Senior Generalist Engineer (Video Games)

This position is listed on behalf of a partner company, who manages all applications and next steps. Our partner is looking for a Senior Generalist Engineer (Video Games) based in United States.

This role offers the opportunity to help preserve and modernize classic video games for contemporary platforms. You will design, develop, maintain, and optimize emulators that enable older titles to run accurately and smoothly on modern hardware. The position combines software engineering, reverse engineering, platform compatibility, performance optimization, and internal tooling. You will work closely with engineers, producers, and QA teams to troubleshoot complex technical challenges and deliver polished player experiences. You will also contribute to modern quality-of-life enhancements while helping maintain the technical foundations behind a growing portfolio of classic games. This remote opportunity is ideal for a technically versatile engineer with a passion for retro gaming, emulation, and solving challenging systems-level problems.

• Own the complete lifecycle of emulators and supporting tools, including development, maintenance, optimization, and ongoing expansion.
• Develop and maintain CI/CD pipelines, update development machines and tools, and create and monitor automation scripts.
• Optimize emulated games and supporting software for performance, stability, and compatibility across target platforms.
• Lead the end-to-end debugging and resolution of platform compatibility issues.
• Drive reverse engineering efforts for classic games, including debugging, patching, media replacement, achievements and trophies, and other modern enhancements.
• Develop and maintain technical tools that improve engineering and production workflows.
• Analyze and resolve complex software, hardware, memory, threading, and platform-level issues.
• Contribute to architectural decisions, engineering best practices, and improvements to development processes.
• Provide technical mentorship and guidance to other engineers.
• Collaborate closely with engineering, production, and QA teams to identify issues, evaluate solutions, and deliver high-quality player experiences.

Requirements:

• 5–8 years of generalist software engineering experience, with a strong interest or professional background in video game development.
• Excellent C and C++ programming skills with a deep understanding of computer architecture, including CPU/GPU behavior, memory management, threading, and SIMD techniques.
• Strong scripting skills in languages such as Python, Lua, or similar.
• Experience developing, debugging, and optimizing software across multiple platforms.
• Experience with static recompilation techniques.
• Hands-on experience with reverse engineering and debugging tools such as Ghidra.
• Ability to diagnose complex technical problems and work independently toward practical solutions.
• Strong communication skills and the ability to collaborate effectively within a distributed remote team.
• Proactive mindset with the ability to take ownership of challenging engineering problems.
• Genuine enthusiasm for classic video games, retro gaming, and emulation.
• Experience with game emulation, cross-platform ports, or open-source projects such as libretro is a strong advantage.
• Familiarity with assembly languages including x86, ARM, or MIPS is beneficial.
• Experience with binary analysis and modifying or patching classic games is a plus.
• Understanding of modern GPU rendering technologies such as DirectX 12, Metal, or Vulkan is desirable.

Benefits:

• Target compensation of $110,000–$130,000 annually.
• Fully remote position for U.S.-based professionals.
• Opportunity to work on the preservation and modernization of classic video games.
• Hands-on work across emulation, reverse engineering, systems programming, and cross-platform development.
• Opportunity to contribute to tools and technologies supporting a diverse portfolio of retro games.
• Collaboration with experienced engineers, producers, and QA professionals.
• Technical ownership across emulator development, platform compatibility, performance, and tooling.
• Opportunity to influence engineering practices and mentor other technical team members.
• Work on projects that bring classic games to modern audiences and hardware.