Lead Programmer

We have a unique and exciting opportunity for a passionate and experienced Unity & Unreal Engine developer with an interest in health technologies to join our team as a Lead Programmer.

You will be working as the Lead Programmer within a small team, to develop a new therapeutic mobile intervention to support young people with low mood & depression.

In this role, you will be able to make a real impact on the future of the development and growth of all our mobile products - current and future ones. You will bring your knowledge and experience to help push the boundaries of our therapeutic games., This is a rare opportunity to own and shape the current early development of a new therapeutic intervention using Unity and Open AI to generate in-app content., We're looking for an experienced Lead Programmer to spearhead the technical development of our new mobile game built with Unity and lead on development activities of our other products.

You'll collaborate closely with the Head of Product, developers, and researchers to translate therapeutic goals into compelling app experiences.

You'll take ownership of the core gameplay & reward systems, technical architecture, and optimisation pipelines - ensuring the final product is stable, feels fluid, beautiful, and deeply immersive on mobile devices.

Technical Leadership:

• Define and oversee the app's technical architecture across Unity and Unreal Engine pipelines.
• Mentor and guide a lean team of developers, ensuring high-quality code and best practices.
• Evaluate and integrate new technologies to enhance gameplay and performance.

Gameplay Development:

• Design, prototype, and implement core gameplay systems, mechanics, and interactions.
• Collaborate with game designers and UX researchers to align mechanics with therapeutic design principles.
• Build, maintain and document well-engineered Unity/Unreal Engine code
• Optimise code for mobile performance, stability, and efficiency.

Cross-functional Collaboration:

• When required, work closely with freelancers (such as artists, animators, and audio designers) to bring gameplay experiences to life.
• Participate in playtesting and iterate rapidly based on feedback and player data.
• Work with the CEO and Head of Product in scoping and planning future work for your team, balancing technical and project requirements
• Contribute to and support the technical roadmap of existing and future therapeutic games
• Support with hiring if required

• Strong proficiency in C# and C++ (Engine scripting, object-oriented programming, async operations)
• Solid understanding of REST API logic - able to integrate and debug API calls, handle authentication, and manage data exchange between Unity/Unreal and AWS-based backend services.
• 3 years games industry experience working in a senior capacity
• Strong proficiency in using Unity & Unreal Engine, with knowledge of the latest standards
• Experience in Apple/Google Play/Amazon app store submission
• Passion and interest in mobile games and development
• Performance profiling, optimisation and refactoring experience.
• Well versed in games and able to criticise what is strong/weak about existing games/systems
• Experience in implementing analytics and data hooks into a web service
• Knowledge of integrating 3rd party libraries/APIs: AI, Procedural Geometry, Backend Servers a plus
• Experience of a complete game development lifecycle from pre-production, through to post-release support

Desirable

• Experience of leading a team towards the release of a commercial game project
• Working with LLMs and Gen AI
• Broad gaming experience and a sense for good game design
• An avid gamer with knowledge of games designed for children and young people
• General knowledge of 3D asset creation pipelines and ability to create placeholder meshes and materials for prototyping
• Interest/experience in health technologies is a bonus!, As a diverse team we are keen to receive applications from people of all backgrounds, ages, and types of formal or informal education. All applicants must have the right to work in the UK.

£45,000-£60,000 (Dependent on experience)