Director, Gameplay Engineering

Walt Disney Games

Walt Disney Games is looking for a uniquely talented Director, Gameplay Engineering to join us on an ambitious and exciting new project. If you are a creative gameplay technologist with superb leadership skills, and have a love of Disney/Pixar, Star Wars and Marvel properties, you’ll want to check out this opportunity! We are building an experienced leadership team that will set the direction for a groundbreaking game experience that will herald the next generation of Disney to the world. Working with top-class industry talent, this role is perfect for the seasoned visionary leader looking to create something epic - guiding and collaborating with a robust group of developers focusing on individual experiences to create a wonderfully rich and cohesive product that is truly “Disney”.

In this role, you will…

• Define, drive, and oversee the gameplay technology direction for several interactive games and experiences based on Disney’s robust portfolio of characters and worlds including Disney/Pixar, Marvel and Star Wars.

• Serve as a key member of a core project leadership team at Disney, providing crucial direction and steering the development across multiple groups.

• Collaborate with the central tech team to identify and define the technological requirements for seamlessly integrating multiple experiences into a cohesive Disney environment.

• Engage with other technology partners while leading an internal team to create the technology to support high-quality gameplay, systems, and player interaction across the entire experience.

• Build and rally a gameplay-focused engineering team to achieve their best, while having lots of fun along the way!

• Set coding and performance standards, and review all technical designs and functional implementations, ensuring that they meet our brand and quality standards and serve the overall project.

• Champion the gameplay technology vision for the project within Disney, working with various internal and external partners to bring our content to life within the game experience.

You’d be great for this role because you…

• Possess a broad and deep understanding of the art and science of high-quality game development, including familiarity with various technologies, methodologies, prototyping approaches, tools, and how to work with the different disciplines to iteratively build engaging content.

• Excel at partnering and collaborating with key stakeholders, especially game designers, working through challenging problems and reaching consensus to achieve great things.

• Led the creation and release of a successful AAA game in a Technical Direction role and have familiarity with releasing products on various gaming platforms – Console/PC and Mobile.

• Understand how to utilize the Unreal engine and development pipelines to bring a game vision to life. Experience with UEFN and the Verse programming language is a definite plus.

• Demonstrate exceptional gameplay technology knowledge and judgment; experience guiding a compelling gameplay vision to reality.

• Inspire passion and creativity in others with motivational and supportive leadership.

• Enjoy creative problem-solving and building something new and innovative.

• Provide clear and concise direction, mentoring, feedback, and guidance.

• Value building an inclusive and positive team culture.

• Balance the needs of gameplay implementation with performance, visual targets, schedule and various audience requirements.

• Know how to push past perceived boundaries and limitations while never losing sight of the big picture and ultimate goal.

During your game development career, the key requirements you have achieved include…

• A Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or equivalent combination of education and experience.

• 10+ years of experience specifically in product development/production of console/mobile/PC games or other digital interactive entertainment.

• 5+ years of experience managing teams.

The hiring range for this position in Glendale, CA is $199,000 to $266,800.00 per year. The base pay actually offered will take into account internal equity and also may vary depending on the candidate’s geographic region, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience among other factors. A bonus and/or long-term incentive units may be provided as part of the compensation package, in addition to the full range of medical, financial, and/or other benefits, dependent on the level and position offered.