Engine/Gameplay Architect - UGC / Architecte moteur / gameplay – UGC

NBCUniversal • Montreal, QC

12d • Hybrid

About The Position

We are seeking an Engine/Gameplay Architect to help shape the foundation of user-generated content (UGC) on a large-scale AAA experience built in Unreal Engine. This role sits at the intersection of engine systems, gameplay architecture, and emerging AI-assisted creation workflows. You will define how creators build, extend, and interact with the platform through robust APIs, scalable systems, and intuitive scripting, while enabling AI-driven tooling that lowers the barrier to creation without limiting depth.

Requirements

• Strong experience architecting gameplay or engine systems in C++ within Unreal Engine (or comparable AAA engines)
• Proven experience designing extensible systems, SDKs, or developer platforms used by internal or external creators
• Deep understanding of gameplay architecture, including: Entity Component Systems (ECS) or actor-based models, event-driven architecture / messaging systems, state machines, replication models, and serialization pipelines
• Experience designing and maintaining APIs (C++, REST, or RPC) with a focus on usability, versioning, and backward compatibility
• Hands-on experience with scripting languages and runtimes (e.g. Lua, Python, visual scripting like Blueprints, Verse, or custom DSLs)
• Familiarity with embedding scripting languages and bridging native and managed/runtime code
• Strong understanding of runtime performance optimization (CPU/GPU constraints, memory management, streaming systems, multithreading, async workflows)
• Experience working with large-scale systems (open worlds, World Partitioning, asset streaming, networked/multiplayer environments)
• Knowledge of build systems, CI/CD pipelines, and content validation workflows
• Experience with sandboxing, capability-based security, or safe execution environments for user-authored code
• Comfort working across boundaries: engine, gameplay, backend services, and tools

Nice To Haves

• Experience building or supporting modding or UGC platforms (e.g., level editors, scripting APIs, creator toolchains)
• Exposure to AI/ML-assisted development workflows, including: LLM-powered tools, Agent-based systems, Prompt-driven or natural language interfaces for content creation
• Familiarity with knowledge representation, graph-based systems, or toolchains that enable AI reasoning over game data
• Experience with cloud-integrated game platforms, backend services, or live service ecosystems
• Background in developer experience (DevEx), including tooling, documentation systems, and usability of technical platforms
• Experience designing for other developers, not just for systems
• Ability to balance flexibility with guardrails (power without chaos)
• Comfort making foundational decisions with long-term impact
• Emphasis on usability as much as technical elegance
• Preference for simple mental models, even when systems are complex under the hood

Responsibilities

• Architect the end-to-end UGC framework: data models, runtime systems, and extensibility points
• Design and evolve APIs that expose gameplay systems safely and flexibly to creators
• Define the scripting model (language, runtime) for user-authored content
• Partner with AI/ML teams to enable an AI agent that can generate, modify, and reason about gameplay content
• Establish guardrails: performance budgets, sandboxing, security, and determinism
• Work closely with gameplay, online, and tools teams to ensure cohesion across the platform
• Drive technical direction through prototypes, documentation, and hands-on implementation
• Mentor engineers and influence engineering standards across teams

Benefits

• Equal employment opportunities to all applicants and employees without regard to race, color, religion, creed, gender, gender identity or expression, age, national origin or ancestry, citizenship, disability, sexual orientation, marital status, pregnancy, veteran status, membership in the uniformed services, genetic information, or any other basis protected by applicable law.
• Right to request a reasonable accommodation if you are a qualified individual with a disability or a disabled veteran and require support throughout the application and/or recruitment process as a result of your disability.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: No Education Listed