Gameplay Engineer

Location: Cambridge, UK – This position offers flexible working options, including predominantly remote work. Applicants are preferably be based (or willing to relocate) within a comfortable commuting distance of our office to attend onsite as required.

Want to build multiplayer gameplay that feels responsive, scalable and genuinely fun to play?

As a Senior Gameplay Engineer on RuneScape: Dragonwilds, you will work hand in hand with designers to bring features to life in Unreal Engine 5, turning ideas and prototypes into polished, shippable gameplay. You will implement, iterate and balance player-facing systems day to day, making sure they feel great to play and stay robust in a large multiplayer environment.

What you'll be doing:

• Own and implement gameplay features in UE5 C++ and Blueprint, using GAS for abilities, attributes, effects, cues and tags, taking an area from prototype to shipped so there is one person accountable for how it plays.
• Design and maintain reusable gameplay frameworks and components aligned with GAS-first patterns, giving designers room to iterate quickly without a programmer in the loop for every change.
• Build networked gameplay that replicates correctly and feels responsive, working with prediction, authority, RPCs and relevancy, because the networking model decides whether gameplay feels good or feels broken.
• Collaborate with designers to iterate on combat, abilities and systems, protecting technical integrity while still landing the version that plays best.
• Debug gameplay issues across client and server, from desyncs and edge cases to live repros, keeping the game stable while the team ships at pace.
• Profile and optimise gameplay code against performance and bandwidth targets so systems hold up as the game and its player counts scale.

What we're looking for:

• Strong Unreal Engine (UE5) gameplay programming experience in C++, with Blueprint familiarity for collaboration and iteration.
• Strong multiplayer networking knowledge in Unreal: replication, RPCs, the authority model, relevancy and dormancy, prediction concepts, and client and server debugging.
• Proven ability to work directly with designers to iterate quickly while keeping implementations scalable and maintainable.
• Experience building and maintaining gameplay systems such as player abilities, combat, progression, items and UI-facing gameplay hooks, with practical Gameplay Ability System experience and a background shipping and supporting live multiplayer games a strong advantage.
• Solid debugging and performance awareness, including profiling gameplay code and diagnosing desyncs and edge cases.