Lead Gameplay Engineer – Unreal Engine 5 / C++

Hudson's Studio is an independent game studio based in Vancouver, BC, developing a dark fantasy, story-driven action RPG built in Unreal Engine 5.
We are looking for an experienced Lead Gameplay Engineer / Unreal Engine Technical Lead to help establish the programming architecture and technical foundation of the project.
Divine Order is being developed as a focused AA-scale, single-player experience with an emphasis on responsive melee combat, memorable boss encounters, cinematic storytelling, handcrafted environments, and a world inspired by Slavic and Eastern European mythology.
This is an important early-stage role working directly with the Founder and Lead Designer to translate the game's creative vision into scalable, maintainable gameplay systems.
What You'll Do
• Design and establish the overall Unreal Engine 5 gameplay architecture for Divine Order.
• Develop core gameplay systems using C++ and Blueprints.
• Architect the project's combat framework, including melee attacks, combos, blocking, parrying, dodging, targeting, damage, hit reactions, executions, abilities, and player states.
• Build scalable systems for player characters, enemies, bosses, AI, abilities, interactions, checkpoints, progression, and other core gameplay features.
• Determine where systems should be implemented in C++, Blueprints, Data Assets, Gameplay Tags, Gameplay Ability System or other Unreal frameworks.
• Develop clean interfaces between gameplay, animation, AI, VFX, audio and cinematic systems.
• Work closely with the Lead Designer to rapidly prototype, test and iterate on combat mechanics and player movement.
• Establish coding standards, naming conventions, project structure, documentation and technical best practices.
• Design systems that can grow from the initial playable demo into full production without requiring major architectural rewrites.
• Profile, debug and optimize gameplay systems for PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series platforms.
• Help establish source-control and development workflows for a growing development team.
• Review technical approaches and help evaluate future programmers, contractors and technical partners as the studio grows.
What We're Looking For
• Strong professional experience developing games with Unreal Engine 5 or Unreal Engine 4.
• Advanced knowledge of C++ within Unreal Engine.
• Strong understanding of Unreal's gameplay framework, including Actors, Components, Pawns, Characters, Controllers, Game Modes, Interfaces, Delegates and Subsystems.
• Experience architecting maintainable and modular gameplay systems.
• Strong understanding of character movement, animation systems, state machines and gameplay-to-animation communication.
• Experience developing third-person action gameplay.
• Strong understanding of combat systems, collision, traces, damage handling, hit detection and gameplay state management.
• Experience working with Unreal Engine AI systems such as Behavior Trees, EQS, AI Controllers and/or State Trees.
• Understanding of performance profiling, optimization and memory considerations.
• Comfortable working in an early-stage environment where systems are being designed from the ground up.
• Able to work closely with designers and turn high-level gameplay concepts into practical technical solutions.
• Strong communication and documentation skills.
Nice to Have
• Experience on a shipped third-person action game, action RPG or melee combat game.
• Experience with Unreal Engine's Gameplay Ability System (GAS) and Gameplay Tags.
• Experience building sophisticated melee combat, parry, dodge, execution or boss-fight systems.
• Experience integrating motion matching, animation montages, root motion, IK and Control Rig.
• Experience creating custom Unreal Editor tools to improve designer workflows.
• Experience developing for PlayStation and Xbox.
• Experience with Git/Git LFS and/or Perforce.
• Experience helping build the technical foundation of a project during pre-production.
About Divine Order
Divine Order is a focused 15–20 hour single-player action RPG centered around a warrior descending into a dark supernatural world in an attempt to save the soul of the woman he loves.
Our goal is to combine:
• Weighty, responsive melee combat
• Skill-based parrying and dodging
• Cinematic boss encounters
• Strong narrative and character development
• Dense handcrafted environments
• Slavic and Eastern European mythology
• Gothic dark-fantasy atmosphere
Combat feel and boss encounters are at the heart of the project.
We are intentionally building Divine Order as a focused AA experience rather than attempting to create an oversized open-world game.
The Opportunity
This is an opportunity to join Hudson's Studio during the foundation of the project and have a significant influence over how the game is technically built.
You won't simply be implementing a predetermined specification. You will work directly with the Founder and Lead Designer to determine how the game's core systems should be architected, built and scaled into production.
Our immediate goal is to establish the game's technical foundation and develop a highly polished playable vertical slice demonstrating the core combat experience, player movement, enemy encounters and boss gameplay.
If you have strong Unreal Engine/C++ experience and enjoy building gameplay systems from the ground up, we'd love to hear from you.
Please include examples of shipped games, Unreal Engine projects, gameplay systems, GitHub repositories, technical breakdowns or portfolio work where possible.

Work arrangement
Yes