Engineering Lead

Elsewhere•San Francisco, CA

3d•Remote

About The Position

Elsewhere is hiring an Engineering Lead to write code, build infrastructure, and inform game design for our upcoming game. We’re a venture-backed studio with big ambitions, combining the cutting edge technology of a San Francisco-based AI startup with the soul and creativity of indie games. Our current project combines elements of collectable card games and deckbuilding roguelikes, aiming to ultimately becoming a forever-game that reaches millions of players. As our Engineering Lead, you’ll work closely with our Founder & CEO to build a cross-platform game on web technologies, as well as working directly with our creative team which includes artists, game designers, and more. You’ll be expected to contribute technical as well as game design ideas. This is is a contract-to-hire role. We’d start working together part-time for 2-4 weeks to assess mutual fit. If all goes well, we’d love to bring you on for a full-time salaried role, including benefits.

Requirements

Experience building full-stack web applications using TypeScript, React, Node, and other web technologies.
Experience working with databases, especially relational databases (we use PostgreSQL).
Experience building games, even as indie or side projects.
Eagerness to share rough prototypes and in-progress builds.
A love for games in general. You’re well-versed in everything from modern indie and AAA hits to the old school pioneers that inspired them.

Nice To Haves

Demonstrated ability to multiply productivity using the latest coding agents (eg, Claude Code, OpenAI Codex).
Experience working with creative generative AI tooling and workflows, such as ComfyUI.
Deep knowledge of front-end development and CSS.
Strong product design intuition and knowledge of Figma
Experience working on a small team, ideally in a startup environment.