Expression of Interest: Senior / Intermediate Software Engineer (Unreal Engine 5 Rendering)

Blackbird Interactive is a creative-fueled, future-driven, independent game studio where the best talent in the industry can find long-term careers to help grow their abilities while working on a wide range of projects, which encompass world-class IPs as well as our own creations across multiple genres.

In 2022, we announced that our studio is implementing a  four-day work week as well as supporting in-studio, remote within Canada, and hybrid work arrangements as permanent options to our employees.

We are building a talent pool for future Rendering Engineers (intermediate or senior) to help build and optimize a visually ambitious UE5 title. You will work across real-time rendering systems and content pipelines with a focus on Nanite, Lumen, and World Partition. Console experience (PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Switch 2) is a major bonus. This role is remote-friendly in Canada (Pacific-time overlap required).

What You’ll Tackle

• Own and evolve rendering features and performance for a UE5 project across PC and consoles.
• Drive visual quality and scalability using UE5’s modern rendering stack, including Nanite, Lumen, virtual shadow maps, and temporal upscaling.
• Profile and optimize GPU and CPU frame time, frame pacing, and hitching using Unreal Insights and rendering capture and analysis tools.
• Partner with art and tech art to define content constraints and best practices for performance-friendly assets, materials, and lighting.
• Support large-world production with World Partition, including streaming strategy, HLOD workflows, and memory behavior.
• Diagnose and resolve visual artifacts and stability issues, such as lighting/shadow issues, temporal instability, and rendering regressions.
• Contribute to rendering-related tooling and workflows, such as debug views, performance reporting, and validation checks.
• Provide clear technical communication to production and stakeholders on constraints, trade-offs, and risk.

You’ll Thrive Here If You

• 4+ years of professional game development experience (we are hiring at both intermediate and senior levels; title/level will match experience).Strong Unreal Engine 5 (or UE4 plus meaningful UE5 experience) and modern C++ skills.
• Solid understanding of real-time rendering fundamentals, including lighting, shadows, materials, post-processing, and temporal techniques.
• Demonstrated experience improving performance and stability in a production environment.
• Comfortable collaborating with cross-disciplinary partners to align visual targets with platform budgets.
• Ability to take ownership, deliver maintainable solutions, and contribute constructively to team standards.

Bonus XP

• Shipped at least one title on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, or Nintendo hardware, especially with rendering and performance responsibility.
• Hands-on experience shipping with Nanite and Lumen, including scalability strategies and artifact mitigation.
• Experience with World Partition and large-world streaming and HLOD pipelines.
• Familiarity with Niagara and real-time VFX performance considerations.
• Experience with platform GPU profiling and capture workflows (for example RenderDoc, PIX, and equivalent console tooling).Experience building rendering or performance tooling that improves team velocity and regression detection.

$110,000 - $155,000 a year

Interested in connecting? Please submit an application, letting us know when you’re next available. From there, if your profile is a good match, we will be in touch with more information.