Senior Lead Unreal 5 Engineer - UFC-style fightinggame

Location : Hybrid / Remote – Montreal, QC Preferred

Employment Type : Full-Time Reports To : CTO Role Overview We are

seeking an experienced Senior Unreal5 Engineer to help architect

and lead development of a next-generation UFC-style fighting game.

You will help define the project’s technical vision, and drive

delivery of performant, visually stunning, and highly responsive

combat gameplay across console and PC platforms. This role blends

hands-on engineering, requiring deep Unreal expertise, strong

architectural instincts, and a passion for combat gameplay

fidelity, animation, physics, and multiplayer experiences. Core

Responsibilities Technical Leadership Help Define and maintain the

technical architecture for all game systems, tools, and pipelines.

Help define the engineering roadmap, aligning milestones with

production and design goals. Partner with Art, Design, and

Production leadership to define content pipelines and asset

standards. Evaluate and integrate cutting-edge UE5 features

Nanite, Lumen, Chaos, Control Rig, Motion Matching). Set and

enforce performance, stability, and memory budgets for console and

PC SKUs. Drive adoption of AI-driven animation blending, motion

matching, and advanced combat systems. Hands-On Engineering

Architect and prototype core systems in C++ and Blueprints.

Implement deterministic combat loop, rollback networking, and

animation blending layers. Collaborate with designers and animators

to ensure combat feel and responsiveness. Integrate and optimize

AI / ML runtime inference (ONNX Runtime, PFNNs) for real-time motion.

Establish CI / CD pipelines, Perforce branch strategy, and automated

build systems. Cross-Team Collaboration Work with Art / Animation

teams to optimize performance for Nanite / Lumen and animation

streaming. Partner with Design to translate gameplay concepts into

efficient technical systems. Collaborate with QA and DevOps for

automated testing, performance tracking, and telemetry. Required

Qualifications 10+ years professional experience in game

development, with 5+ years in Unreal Engine (UE4 / UE5). Shipped at

least one AAA title as a Lead or Technical Director. Expert in C++,

Unreal Gameplay Framework, and Animation / Physics subsystems. Deep

understanding of combat systems, animation graphs, and motion

pipelines. Experience with multiplayer systems, network

determinism, and rollback architectures. Proficiency with build

automation (Jenkins, GitHub Actions) and version control

Perforce). Proven ability to recruit, lead, and inspire

engineering teams. Strong cross-disciplinary communication and

production collaboration skills. Preferred / Bonus Skills

Experience with AI-driven animation systems (Motion Matching,

Neural Networks, PFNN, DeepMimic). Familiarity with machine

learning inference in real-time environments (ONNX, TensorRT).

Experience optimizing across PS5 / Xbox Series X / PC platforms.

Background in fighting, sports, or action gameplay mechanics.

Experience with Chaos Physics, Control Rig, Motion Warping, and

MetaHuman integration. Working knowledge of DevOps and CI / CD in

Unreal-based pipelines. Prior leadership in startup, mid-size, or

cross-studio collaboration environments. Success Indicators (First

6-12 Months) Functional core combat loop prototype demonstrating

AI-driven blending and animation fidelity. Scalable tech

architecture supporting multiple fighter archetypes and network

play. Stable build automation and dev pipeline with profiling,

crash reporting, and telemetry in place. Delivery of Alpha

milestone (Month 12) with performance and determinism targets

met.