Pocket Worlds is hiring a

Senior Software Developer (Unity)

Chicago, United States
Full-Time
About Us

Who We Are

Sitting at the intersection of social networking and gaming, we empower creativity and connection in a digital world. Our mission is to build deep, rich virtual worlds where everyone belongs.

We have been working towards this mission for a decade. We are the creators of Highrise, the first virtual world on mobile, which has seen extraordinary growth over the last few years and now boasts over 20 million users across iOS and Android. Every day, the citizens of Highrise come together to hangout, explore, create, collect, and trade in our metaverse, and we are on the precipice of making history once again with our expansion into Highrise World.

Our Purpose

To build creative worlds where you belong.

Our Tech Stack

Client: Unity, C#, iOS (Swift), Android (Kotlin)
Web: Javascript/ Typescript (ES6+), React, Redux, GraphQL
Server: Python, Go, AWS, Kubernetes, Docker, Prometheus, MongoDB, Redis, Elasticsearch, DynamoDB

About this Role

You will be working on the engineering team, reporting to Jimmy Xu. (Please note that if you reach out to Jimmy, they may not reply due to the volume of messages received.)

As a Senior Unity Developer, you will be responsible for designing and building the architecture of the next-gen game engine for Highrise. You will be taking what Highrise is today, with its 20 million users, to the next level by building the game engine that will bring our entire world to life. Along the way, you and your team will be building a 3D world builder and the UGC toolkit for users to craft environments, experiences, and content.

Your Mission

As a part of the team, your mission will be to develop a state-of-the-art game engine for Highrise that pushes the boundaries of innovation.

Key Indicators of Success

  • You will work closely with the Principal Software Engineer on key projects, such as the Highrise game engine, 3D rendering, and World Builder.
  • You will provide technical expertise and share knowledge with other members of the engineering team.
  • You will make a major contribution to the successful launch of Highrise on Unity for players.

What You Will Do

  • You will solve a variety of unique technical challenges.
  • You will have the independence, opportunity, and end-to-end responsibility to design, build, test, and deploy the next-gen game engine and world builder for Highrise.
  • You will be a technical bar-raiser for high code quality, architectural designs, and long-term approaches.
  • You will mentor and develop fellow engineers on the team.
  • You will design systems and services that are scalable and resilient.

What You Can Expect in the First 30 Days

  • You'll make your first major contributions to the codebase, setting you on the path to taking ownership of larger projects.
  • You will help to ship and polish the first version of Highrise on Unity.
  • You'll get to know the team and the company culture.
  • You'll participate in a thorough onboarding process to familiarize yourself with our development process, tools, and projects.
  • You'll start collaborating with other team members on ongoing projects and will get up to speed on the work that has already been done.
  • You'll start taking over the render engine aspect of Highrise and will be encouraged to share your ideas and insights to help us drive innovation.
  • You'll receive regular feedback on your work and will have the opportunity to provide feedback to others.

Who You Are

  • You have excellent communication and collaboration skills.
  • You are self-driven and require little direction to do your best work.
  • You excel in start-up and fast-paced environments, in which you may wear many hats.
  • You have excellent problem-solving skills; you are capable of breaking down complex projects into actionable items and executing them.
  • You know how to lead others, provide guidance, and give actionable feedback.
  • You are committed to continuous learning.

Must Have’s

  • You have exceptional C# design and programming skills with at least 10 years of software programming experience.
  • You must also have at least 4 years of experience in programming with the Unity engine.
  • You have experience architecting, designing, and implementing a wide array of software products.
  • You have experience supporting mission-critical applications at scale.

Nice to Have’s

  • You have experience developing mobile apps for both iOS or Android.
  • You have built any side projects or games outside of work or made significant open-source contributions.
  • You have experience programming in Lua.

Benefits

  • Work from wherever you want, whenever you want. You decide your location and schedule.
  • Meaningful equity in an extremely fast-growing startup.
  • Equipment allowance so you can choose whatever you need to work comfortably.
  • Company-sponsored medical and dental insurance.
  • Unlimited Vacation policy. We know how important taking time off is and we encourage it. Our team takes about 20 days off on average every year.
  • Education stipend. We deeply believe in learning and self-improvement. We've set aside a budget for every employee to learn additional skills and grow.
  • Monthly Fitness Allowance to stay active and take care of your physical health.

Perks

  • Working with a diverse team with people in over 15 countries.
  • You have a voice! We love hearing ideas and want to embrace you for them.
  • Extremely low turnover environment. Over 20% of our team has been here for over 3 years!
  • Coworking space stipend in whichever location you want.
  • Monthly team building budget to get to know your team.
  • Team retreats to meet face-to-face and deepen connection.
  • Bring your pet to work everyday! We love seeing your furry loved ones.

Compensation Philosophy

As a fully remote company, we strive to have an equitable compensation philosophy that allows us to take good care of our people, no matter where they are in the world. At the moment, our philosophy is composed of multiple factors such as market pay, location, performance, and other rewards. Our compensation philosophy is meant to support our organization’s strategic plan and operating objectives — as we continue to grow as a company, so will our approach to compensation.

The salary range for this role is 130,000 -180,000 USD in US and Canada. Salary will be adjusted based on your location.



What its Really Like to Work Here

Our Culture

We are a global team of nearly 100 people right now and rapidly growing. We feel a sense of ownership over our work and take great pride in what we do. We are not afraid to make, and most importantly, admit our mistakes — that allows us to show up authentically and build relationships of trust across the board. We are the scrappy kind, so we try to do more with less, and we love that! If you were to ask our team to describe our culture, they would probably say we are a passionate group of peeps trying to impact the next revolution of the internet.

Our Values

Dream big, then make it real.
Be an owner, make a difference.
Build with humility.
Fast is better than slow.
Keep it scrappy.
Always be learning.

Read more about our values here.
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