Principal Software Engineer, Narrative Systems

Who We Are

Founded in 2023, Small Axe Studios is 2K’s newest stand-alone studio, built to push the boundaries of game development and bring 2K’s next groundbreaking sports franchise to life. Headquartered in Burnaby, we are assembling a world-class team of visionaries, builders, and passionate gamers who thrive on creative collaboration, technical excellence, and bold ideas. At Small Axe Studios, we believe big things start with sharp focus—and we’re crafting an exceptional, player-first experience from the ground up. If you’re ready to tackle unique challenges, leave your mark on a brand-new IP, and help shape the future of interactive sports entertainment, we want you on our team!

What We Need

We are looking for a Principal Software Engineer, Narrative Systems to own and lead the development of cinematic, narrative, and storytelling technology for our game. In this role, you will partner closely with Design, Animation, Audio and Production to define the technical foundation for emotionally resonant, high-quality, and deeply interactive story moments built in Unreal Engine 5.

You will help establish the architecture for our narrative systems, including cinematic sequencing, scripted events, dialog integration, camera behavior, facial animation workflows, and creator-facing tools. This is a highly collaborative technical leadership role for someone who can move fluidly between engine-level C++ development, content pipeline design, runtime systems, and creative production needs.

The ideal candidate has deep Unreal Engine experience, strong technical judgment, a passion for interactive storytelling, and the ability to lead complex systems from early research through production, polish, and ship.

What You Will Do

• Own and lead the development of narrative systems for the game, including runtime technology, authoring workflows, tool integrations, and long-term technical direction.
• Architect, develop, and maintain cinematic and narrative systems in Unreal Engine 5 that support high-quality story moments, scripted events, branching content, and interactive presentation.
• Extend and customize Unreal Engine systems such as Sequencer, camera frameworks, animation playback, dialog integration, and event-driven scene logic to meet the needs of a large-scale production.
• Partner with Animation, Audio, Level Design, and Gameplay teams to translate creative goals into robust, scalable technical solutions.
• Lead the integration of dialog, facial animation, lip-sync, localization, and performance-driven content into reliable and performant runtime systems.
• Define technical standards and best practices for narrative content creation, cinematic playback, scripted events, and tool development.
• Identify opportunities to improve content creator workflows, reduce iteration time, and increase the quality and reliability of narrative production.
• Research and evaluate new Unreal Engine features, industry techniques, and emerging technologies that could improve our narrative, cinematic, and storytelling toolset.
• Mentor engineers on system design, Unreal Engine development, C++ programming practices, debugging strategies, and production-quality engineering.
• Profile, optimize, and debug narrative, cinematic, camera, dialog, and animation-related systems to ensure stable performance under demanding production conditions.

What Will Make You a Great Fit

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or a related field, or equivalent professional experience.
• 15+ years of professional software engineering experience in games, interactive media, simulation, or related real-time technology.
• Advanced expertise with modern C++ and experience writing clean, maintainable, performance-conscious engine-level code.
• Deep experience developing within Unreal Engine 4 or Unreal Engine 5, with strong familiarity with engine architecture and source-level workflows.
• Demonstrated experience owning complex runtime systems, content creation tools, or production pipelines from initial architecture through delivery.
• Strong understanding of cinematic, narrative, animation, camera, dialog, or scripted event systems in a real-time engine.
• Ability to work closely with creative teams and translate ambiguous artistic, narrative, or design goals into practical technical solutions.
• Ability to explain complex technical concepts to people with varying levels of technical expertise.
• Strong debugging, profiling, and optimization skills.
• Dedicated and self-motivated, with the ability to identify areas for research, development, improvement, and technical risk reduction.
• A strong product sense for interactive storytelling, cinematic presentation, and emotionally engaging player experiences.
• Love for video games and an interest in how narrative, presentation, and interactivity combine to create memorable moments.

Beneficial Qualifications

• Experience developing and shipping high-quality games on Unreal Engine 4 or Unreal Engine 5.
• Experience with branching dialog systems, localization workflows, narrative scripting systems, quest systems, or event-driven scene logic.
• Experience with Unreal Sequencer, MovieScene, Control Rig, animation blueprints, skeletal mesh systems, or procedural animation technologies.
• Experience developing editor tools or content pipelines for Narrative, Cinematics, Animation, Audio, or Level Design teams.
• Experience with facial animation pipelines, lip-sync systems, performance capture, MetaHuman, or other character performance technologies.
• A strong portfolio or shipped-title history demonstrating high-quality cinematic, narrative, or interactive presentation systems.

The pay range for this position in British Columbia at the start of employment is expected to be between CAD $144,200 and CAD $213,375 per year. However, actual pay offered is based on market location and may vary further depending on individualized factors for job candidates, such as job-related knowledge, skills, experience, and other objective business considerations. If hired, the company reserves the right to modify base pay (as well as any other discretionary payment or compensation or benefit program) at any time, including for reasons related to individual performance, company or individual department/team performance, and market factors.

As an equal opportunity employer, we are committed to ensuring that individuals with disabilities are provided suitable accommodations to enjoy equal employment opportunities, including the ability to participate in the job application or interview process. Please contact us if you need an accommodation as part of your application process or otherwise have questions about the Company’s accommodation policy and review process.

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