Job Description
As a member of Big Huge Games, you will be part of a highly skilled and innovative group responsible for creating world-class mobile games. Candidates should combine strong software engineering fundamentals with a passion for building tools that empower other developers, and the ability to work effectively across disciplines. Your work will directly improve how our teams build, test, and ship our games.
As a lead tools engineer, you will work closely with fellow programmers, as well as Art, Design, Production, QA, and Analytics, to design and implement internal tools that improve, simplify, and accelerate our game development process. This role places a strong emphasis on tools development, with build systems and CI/CD pipelines being some of the most critical tools you will own and evolve. We are looking for an engineer who lives and breathes code, enjoys solving workflow problems, and can take ownership of shared systems used across the studio.
Responsibilities
- Lead the design and development of internal tools that support game development, build pipelines, and developer workflows
- Design, implement, and maintain build systems and CI/CD pipelines as first-class tools used daily by the engineering team
- Develop robust, maintainable tools and automation using C#, Python, and Bash
- Gather requirements from engineers and other disciplines, translate them into practical tooling solutions, and iterate based on feedback
- Improve and optimize existing tools, build processes, and pipelines for reliability, performance, and usability
- Work with command-line–driven build systems, including Unity batch mode, Xcode CLI, and similar tooling
- Design and maintain cloud-backed tooling and infrastructure using AWS CDK and CloudFormation where appropriate
- Take ownership of critical shared tools and systems, ensuring they remain stable, well-documented, and easy to evolve
- Provide technical leadership and mentorship to other engineers, particularly around tooling, build systems, and CI/CD best practices.
- Identify systemic workflow or productivity issues and propose well-thought-out tooling solutions
- Participate in and help guide code reviews, architectural discussions, and engineering best practices
- Collaborate with all departments to ensure our tools and systems make teams efficient and our games great
Requirements
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or equivalent engineering track, or equivalent professional experience
- 5+ years of experience in software engineering, tools development, build engineering, or a related role
- Strong software engineering fundamentals, including object-oriented design, algorithms, and data structures
- Professional experience developing internal tools used by other engineers or teams
- Strong knowledge of C#, Python, or similar languages used for tooling and automation
- Hands-on experience designing, implementing, and maintaining CI/CD pipelines in a production environment
- Strong knowledge of Linux and shell environments, including Bash
- Solid understanding of differences between Linux, macOS, and Windows from a tooling and build perspective
- Experience with command-line–based build systems (no front-end / GUI–only workflows)Strong source control knowledge, including Git or Perforce
- Ability to learn, understand, and contribute to a large, established codebase
- Self-sufficient, with the ability to estimate and prioritize work within overall team objectives
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills and strong interpersonal collaboration abilities
Nice to Have
- Advanced Bash scripting and build orchestration experience
- Experience building developer-facing tools with web or service-based components
- Familiarity with AWS services beyond infrastructure-as-code
- Experience optimizing build times and CI/CD throughput at scale
- Familiarity with Unity from a tooling or build perspective
- Experience supporting multi-team or multi-project development environments
- Background in game development or live service operations
$127.80 - $155.50 a year
Our headquarters are located in Timonium, MD. While we prefer MD-based candidates, with mutual agreement, we can accommodate a remote work environment in the United States for candidates from a few approved states.
We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, or assessing responses. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please contact us.
