Senior Gameplay Software Engineer - EA SPORTS™ NHL

EA SPORTS™ is one of the most iconic brands in entertainment – connecting hundreds of millions around the world to the sports they love through a portfolio of industry-leading video games

EA SPORTS™ NHL has revolutionized sports gaming for millions of players worldwide. We’ve pioneered award-winning creative technology and experiences to connect players to the speed, skill, and heart of the NHL.

The EA SPORTS™ NHL franchise is founded on passion and new ideas. Located in Vancouver, British Columbia, the team is composed of diverse talent dedicated to creating on-ice experiences that connect gamers around the world through play. If you're a creative pioneer with a passion for your craft, this will be more than a job. It’ll be what you love. 

We are looking for an experienced Senior Gameplay Engineer to join our team in Vancouver and help craft the next generation of on-ice gameplay. In this role, you will be a core architect of the moment-to-moment hockey experience - driving how skating physics, puck dynamics, player control, body checks, and spatial team AI come to life. Working at the intersection of complex physics, rapid controls, and creative game design, you will collaborate with designers, animators, and technical leaders to deliver responsive, realistic, and exhilarating gameplay.

Your Responsibilities:

• Architect & Build On-Ice Systems: Design, implement, and optimize core gameplay systems, including player movement/skating physics, stick handling, puck trajectory, collision dynamics, and team AI behaviors.

• Cross-Discipline Collaboration: Partner closely with game designers, animators, producers, and audio engineers to translate hockey systems and creative concepts into polished gameplay mechanics.

• Engine & Performance Optimization: Write clean, modular, and highly performant C++ code, taking ownership of memory management, multi-threading, and frame-rate optimization for modern console hardware.

• Integrate Emerging Tech & AI: Explore and integrate emerging AI techniques, automated testing tools, and dynamic behavior models to elevate on-ice intelligence and streamline team workflows.

• Developer Tools & Workflows: Build and support internal tools, debug utilities, and editor extensions to empower designers and animators to iterate quickly.

• Tune & Polish Gameplay: Iterate continuously on responsiveness, stick control, animation transitions, and hit reaction physics to ensure maximum feel, precision, and player satisfaction.

• Mentorship & Engineering Excellence: Guide and mentor mid-level and junior engineers, advocating for software architecture best practices, thorough code reviews, and high technical standards.

Your Qualifications:

At EA, we know that great talent comes from diverse backgrounds. You don’t need to meet 100% of the listed requirements to be a great fit for this role. If you meet most of these qualifications and are excited about building world-class gameplay, we strongly encourage you to apply!

• Experience: 5+ years of professional game development experience, with a proven track record of shipping title(s) or building core gameplay/physics systems.

• Core Technical Skills:

  • Advanced proficiency in C++ and object-oriented software engineering.

  • Strong foundation in 3D math (vectors, matrices, quaternions), physics simulation, data structures, and algorithms.

  • Experience with multi-threaded architecture, memory optimization, and performance profiling tools.

• Gameplay Systems Expertise: Deep understanding of character movement, animation blending/state machines, spatial AI, or real-time physics interactions.

• Innovation Mindset: Demonstrated interest or experience in leveraging AI tools, modern automation, and workflow optimizations in game development.

• Collaboration & Communication: Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to explain complex technical concepts to non-technical disciplines.

• Education: Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or equivalent practical experience.

Nice to Haves:

• Direct experience developing for current-generation consoles (PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S).

• Passion for hockey, ice sports, or sports gaming titles.

• Knowledge of dynamic character physics, cloth/equipment simulation, or procedural animation techniques.

• Familiarity with Perforce, Git, or modern continuous integration pipelines.

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