Systems Engineer (Principal/Lead)

the team deliver high-quality content faster. Jumping into other areas as needed — from audio to UI to gameplay systems — to support the broader team. Contributing beyond core engineering, leaning on your passions and perspectives to help the studio grow. (Lead) Providing technical leadership and mentorship across a senior engineering team — fostering autonomy, accountability, and growth through clear direction, constructive feedback, and deliberate skill development. WE’RE EXCITED ABOUT YOU BECAUSE YOU: Have shipped multiple titles with deep, hands-on experience leading technical direction on proprietary, custom, or heavily modified engines for AAA games on PC and modern consoles. Bring proven experience building and optimizing systems for competitive multiplayer games, with a sharp understanding of how low-level decisions impact responsiveness and player experience. Have deep expertise in high-performance real-time systems, multi-threaded architecture, and ECS paradigms. (Lead) Have led and grown senior engineering teams, and can provide the mentorship and clarity that high-performing engineers need to do their best work. Enjoy solving the hardest problems — whether debugging elusive issues, optimizing complex systems, or making foundational architectural calls with long-term consequences. Thrive on curiosity and adaptability, eager to dive into new areas and unfamiliar code. Value collaboration, trust, and diverse perspectives, building strong partnerships across the studio. Carry a genuine passion for both technology and the creative process of making games. THIS MIGHT NOT BE

THE ROLE FOR YOU IF: You prefer working only within well-defined boundaries — this role requires diving into unfamiliar systems and solving problems across performance, console, graphics, and tooling. You're most comfortable using engines off the shelf rather than going deep into proprietary or heavily customized ones. You haven't shipped competitive multiplayer games or don't have strong intuition for how low-level systems decisions affect player experience at scale. You prefer focusing on gameplay features rather than engine-level systems, optimizations, or developer tools. Debugging, profiling, and low-level optimizations feel tedious instead of energizing. You're uncomfortable working in a live service environment where iteration, scalability, and constant improvement are essential. (Lead) You're earlier in your leadership journey — this role requires credibly leading and mentoring a team of senior engineers, not growing into that responsibility. YOU’LL LOVE WORKING AT BONFIRE BECAUSE WE: Embrace bold challenges with creativity and courage, making the tough calls to build a game we’re proud to play every day. Keep fun at the core: we play Arkheron daily, staying grounded as players. If it’s not more fun than yesterday, we fix it. We don’t chase trends; we listen by playing. Stay truly independent, with decisions driven by

the team — not by investors or a board. Thrive in a culture of passion, trust, and shared ownership; where transparency matters and egos don’t. The base salary range for this role is $263,750 - $320,000. Depending on your experience and level (whether you’re closer to mid-level or principal), your offer may land above or below that range. We don’t just look at years on a résumé — we think about the impact you can have on

the team and the game. Of course,

compensation at Bonfire goes beyond salary. Every new teammate receives equity, plus a full

benefits package and some extra

perks to make work (and life) better. When we connect, we’ll happily walk you through the full details. Want to get a feel for what it’s like to work here? You can check out more about our culture, team,

benefits, and

perks at www.bonfirestudios.com . And don’t worry — anything you share with us in the application process is just for recruiting and won’t be shared. You can read more in our privacy policy . Create a Job Alert Interested in building your career at Bonfire Studios? Get future opportunities sent straight to your email. Create alert Apply for this job * indicates a required field First Name * Last Name * Preferred First Name * Email * Phone Country Phone Resume/CV * Attach Attach Dropbox Google Drive Enter manually Enter manually Accepted file types: pdf, doc, docx, txt, rtf Cover Letter Attach Attach Dropbox Google Drive Enter manually Enter manually Accepted file types: pdf, doc, docx, txt, rtf LinkedIn Profile Website/GitHub * We’d love to see an example of your work that gives us a window into how you think about building software. This could be a GitHub repo, a personal project site, a technical blog post... anything that shows the kind of code you’re proud of, your approach to problem-solving, or your vision for what “good code” looks like. Work Location & Availability * Select... Which of the following best describes your current situation and ability to work onsite with Bonfire? Anything else you’d like us to know? Applications can only capture so much. If there’s anything you’d like to share that didn’t fit into the previous questions, this is your chance to include it. Submit application Powered by Greenhouse

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