Principal Software Engineer, Narrative Sytems (Unreal Engine)

Location: Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada

Salary: CAD $144,200–$213,375 per year

Company

Small Axe Studios is a stand-alone hirify.global game studio founded in 2023, developing a new sports franchise and player-focused interactive entertainment experience.

What you will do

• Own the technical direction and development of narrative systems, runtime technology, authoring workflows, and creator-facing tools.
• Architect and maintain cinematic and storytelling systems in Unreal Engine 5 for scripted events, branching content, and interactive presentation.
• Extend Unreal Engine systems including Sequencer, camera frameworks, animation playback, dialog integration, and event-driven scene logic.
• Partner with Animation, Audio, Level Design, Gameplay, Design, and Production teams to translate creative goals into scalable technical solutions.
• Integrate dialog, facial animation, lip-sync, localization, and performance-driven content into reliable runtime systems.
• Profile, debug, optimize, and improve narrative and cinematic systems while mentoring engineers and establishing production standards.

Requirements

• 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 modern C++ skills and experience writing clean, maintainable, performance-conscious engine-level code.
• Deep Unreal Engine 4 or 5 experience, including familiarity with engine architecture and source-level workflows.
• Experience owning complex runtime systems, content creation tools, or production pipelines from architecture through delivery.
• Strong debugging, profiling, optimization, technical communication, and collaboration skills.

Nice to have

• Experience shipping high-quality games on Unreal Engine 4 or 5.
• Experience with branching dialog, localization, narrative scripting, quest systems, or event-driven scene logic.
• Experience with Sequencer, MovieScene, Control Rig, animation blueprints, skeletal mesh systems, or procedural animation.
• Experience developing editor tools and content pipelines for narrative, cinematics, animation, audio, or level design teams.
• Experience with facial animation, lip-sync, performance capture, MetaHuman, or other character performance technologies.

Culture & Benefits

• Collaborative environment spanning creative, technical, and production disciplines.
• Opportunity to help build a brand-new sports game IP from the ground up.
• Work focused on technical excellence, creative collaboration, and interactive storytelling.
• Reasonable accommodations are available during the application and interview process.