Supermassive Games Ltd
Technical Director
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Supermassive Games
Supermassive Games have produced some of the most recognisable and compelling storytelling titles in the world of AAA games. The BAFTA-winning Until Dawn, the cinematic masterclass of The Dark Pictures Anthology, the multi-award winning The Quarry, the action-packed rollercoaster horror VR titles Switchback VR and Rush of Blood to the world of Little Nightmares, and many more!
We're looking for a Technical Director to join us here at Supermassive Games.
About us
We're a studio of around 170 people based in Guildford, part of the Nordisk Film group. The games we make matter to us deeply - and so do the people who make them. We're committed to being an inclusive employer where everyone feels able to bring their whole self to work. We celebrate what makes people different, and we actively want fresh thinking and new perspectives. If you see things differently, that's a reason to apply.
The role
This is a project-level Technical Director role, reporting into the Creative Director and Executive Producer of your project, with a dotted line into our Studio Technical Director. Working closely with the wider Direction and Production team, you'll be responsible for making sure the technology we build actively serves and enables the creative vision for the project. You'll provide technical direction and leadership across the project: shaping the technical vision, owning the health of the codebase, and working with production to identify and manage technical risk.
You will be leading, mentoring, and influencing the technical members of the team - setting standards, building capability, and helping people do their best work. This is primarily a leadership and direction role, but we're a small team, so you'll need to stay close to the code. We're looking for someone who can lead a team but is still close enough to the work to engage with it meaningfully.
We're open to candidates at different stages of their TD journey. You might already be in a TD role, or you may have led a sub-team, a large engineering team, or a specialist group such as AI, graphics, or tools, and are ready to take on broader technical ownership at project level. We're looking for great technical collaborators, with good instincts for how to lead a team to deliver robust technical solutions, and a genuine appetite to grow into the full scope of the role.
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What you'll be doing
- Define and communicate the technical goals for the project, in line with creative and production goals, translating those goals into practical technical plans and priorities.
- Work with the programming team to find pragmatic, well-considered technical solutions - helping to guide architectural decisions and making sure those solutions are appropriate and robust.
- Develop the project's technical performance strategy across platforms, defining budgets and making sure performance standards are met at every stage of production.
- Help advise production planning with accurate scoping input, early identification of technical risk, and clear contribution to milestone planning.
- Maintain high standards of code quality, architecture, and engineering practice across the programming team through meaningful technical review and clear direction.
- Stay engaged with the evolution of Unreal Engine, evaluating new capabilities against production readiness and helping the team make the most of new features.
- Help create an environment where engineers at every level can contribute effectively and do their best work.
What we're looking for
There's no fixed checklist here. We care more about the quality of your experience than the quantity, and we're happy to talk to candidates who don't tick every box. That said, here's what a strong candidate looks like:
- Significant professional programming experience across game development, with a track record of delivering features through multiple phases of production. We're not setting a minimum number of shipped titles - experience on projects that didn't ship, or in adjacent areas of the industry, counts.
- Hands-on knowledge of Unreal Engine 5 and broad familiarity with technical concepts across game development.
- Strong C++ skills, with a solid understanding of software architecture, design patterns, and code quality principles.
- Experience in a multi-platform setting, including GPU/CPU profiling, optimisation, and working through common performance challenges.
- Experience mentoring or developing other engineers - offering technical steer, reviewing code, and giving constructive feedback that genuinely helps people grow.
- Comfortable having difficult conversations - whether pushing back on a technical decision, flagging risk early, or working through disagreement with a creative collaborator - and approaching them constructively rather than avoiding them.
- Clear communication skills and the ability to work across disciplines, including with non-technical colleagues. Able to translate technical constraints into something a CD or Producer can actually work with.
- Able to build trust across a team - technically credible, honest about uncertainty, and consistent enough that people know where they stand.
- Calm, practical problem-solving under pressure, with the ability to make good decisions when things are ambiguous or moving fast.
- Curiosity and a genuine interest in learning and growing. We want someone who will help shape what this role looks like at SMG, not just fill a template.
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Why join us?
- 25 Days Annual Leave (3 of which are used when we close the studio for our end of year break)
- Private Medical Insurance (BUPA)
- Medicash assistance (Including dental and optician support)
- Life Assurance (6 x annual salary)
- Pension Scheme
- Employee Assistance Programme
- Income Protection
- Enhanced Family Leave (maternity and paternity pay)
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