Lead Gameplay Programmer

We have an excellent opportunity for a passionate and experienced game developer to join our Total War team as a Lead Gameplay Programmer.

Based at our well-established Headquarters in Horsham, in the heart of West Sussex, UK, you will be working as a key member of the code team on our next unannounced Total War title. In this role, you will be able to make a real impact on our game. You will bring your knowledge and experience to help push the boundaries of our game by collaborating with a talented and passionate team, striving to make our games better than ever before.

Flexible working at Creative Assembly includes hybrid, fully remote within country of employment for eligible roles, and in-studio. We recognise that there is no one-size-fits-all approach and empower our teams to define the working patterns which work best for them, which may mean different things for different teams and roles and at different times.

This role is Hybrid and has an expectation of 1-2 days per week in our Horsham studio. This role cannot offer fully remote working. Further details can be discussed during the recruitment process.

Key Responsibilities

This is a rare opportunity to lead the team responsible for campaign gameplay on the next historical total war project. You will be responsible for leading a talented team of programmers as well as working closely with the project directors across different disciplines in order to build high quality gameplay systems and guide the development of the Total War campaign.

On a day-to-day basis, you will:

• Take responsibility for hiring, leading, and mentoring within your team
• Collaborate with designers and artists to create high-quality gameplay features, including contributing to the design and iteration of those features to ensure they are implemented in a way that realises the project vision
• Work with directors in scoping and planning future work for your team, balancing technical and project requirements
• Build and maintain well-engineered C++ code with high levels of stability and performance
• Proactively improve and develop workflows and processes to allow your team to deliver high quality game content smoothly and efficiently
• Contribute to and support the technical roadmap of our future titles.

Essential

• Extensive games industry experience working in a senior capacity
• Experience leading a team of programmers and a passion for mentoring and guiding a team
• Strong C++ programming skillset, with knowledge of the latest language features
• Ability to write clean, maintainable, and extensible code
• Strong problem-solving skills
• Self-motivated with a drive to improve yourself and others
• A desire to collaborate closely with other disciplines to streamline our development processes and eliminate bottlenecks
• Passion and interest in games and game development.

Desirable

• Cross-platform development experience
• Experience working in a large codebase
• Experience of leading a team towards the release of a commercial game project
• Strong understanding of iterative development and experience working closely with designers to deliver features incrementally
• Broad gaming experience and a sense for good game design
• An avid gamer, ideally strategy games.

About Creative Assembly

It’s an exciting time to be a part of our craft-led studio as we push boundaries, creating deep and detailed experiences that last. 

Our teams are diverse from across the world, from trainees to industry veterans who constantly challenge us and make sure we are striving for the best within our games and our studio life. We are united through our shared values of Quality, Focus, Teamwork, Respect and Trust and we win awards for our culture and our people-centric approach, having won a Best Place to Work Award for six consecutive years. We invest in our people, the studio, and our projects. We are a company that’s secure and safe – you don’t need to worry about job security at CA.

We’ll give you the creative freedom, tools, support, and development to achieve your potential. 

We have studio locations across Horsham, UK in Newcastle, UK and Sofia, Bulgaria. These include several bespoke state-of-the-art audio suites and a dedicated motion capture facility.

We offer many benefits to support you and your family including:

• Flexible working: hybrid, fully remote within country of employment for eligible roles, and in-studio working
• Work from Anywhere for a temporary period each year (restrictions apply such as VISAs)
• Enhanced holiday allowance, maternity and paternity breaks, flexibility with our core hours, and no-notice holidays
• Bespoke relocation package for you and your dependents, with support throughout the process from our dedicated Relocation Specialists
• Private medical and dental insurance, life insurance, permanent health insurance, critical illness cover and free health care screening
• Generous holiday allowance plus full studio closure over the Christmas and New Year period, and all UK Bank holidays
• Annual discretionary studio bonus
• Join our award-winning education and social responsibility programme; the Legacy Project, as an industry ambassador to mentor and educate others
• Defined career development pathways and personalised training support including SEGA Dev Day, internal masterclasses, prestigious creative workshops, on-site training with renowned specialists and global conference attendance
• Opportunity to join our Diversity and Inclusion Network – an employee-led group
• Season ticket travel loans and cycle to work scheme with free bike servicing and discounted car valet service on site
• Free games and merchandise plus access to our extensive games library
• Free breakfast in the studio every day - toast, bagels, pancakes, cereals, yoghurts, fresh fruit, smoothies, juices, milkshakes and more in our fully stocked kitchen
• Wellbeing support with an employee assistance programme and onsite confidential sessions
• In-studio heavily subsidised massage therapy
• Discounts for home technology, travel insurance, corporate gym membership, cinema tickets, holidays, trips out and Ikea vouchers, and many local businesses including estate agents
• Studio parties for you and your family; such as our Summer Festival, Christmas Party plus a separate Children’s Christmas Party. We also have Cinema days and wrap parties for game releases
• Studio community activities such as life drawing, creative writing, Pilates, Walking Challenges, Couch to 5k, basketball, game and movie evenings, board game club, 5-a-side football, CA Choir, Sword fighting (yes, sword fighting) and loads more.

Our studio sites have disabled access. We are an equal opportunities employer and encourage applications from suitably qualified and eligible candidates regardless of sex, race, disability, age, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy or maternity, religion or belief.