Principal Software Engineer, Sports Interactive
Animation
Office located in Stratford, London
Sports management simulation games
Be an early applicant
Sports management simulation games
501-1000 employees
Be an early applicant
Office located in Stratford, London
501-1000 employees
Company mission
Sports Interactive's mission is to continue to grow as the world's leading developer of sports management simulation games.
Role
Who you are
- We are looking for self-motivated people with great communication skills who can complete work independently as well as part of a team
- Strong academic background with a 2:1 degree or higher (or equivalent) in a relevant technical field, such as computer science, software engineering, mathematics or physics
- Excellent knowledge of C++, design patterns and software engineering
- Minimum five years of professional experience using C++ as the main language
- Experience designing and developing animation systems within the games industry
- Very strong mathematical, analytical, and problem-solving skills
- Great communication skills for effective collaboration with software engineers, artists, animators, QA, and production staff
- Proactive and self-motivated with a drive to improve yourself and others continuously
- Keen interest and understanding in Football would be beneficial. Football Manager fan a bonus
What the job involves
- We are looking for a Principal Animation Engineer, to join our London based studio to enhance our animation engine and help us take our football match simulation to the next level
- The match engine team are responsible for the technological advancements of our state-of-the-art in-house engine which simulates and visualises football matches
- You will join a passionate and flourishing team who care deeply about the realism and visual quality of the match simulation in our games
- As part of this team, you will be working on our animation engine, which is used across multiple projects and products for visualising matches in 3D
- Your focus will be on improving the visuals of our match engine by improving motion and animation and you will lead the team with researching and implementing the required technologies to achieve this goal
- You will also support the development of our physics system and develop our internal animation tooling. You will be collaborating closely with our animators, artists, quality assurance and match AI engineers
- You will be an important part in leading and driving the direction and realism of our animation and the visual experiences within the match experience that our users have in our products, and you have full input into the team specifically as well as the studio generally with the opportunity to voice your ideas and suggestions
- Our match simulation and animation engine are shared across multiple products and is a critical part of the games we make, and you will consider challenges involving the match experience across several platforms, including on mobile devices
- Drive the architectural development and the technical direction of the codebase and software systems, consulting with the technical directors to steer the technology for the wider studio
- Solve the most complex software problems and lead on creation of technical standards for our technology and products
- Define the architecture of multiple projects at SI, while driving initiatives to improve the engineering quality at SI. Define and epitomise the development principles and coding standards at SI for all other software engineers to adhere to
- Develop, extend, improve, and maintain our robust code base, workflows, and tools that support our match simulation systems
- Work closely and iterate with our animation, match engine AI, graphics, and internal tools, to continuously improve the look and human feel of our match simulation
- Contribute to a wide range of technical areas including, Full Body Inverse Kinematics, Motion Matching, Skeleton Retargeting, Data Pipeline and Compression, Events Editor, Real-Life Match Data 3D Viewer, Statistics and Generative AI
- Collaborate with cross-disciplinary teams, including animators, artists, QA, producers, and other engineering teams, on current development and future long-term planning
- Work closely with senior engineers, leads and production to define new features and set long term technical goals and roadmaps
- Research, prototype and implement new animation and simulation technologies to keep our systems at the forefront of innovation
- Lead by example with exceptional development knowledge and code reviews
- Foster a culture of growth, collaboration, and technical excellence, being a role model to engineers across the studio
- Communicate technical decisions and progress effectively to senior stakeholders, ensuring transparency and shared understanding. Communicate your programming knowledge to the development teams and developing technical talent within the team
Salary benchmarks
Our take
Sports and video games have long had an association with each other, with the FIFA franchise and NBA Jam just two of the many very popular series playable on home consoles from the early 90s onwards. But for many hardcore fans, the managerial aspect of the sport is more appealing. Football Manager, Sports Interactive's flagship title, leveraging real-life sports data to simulate the managerial experience and give gamers the opportunity to lead their favourite clubs.
This immensely popular franchise, distributed by SEGA among others, has rapidly gained in popularity and even outcompeted FIFA Manager, the franchise's managerial offering. With annual improvements to its simulation's accuracy and graphics, Football Manager is now considered to be head and shoulders ahead of any competition.
Sports Interactive is focusing on further developing its properties, including its newer and similarly well-received NHL Eastside Hockey Manager, forming partnerships with clubs and sponsors to allow real-life players and branding to appear in game. At the top of its game, Sports Interactive will continue innovating upon the genre through its focus on strategy, providing gamers with the ultimate sports management simulation experience.
Steph
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
13% employee growth in 12 months
Company
Company benefits
- Healthcare - Private health care (including Dental) provided for every permanent team member
- Flexible Working - As long as you do your bit, we're happy
- Holidays - 25 days of paid holiday every year, so take that trip of a lifetime
- Social Events - Our Social Club organise regular events including an annual family day, office football tournaments and after work activities that every team member can get involved in
- Gym Membership - Want to keep yourself fit while working here? We help provide gym membership for a number of local gyms
Company HQ
Hackney Wick, London, UK
Leadership
Miles Jacobson
(Studio Director)Governor of East London Arts and Music since 2019. Industry Ambassador and Member of the Entertainment Fundraising Committee for War Child UK since 2006.
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