocols
- Proven technical leadership driving architecture and alignment across teams
- Production experience with AWS, Kubernetes, and relational databases (e.g., PostgreSQL)
- Strong observability mindset, with hands-on experience building monitoring, alerting, and distributed tracing for production systems
- Solid grasp of CI/CD best practices, with experience designing pipelines that enable zero-downtime deployments
- Excellent communicator, comfortable navigating a growing organization
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or equivalent experience
Beneficial Qualifications
- Experience with Unreal Engine 5 (or similar engines), particularly dedicated server and client networking code in C++
- Proficiency in Python
- Experience modeling infrastructure costs and capacity for live services at scale
- Experience integrating with first-party platform online services (e.g., PlayStation Network, Xbox network, Steam)
- Passion for playing or watching sports
Please note that 2K Games and its studios never uses instant messaging apps or personal email accounts to contact prospective employees or conduct interviews and when emailing, only use 2K.com accounts.
The pay range for this position in British Columbia at the start of employment is expected to be between $114,300 and $169,140 per Year. However, base pay offered is based on market location, and may vary further depending on individualized factors for job candidates, such as job-related knowledge, skills, experience, and other objective business considerations. Subject to those same considerations, the total compensation package for employees in regular roles may also include other elements, including a bonus and/or equity awards, in addition to a full range of medical, financial, and/or other benefits, provided that temporary or intern roles will not be eligible for many of these payments or benefits. Details of participation in compensation and benefit plans (if applicable) will be provided if an employee receives an offer of employment.
As an equal opportunity employer, we are committed to ensuring that individuals with disabilities are provided suitable accommodations to enjoy equal employment opportunities, including the ability to participate in the job application or interview process. Please contact us if you need an accommodation as part of your application process or otherwise have questions about the Company’s accommodation policy and review process.
Please note that 2K Games and its studios never uses instant messaging apps or personal email accounts to contact prospective employees or conduct interviews and when emailing, only use 2K.com accounts.