Senior Generalist Engineer (Video Games)
Atari
- Location
- Onsite (Atari - US (Remote) · Implicit Conversions)
- Compensation
- $110k - $130k/yr
- Employment
- Full-time
- Level
- Senior Level
About the Role
Implicit Conversions, a division of Atari, specializes in high-level emulation of classic and retro games. The Senior Generalist Engineer role involves designing and refining emulators to run older titles on modern hardware, reverse engineering legacy engines, and optimizing performance for a global gaming audience.
Skills
Perks
- Remote Work
Full job details
Job Description: Senior Generalist Engineer
About Us
Implicit Conversions specializes in the high-level emulation of classic and retro games, enabling gamers to experience their favorite classics on modern consoles. With a dedication to preserving gaming history, we combine cutting-edge technology and a passion for gaming to revive cherished games from publisher’s back catalogs.
Our portfolio includes games from the Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection, Rayman 30th Anniversary Edition, Fear Effect 1 and 2, Fighting Force Collection, Milano’s Oddjob Collection, Geppy-X and over a hundred more!
Summary
We’re looking for a creative and skilled Sr. Generalist Engineer to join our team and help bring classic games to life on modern hardware. In this role, you’ll design, build, and refine emulators that make older titles run smoothly and accurately on today’s platforms. You will also write tools to support the team workflows. You will also reverse engineer classic games (often with bespoke custom engines) to implement modern quality-of-life enhancements.
You’ll collaborate closely with engineers, producers, and QA to fine-tune performance, ensure compatibility, and deliver a great player experience. Your work will play a key role in preserving and reintroducing classic games for a whole new generation of players.
Responsibilities
- Own the complete lifecycle of our emulators and tools, including development, maintenance, and expansion.
- Maintain our CI/CD pipeline, install new tools, update machines, write and monitor scripts.
- Optimize games to ensure they are performant on target platforms.
- Own the end-to-end process for debugging platform compatibility issues.
- Drive the complete reverse engineering process for games—from patching bugs and replacing media to adding achievements/trophies and modern enhancements.
- Influence the team’s best practices, propose architectural improvements, and technically mentor other engineers.
Requirements
- 5 - 8 years of generalist engineering experience, with a strong interest or background in video game development.
- Strong scripting language skills (Python, Lua, etc.).
- Excellent C/C++ skills and a deep understanding of computer architecture, including CPU/GPU behavior and memory management, threading, and SIMD techniques.
- Experience building and optimizing software across multiple platforms .
- Clear communicator who works well in a remote team and takes initiative when solving problems.
- Experience with static recompilation techniques.
- Hands-on experience with reverse engineering and debugging tools such as Ghidra.
- Genuine passion for retro games and emulation.
Bonus Points
- Experience with game emulation or cross-platform ports (commercial or open source like libretro), including creating modifications/patches for classic games.
- Familiarity with assembly languages (such as x86, ARM, or MIPS) and binary analysis.
- Understanding of modern GPU rendering pipelines (DX12, Metal, Vulkan, etc.)
Target: $110k - $130k