Senior Rendering Software Engineer

Who We Are

Founded in 2023, Small Axe Studios is 2K’s newest stand-alone studio, built to push the boundaries of game development and bring 2K’s next groundbreaking sports franchise to life. Headquartered in Burnaby, we are assembling a world-class team of visionaries, builders, and passionate gamers who thrive on creative collaboration, technical excellence, and bold ideas. At Small Axe Studios, we believe big things start with sharp focus—and we’re crafting an exceptional, player-first experience from the ground up. If you’re ready to tackle unique challenges, leave your mark on a brand-new IP, and help shape the future of interactive sports entertainment, we want you on our team!

What We Need

Our studio is looking for an experienced Senior Rendering Engineer who sets a high quality bar, pushes the boundaries of real-time visuals, and is excited to help build the next major sports franchise in our industry.

You will work closely with engineers, artists, technical artists, designers, and producers to deliver spectacular, performant visual experiences for a world-class sports simulation game. This is a senior individual contributor role with opportunities to provide technical ownership, mentorship, and architectural direction.

What You Will Do:

• Design, implement, optimize, and maintain real-time rendering systems and features in Unreal Engine.
• Own features from R&D and prototyping through production, balancing visual quality, workflow, performance, memory, and maintainability.
• Collaborate with artists, technical artists, designers, and engineers to deliver high-quality rendering features and efficient content workflows.
• Build and support tools, pipelines, and workflows that help art teams deliver high-quality assets into the game.
• Optimize rendering systems for current-generation consoles and high-end PCs, including GPU, CPU, memory, and scalability considerations.
• Champion visual quality while ensuring features meet performance targets across gameplay, cinematics, presentation, characters, crowds, stadiums, lighting, VFX, and environments.
• Create and review technical designs for rendering systems, features, architecture, tools, and workflows.
• Mentor other rendering engineers and contribute to a positive, healthy team culture.
• Share informed opinions on the broader game experience and help the team make decisions that are best for the game

What Will Make You a Great Fit:

• 5+ years of professional game development experience building and shipping high-quality rendering features.
• Demonstrated ability to deliver AAA-quality rendering features on commercially shipped games in a senior or equivalent rendering role.
• Strong Unreal Engine experience, with an ability to implement features while avoiding unnecessary long-term engine divergence.
• Experience owning and optimizing core rendering systems, visual features, and asset delivery pipelines.
• Deep understanding of current-generation console constraints, including GPU profiling, memory budgets, frame-time analysis, platform-specific optimization, and scalability.
• Strong 3D math skills and knowledge of real-time rendering algorithms.
• Experience with PBR materials, shader development, lighting, post-processing, GPU optimization, and CPU-side rendering performance.
• Experience with environment rendering, character rendering, advanced lighting, VFX, particle systems, or related graphics features.
• Strong cross-disciplinary collaboration skills and the ability to communicate technical tradeoffs clearly.
• Passion for making games and delivering high-quality player experiences

Beneficial Qualifications

• Experience with UE5 Nanite and Lumen, or a deep understanding of similar virtualized geometry, global illumination, and real-time lighting technologies.
• Experience with crowd-heavy, or character-heavy games.
• Passion for playing and/or watching sports.

The pay range for this position in British Columbia at the start of employment is expected to be between CAD $99,800 and CAD $147,680 per year. However, base pay offered is based on market location, and may vary further depending on individualized factors for job candidates, such as job-related knowledge, skills, experience, and other objective business considerations. Subject to those same considerations, the total compensation package for employees in regular roles may also include other elements, including a bonus and/or equity awards, in addition to a full range of medical, financial, and/or other benefits, provided that temporary or intern roles will not be eligible for many of these payments or benefits. Details of participation in compensation and benefit plans (if applicable) will be provided if an employee receives an offer of employment.

As an equal opportunity employer, we are committed to ensuring that individuals with disabilities are provided suitable accommodations to enjoy equal employment opportunities, including the ability to participate in the job application or interview process. Please contact us if you need an accommodation as part of your application process or otherwise have questions about the Company’s accommodation policy and review process.

Please note that 2K Games and its studios never uses instant messaging apps or personal email accounts to contact prospective employees or conduct interviews, and when emailing, we only use 2K.com accounts.

5+ years of professional game development experience building and shipping high-quality rendering features. Demonstrated ability to deliver AAA-quality rendering features on commercially shipped games in a senior or equivalent rendering role. Strong Unreal Engine experience, with an ability to implement features while avoiding unnecessary long-term engine divergence. Experience owning and optimizing core rendering systems, visual features, and asset delivery pipelines. Deep understanding of current-generation console constraints, including GPU profiling, memory budgets, frame-time analysis, platform-specific optimization, and scalability. Strong 3D math skills and knowledge of real-time rendering algorithms. Experience with PBR materials, shader development, lighting, post-processing, GPU optimization, and CPU-side rendering performance. Experience with environment rendering, character rendering, advanced lighting, VFX, particle systems, or related graphics features. Strong cross-disciplinary collaboration skills and the ability to communicate technical tradeoffs clearly.