Lead Generalist Programmer at Side in Statesville, NC

Lead Generalist Programmer

North America

Side is a global game development partner helping studios bring games to life across co-development, art, audio, QA, player support, and more. We work alongside developers and publishers to solve production challenges at every stage, from active development through live operations.

We’re looking for a Lead Generalist Programmer to help drive technical delivery across a range of game development engagements. This role is for a senior engineer who is equally comfortable leading people, collaborating with clients, and getting hands-on in code. You should bring strong technical depth in both Unity and Unreal, experience guiding teams through production, and the judgment to move between gameplay systems, tools, optimization, and platform-specific problem solving as projects demand.

What you’ll do

• Lead and mentor engineers across active co-development and game development projects
• Act as a senior technical partner to production, design, art, and client stakeholders
• Contribute hands-on to implementation in Unity and Unreal, depending on project needs
• Architect and review systems across gameplay, tools, UI, integration, optimization, and platform support
• Establish engineering best practices for code quality, performance, maintainability, and delivery
• Help scope work, identify technical risk early, and provide realistic production recommendations
• Support hiring, onboarding, and growth of engineering talent within the team
• Communicate technical tradeoffs clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences
• Partner with internal leadership and external clients to align technical execution with project goals

What we’re looking for

• 5+ years of professional game programming experience
• Experience leading or mentoring engineers in a production environment
• Strong hands-on development experience in both Unity and Unreal Engine
• Strong coding skills in C# and C++
• Experience shipping games or major features on at least one of the following: PC, console, or mobile
• Deep understanding of game architecture, pipelines, debugging, profiling, and optimization
• Ability to work across multiple gameplay-adjacent domains such as gameplay systems, UI, animation systems, tooling, or integration
• Strong understanding of technical risk, production tradeoffs, and scalable engineering practices
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to work directly with clients, partners, and cross-functional teams

Nice to have

• Experience in a co-development, outsourcing, or service-based studio environment
• Experience with console development and certification constraints
• Familiarity with backend or online systems integration
• Experience building internal tools and workflows for designers, artists, or production teams
• Exposure to AWS, CI/CD pipelines, or live-service workflows
• Experience helping scope projects, write technical proposals, or support business development conversations

This will be a contract role to start with the intent to convert to perm.