Senior Network Engineer (Unreal 5) in London

We're looking for a Senior Network Engineer to join our Engineering team and take the lead on building the networking foundations of our large-scale, social-first multiplayer world. You'll design and optimize low-level systems inside Unreal Engine 5, enabling seamless transitions across server instances and maximizing concurrent player support per shard. This is a highly technical, high-impact role for someone with deep Unreal networking experience, strong C++ skills, and a passion for solving complex multiplayer problems: latency, synchronization, server meshing, connection stability, and more. You'll report to the Lead Gameplay Programmer and work closely with our gameplay team to ensure player experiences are smooth, scalable, and ready for massive interaction.

Your Role Core Responsibilities:

• Design, implement, and extend server meshing systems to enable seamless player transitions between Unreal Engine server instances (no loading screens).
• Modify and optimize Unreal Engine's low-level networking architecture to support high player counts per server instance with minimal latency or jitter.
• Reduce per-player cost on server performance, optimizing bandwidth usage, packet handling, and replication strategies.
• Debug and profile networking performance using tools like Unreal Insights, Wireshark, and platform-native tools (e.g., netstat, perf, traceroute).
• Collaborate closely with gameplay programmers and designers to align networking systems with gameplay goals, including combat, traversal, and social systems.

Must-Haves:

• 5+ years of experience in network programming for games, including shipping multiplayer titles in Unreal Engine.
• Deep understanding of TCP/IP, UDP, sockets, NAT traversal, packet fragmentation, and latency mitigation techniques.
• Proficiency in C++, with strong understanding of memory/performance constraints in networked systems.
• Solid grasp of client-server architectures, replication strategies, and packet serialization/compression.
• Hands-on experience with Unreal Engine's networking stack, including NetDriver, replication graphs, and gameplay-specific networking.
• Proficiency in debugging and profiling tools such as Unreal Insights, Wireshark, netstat, perf, etc.
• Familiarity with authentication, matchmaking, and session management systems.
• Experience working on MMO or large-scale multiplayer games.
• Strong understanding of network infrastructure (switches, routers, VLANs, firewalls) and their impact on real-time performance.
• Comfortable working in Linux, and familiar with Git and/or Perforce.

Nice-to-Haves:

• Experience with large-scale server orchestration and hosting systems (e.g., Docker, Kubernetes, Azure).
• Familiarity with mesh networking or custom replication strategies beyond Unreal defaults.
• Experience scaling real-time multiplayer systems to thousands of concurrent users.

About You

You're passionate about multiplayer systems and love tackling deep, technical challenges in networking and systems architecture. You bring a strong sense of ownership, with the discipline to build scalable, stable, and performant infrastructure. You're a clear communicator who thrives in collaborative environments and enjoys working across disciplines. You're comfortable solving complex low-level problems and balancing performance with gameplay needs. You're self-driven, curious, and always looking to push what's possible in online play.

About Couch Heroes

Couch Heroes is a growing, international game studio building a modular, social-first MMO world designed for creativity, expression, and deep player connection. We're crafting a platform where players shape stories, collaborate on content, and explore a constantly evolving universe together. We're remote-first, legally based in the UK, and scaling operations to support our multi-year roadmap. We value autonomy, curiosity, and collaborative ownership, and we're always looking for people who love games and building great systems.