Technical Lead - Interactive Systems in London

We’re looking for a Technical Lead for Interactive Systems. Someone who can look at a theme park attraction, a physical-digital toy, or a multiplayer game and see the same thing: a complex interactive system that needs to be architected, de-risked, and delivered with confidence. You’ll operate as a technical lead across a diverse portfolio (games, attractions, retail, toys, R&D) with deeper expertise in physical systems, AV/Show Control, and creative technology. You’ll be hands-on when it matters, especially early in a project. But your real value will be setting the right technical blueprint and giving teams the confidence to execute it. You won’t be expected to know everything. But you will be expected to know how to figure anything out and lead others through it.

This role requires a minimum of 2 days per week on-site at our London studio.

The Foundation

Every project we deliver - whether it’s a virtual world, an attraction, or a blend of the two - is built on game technology. You will therefore need to have the following experience:

• Strong hands-on experience with Unreal (C++), Unity (C#), and/or web-based interactive technologies (TypeScript, React, Three.js/WebGL)
• Ability to design modular, scalable real-time systems
• Understanding of real-time performance (CPU/GPU, rendering, optimisation)

What All Our Technical Leads Do

• Own technical direction across projects from start to finish.
• Translate ambiguous creative ideas into clear, buildable systems.
• De-risk the unknown through rapid prototyping and early-stage validation.
• Set engineering standards and guide developers through technically complex work.
• Be the technical point of contact for the client and key project stakeholders. Communicate technical intent and feasibility clearly.

This is where you’re the expert in the room. You don’t need to be world-class in all of these, but you must be credible across all of them, and deep in at least one.

1. Physical & Interactive Technology

• Experience connecting digital experiences with physical play via sensors (LiDAR, computer vision, RFID) and IoT/BLE.
• Familiarity with embedded platforms (Arduino, Raspberry Pi, ESP32).
• Comfortable collaborating with fabricators and industrial designers on electronics in high-stress public environments.

2. Hardware Integration & Show Control

• Understanding of Back of House architecture and how interactive systems connect to AV environments.
• Exposure to protocols like DMX, Art-Net, sACN, or OSC.
• Awareness of show controllers, touch designer, media servers, and signal distribution (projection, audio, SFX).

3. End-to-End Systems

• Full-stack awareness across front-end and back-end systems (real-time clients, web platforms, APIs, cloud infrastructure) and how they connect into a cohesive whole.
• Able to make informed trade-offs between innovation, cost, and reliability in physical deployments.
• Understanding of how digital systems connect into physical environments at scale.

What Success Looks Like

In your first 3-6 months:

• Teams feel confident tackling technically ambiguous projects.
• Early-stage work has clear, credible technical direction.
• We avoid costly missteps by making the right calls early.
• Clients trust our technical approach, even on unfamiliar ground.

Why This Role Is Different

PRELOADED works at the intersection of digital-physical play:

• You’ll work across a wide spectrum of experiences and technologies.
• You’ll have real influence on technical direction, not just implementation.
• No two projects are the same and that’s the fun bit.

Who This Role Is For

You might be a game tech lead who’s moved into installations or physical experiences, a creative technologist who’s led real-time projects with hardware at the core, or perhaps an engineer from the theme park or live experience world with strong interactive/game engine roots. What matters most: you’re comfortable outside your comfort zone, you lead through ambiguity, and you can prototype, architect, and lead - not just one of the three. This is not a pure game-dev role, an AV specialist position, or a hands-off lead position. It’s for someone who thinks in systems and wants to build things that don’t fit into a single category.

ABOUT PRELOADED

We are a BAFTA-winning games studio inventing new ways to play for everyone. We harness the power of play to create the experiences of tomorrow. Founded in 2000, PRELOADED believes that play, in all contexts and for all audiences, has the potential to impact our world positively. As a cross-disciplinary team of artists, designers, play specialists, and creative technologists, we are united by this shared mission - what we call Play with Purpose®. Together, we craft a diverse range of playful experiences. We help organisations, brands, and institutions engage next-generation audiences and collaborate with technology platforms to imagine the future of play.