Entry-Level Full-Stack Engineer

Jackbox Games • Chicago, IL

8h • Hybrid

About The Position

Jackbox Games is seeking an Entry-Level Full-Stack Engineer to join their team. Jackbox is a mid-sized game studio known for the popular Jackbox Party Pack franchise, releasing five new party games annually, including titles like Quiplash and Trivia Murder Party. Their games have been featured on various media and used by over 200 million users, with phones serving as controllers. The role involves working across the entire stack, from Go services to front-end development. The engineer will be responsible for significant features, including a next-generation streaming platform for real-time interactive content, and will help architect, build, and scale these end-to-end systems.

Requirements

• Less than 2 years of professional software engineering experience across front-end and backend systems
• Strong proficiency in Go for backend/service development
• Hands-on experience designing and querying relational databases (PostgreSQL, MySQL, or similar)
• Proven track record operating live services with high-availability requirements (24/7 uptime, SLAs, on-call)
• Experience building and consuming RESTful APIs and/or gRPC services
• Comfortable working with modern front-end frameworks (Vue, Typescript, NuxtJS)
• Understanding of cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure) and how the SDLC interacts with them
• Strong debugging, profiling, and observability skills (logging, metrics, tracing)

Nice To Haves

• Experience with real-time streaming protocols (WebRTC, HLS, RTMP) or low-latency media delivery
• Experience with message queues and event-driven architectures (Kafka, RabbitMQ)
• Familiarity with infrastructure-as-code tools (Terraform, Pulumi)
• Contributions to open-source projects or a visible engineering presence (blog, talks, classroom projects, etc.)

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and maintain backend services in Go that support both ongoing and future Jackbox Games needs
• Develop front-end features and interfaces that connect to live backend systems, ensuring smooth player-facing experiences
• Own and operate services in a live, always-on production environment including monitoring, incident response, and on-call rotations
• Model and optimize relational database schemas for performance, reliability, and scale
• Collaborate with game teams, designers, and product managers to translate creative ideas into solid technical solutions
• Participate in architecture discussions, code reviews, and continuous improvement of our engineering practices
• Contribute to CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure-as-code, and deployment tooling

Benefits

• 401(k) with matching
• Medical, dental, vision, disability, and life insurance options
• Flexible work schedule and environment
• Office in Lincoln Park in Chicago is open (and fully stocked with snacks) for folks who prefer to work in the office
• Remote work in the following states: California, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin
• Flexible PTO
• Annual stipends for therapy, growth, wellness, and home office equipment
• Creative work environment
• Free food either virtually or in the office (kitchen stocked with snacks, DoorDash credits)

What This Job Offers

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