Senior Programmer

Job Posting — Senior Programmer

Date posted: July 2026
Pay: £75,000.00 - £95,000.00 per year
Job description: Senior Programmer
Status: Accepting applications — awaiting seed funding close before formal offers
Company: Vector Studios Limited
Location: United Kingdom
Work arrangement: On-site, full-time
Salary: Competitive (based on experience)
Benefits: On-site parking, company pension, sick pay, team lunch and snack days, travel season ticket loan
Start date: Month 1 of seed funding

About the Role

You will join the core engineering team building a large-scale real-time strategy game. As a senior programmer, you will own major systems, mentor junior team members, and help shape the architecture of a custom engine built for stability, consistency and performance under heavy load.

You will work across gameplay systems, networking, tools and engine infrastructure. This is a hands-on role for someone who can design, implement and ship complex systems from start to finish.

This is not:

• Front-end web development or business applications
• Blueprint-only scripting without engine-level understanding
• Lightweight mobile or hyper-casual game development

This is:

• Hardcore systems programming for a large-scale PC game
• Ownership of major engine or gameplay systems
• Performance-critical code running under heavy load
• Simulation, networking, rendering integration and tools
• Problem-solving at the intersection of mathematics, memory layout and parallel execution

Quality benchmark: You should have shipped multiple titles at recognised studios and be comfortable leading the design of complex C# or C++ systems. We are looking for engineers who think in terms of throughput, correctness and long-term maintainability.

Relevant reference titles: Supreme Commander, Sins of a Solar Empire, StarCraft, Factorio, Dyson Sphere Program — games where scale, persistence and simulation consistency matter.

Responsibilities

• Design, implement and own major gameplay, simulation and engine systems
• Profile and optimise CPU, memory and network performance across the codebase
• Lead architecture decisions for simulation, networking and tools
• Mentor and review code from junior and mid-level programmers
• Build internal tools for design, content and QA workflows
• Contribute to multiplayer netcode and server infrastructure
• Establish coding standards, documentation and code review practices
• Solve hard problems involving large datasets, concurrency and numerical precision

Requirements

Essential:

• 7+ years professional programming experience in the games industry
• Multiple shipped titles from recognised game studios
• Expert knowledge of C#; strong C++ experience is a significant plus
• Deep understanding of game engine architecture
• Extensive experience with performance profiling and optimisation
• Strong debugging skills in complex, multi-system codebases
• Solid understanding of memory management, data-oriented design and threading
• Experience mentoring other programmers and leading technical decisions
• UK-based or willing to relocate

Desirable:

• Experience with Unity or Unreal Engine
• Degree in Computer Science, Mathematics, Physics or related field
• Strong mathematical background, especially linear algebra, geometry and numerical methods
• Experience with consistent simulation, lockstep multiplayer or replay systems
• Graphics programming, rendering pipelines or shader experience
• Networking and multiplayer server experience
• Build systems, CI/CD and tooling experience
• Version control expertise (Git or Perforce)

What to Include in Your Application

• CV with project history and shipped titles
• Portfolio or code samples (GitHub, personal site, or shared repository)
• Brief technical response: describe the most challenging performance or consistency problem you have solved in a shipped game and how you approached it
• Short technical submission: provide pseudocode and a short explanation describing how you would design and implement a major RTS system (for example: unit selection, pathfinding, order queues, fog of war, or resource management). Include your reasoning for the data structures, performance considerations and how the system scales.
• References from previous studios or leads

How to Apply

Email: careers@vectorstudios.space
Subject line: Senior Programmer — [Your Name]

Note: This position is contingent on the close of our seed funding round. We are interviewing now to ensure a prompt start upon funding confirmation.

Benefits:

• Company pension
• Discounted or free food
• On-site parking
• Sick pay

Work Location: In person

Pay: £75,000.00-£95,000.00 per year

Benefits:

• Company pension
• Discounted or free food
• On-site parking
• Sick pay

Work Location: In person