Senior Director of Engineering, Second Dinner Studios
$270-300k
+ Equity
More information about location
Independent game development studio
Open for applications
Independent game development studio
201-500 employees
Open for applications
$270-300k
+ Equity
More information about location
201-500 employees
Company mission
To make the most entertaining games in the world.
Role
Who you are
- Proven experience shipping and operating a live-service game
- Track record of technical management of external development partners or vendors
- Add value at every level: IC engineers, external partners, production, and leadership
- Experience leading an engineering team through the ups and downs of long-term live services games
- Strong familiarity with Unity, AWS, Git, and .NET
- Comfortable both setting strategic direction and rolling up your sleeves
Desirable
- Experience designing and scaling a hub-and-spoke or xDev-heavy engineering model
- Experience operating a global backend at scale
- Background in live-service game telemetry, A/B testing, or rapid iteration frameworks
What the job involves
- At Second Dinner, we believe that great people in a great work environment will lead us to great games and player experiences. In engineering, we empower our team to build and innovate with best in class tools in ways they haven't been used before. Our goal is to simplify the game development process and redefine what is possible in game development
- As a Senior Director of Engineering, you will report to the GM of MARVEL SNAP and your primary responsibility will be to tackle the technical challenges facing the game team
- You’ll oversee a large team of talented MARVEL SNAP engineers to develop and improve tools and systems
- Your work will empower the entire team to provide our players with delightful and robust gameplay experiences
- You are accountable for ensuring that today’s engineering decisions enable tomorrow’s innovation
- If you would like to play an integral part in shaping the technology foundations that will support our team and our players for years to come, APPLY!
- Ensure the best outcomes from our 20-person engineering group and 6-person QA team
- Act as technical visionholder for MARVEL SNAP, as we transition to long-term solutions
- Own the delivery pipeline from planning to production, remove friction and deliver quality features to players in a timely fashion
- Champion pragmatic engineering decisions: know when to build fast and when to build right
- In conjunction with Production, ensure quality output from xDev partners, evaluation, onboarding, integration, and accountability
- Define quality and deployment standards that scale across internal and xDev teams, then empower others to uphold them
- Be the kind of leader people want to work for, hold meaningful 1:1s, track growth, and build actionable career plans
- Iterate on hiring, pinch hit when the team needs you, and stay close to the code
Our take
For a long time, the gaming industry was dominated by a small number of studios. In recent years, however, the prevalence of small, independent studios has risen. Second Dinner Studios is one of a crop of new game studios looking to disrupt this ever-growing market.
Second Dinner was founded by a team of former directors, producers and artists from Blizzard Entertainment, one of the biggest names in gaming. This combined expertise, which covers every aspect of the game creation process, has helped the company to gain a solid foothold in the market. In 2022, Second Dinner launched its first game, Marvel SNAP, the end product of a high-value partnership with entertainment giant Disney.
The gaming market is one of the fastest-growing industries in the world, and Second Dinner's partnership with Marvel, the world's most recognisable franchise, has helped set it apart from the crowd. However, the company has faced pushback over its in-game monetization features. Nonetheless, Second Dinner was quick to remedy these features, displaying impressive agility.
Freddie
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
Company
Funding (2 rounds)
Jan 2024
$100m
SERIES B
Jan 2019
$30m
EARLY VC
Total funding: $130m
Company benefits
- Medical, Dental, and Vision insurance plans with Second Dinner paying 100% of premiums for employees and 75% for dependents for many plans
- 401(k) contribution with no waiting period
- 16 weeks paid parental leave with no waiting period
- Home office improvement bonus
- Paid Vacation & Sick time
- Up to 10 BetterHelp sessions covered each benefits plan year
- Company Winter Holiday shutdown (Dec 25-Jan 1)
- Company Summer Holiday shutdown (week of July 4)
- Company Events - In-person Summer all-hands gathering, in-person holiday party, and virtual events throughout the year
Company HQ
Irvine, CA
Leadership
Hamilton Chu
(Co-Founder & CEO)Previously founded the PFN Group, and was SVP and Executive Producer at Blizzard Entertainment.
Ben Brode
(Co-Founder & Chief Development Officer)Previously worked as Principal Game Designer and Game Director for Blizzard game Hearthstone.
Jomaro Kindred
(Co-Founder & Art Director)Previously a Senior Concept Artist at Nerve Software, before joining Blizzard Entertainment as a Senior Concept Artist.
Yong Woo
(Co-Founder & Chief Production Officer)Previously a Senior Associate at Sapient and Director of Mobile Products at Where LLC. Then served as Production Director for Blizzard Entertainment's Hearthstone.
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