Head of Code - UK Remote or Malta hybrid. in Rotherham

My client is a leading developer and publisher of mobile free-to-play games. We are based in both Malta and the UK and we currently have a little over forty people in our team across the two locations, it's a multicultural group of hardworking friendly people. Since we were founded, we have worked with some amazing partners including companies like Activision, Disney, EA, Sony and Ubisoft and we have made some really great games together. We are expanding and are looking for talented and driven staff with a passion for gaming.

We are looking to recruit a Head of Code who will be the driving force behind the studio's technical vision and team management. You will be leading, managing and mentoring a capable international team of programmers. You should be comfortable conducting one to one meetings and able to plan, prioritise and set inspiring objectives for team members. Giving them clear expectations and holding them accountable for their results is key. Whilst this is a leadership role with a strong focus on team building, management and motivation; you will also have significant involvement with hands-on programming and strategic planning. Your deep knowledge and understanding of game programming across multiple platforms will enable you to offer advice and make recommendations to the teams. You should be able to quickly and effectively appraise proposed solutions and provide appropriate direction. You should have excellent knowledge of game design philosophies, game asset production, creative production processes and a deep understanding of assorted game engine pipelines. From a leadership perspective you will be required to identify cross team efficiencies, lead recruitment activities for the code department and help us to champion any updated procedures or working practices. You will be the interface between technology and the company's desire to become a market leader in video game development and work-for-hire. You will also help us to balance reality with our relentless creative passion. This is a unique opportunity to grow and shape the code team for our studio and help us to aspire to excellence.

Responsibilities

• Manage and motivate an international team of programmers, demonstrating excellent leadership skills in order to help the company achieve its vision of being a market leader in video game development and work for hire.
• Champion the ongoing training and development of your department.
• Regularly communicate with key internal stakeholders and colleagues, determining and relaying progress and escalating impediments.
• Maintain excellent awareness of the company strategy and provide input into the company's technical direction.
• Promote the company's development work to the wider development community.
• Analyse, design and document significant tools, systems and processes, in a shareable and forward-looking manner.
• Implement required functionality to high quality and on schedule, in an extensible and easily maintainable fashion.
• Define, adapt, promote and conform to studio process, practices and standards to improve quality, predictability and productivity.
• Maintain expert knowledge of appropriate programming languages and software engineering principles.
• Continue to develop both your own and your teams' knowledge of game development platforms.
• Champion and promote the business at all times, promoting its achievements and capabilities, internally and externally.
• Champion company decisions, policies and processes, whilst ensuring a high level of team morale is maintained.
• Schedule face-to-face meetings with your team (once per quarter).
• Coordinate team meet-ups quarterly (South, Midlands, North) (UK applicants).
• Visit the head office in Malta (twice per year) (UK applicants).

Experience

• A minimum of ten years of commercial game programming experience, the majority of which is to be in either a Lead Programmer, Head of Code, Technical Director role or similar.
• At least six years of specific video games development experience across mobile, handheld, console and PC platforms.
• Must have experience of free-to-play games, in-game purchases, in-game analytics, and in-games economies.
• Experience of working on a number of games with a significant live ops component.
• Experience working on games with frequent content and feature updates.
• Previous experience of effectively leading a small to medium sized code team.
• Proven to have shipped several games across the desired platforms (mobile, handheld, console and PC platforms).
• Extensive experience of working within an agile development framework.
• Experience managing code teams, establishing best practices, feedback loops and mentoring.

Technical

• Expert knowledge of appropriate game engines, programming languages and software engineering principles, including but not limited to: Unity C#, UnrealEngine C++, Kubernetes, AWS, Google Cloud, Firebase, BigQuery, TeamCity, Console and handheld platform SDKs.
• Expert knowledge of IDEs and debugging techniques.
• Expert knowledge of version control systems P4 and Git.
• Expert problem-solving abilities and the capacity to understand business requirements and offer appropriate cost/benefit analysis and solutions.
• Able to help manage an iterative and agile production process.
• Expertise in F2P publishing and premium games.
• Proven knowledge of widely used Google and Apple SDKs used in mobile applications and game development.
• An extensive knowledge of available tools and plugins and proficiency in their use.
• It is important that you can make an assessment as to whether an existing tool is able to fulfil a business requirement, or whether we need to create something from scratch.
• Able to quickly judge the complexity of tasks and provide consistently realistic estimates to support scheduling.
• Can quickly and effectively appraise proposed solutions and provide appropriate direction.
• Can take direction and work both within a team and autonomously.
• Can predict and manage the impact of change on adjacent disciplines such as art, design and QA and communicate this effectively to the wider production team.
• Expert knowledge of multiple mobile platforms.

Interpersonal

• Fluency in English.
• Excellent verbal and written communication and presentation skills.
• An influencer who can communicate with direct reports and other teams.
• A positive can-do attitude, not afraid of a challenge, and tenacious in finding solutions.
• Deadline and results driven, able to work well under pressure and to strict deadlines.
• Demonstrates thoroughness and attention to detail.
• Able to give long-term direction to a large group and help drive progress.
• A passion for mobile games and creating them.
• Empathetic leadership qualities.
• Mentoring direct team members and others across disciplines in the business.
• A pragmatic doer, fixer, team motivator.

All applicants must be based in either the UK or Malta. If this sounds like you, we would love to hear from you. In the UK we are currently a fully remote business but we try to get together for meetups as often as possible. In Malta we have fabulous offices overlooking the water in the country's capital, Valletta. Our UK team has the opportunity to visit the Malta office.