Lead Programmer

A Bit About Us

Gamemode One is a self‑funded, values‑driven studio with roots in Minecraft and growing ambitions beyond. We care deeply about our people‑first culture that enables our best work.

We're building a small, talent‑dense team for an ambitious physics‑based indie game in Unity; A chaotic sandbox adventure with strong moment-to-moment feel.

The Opportunity

As Lead Programmer, you'll be a key player in carrying our unannounced indie title from production to release as we work toward PC Early Access in early 2027 (and a console‑bound 1.0). You'll build and ship gameplay, systems, and tools in Unity/C#, while rallying the programming team to realize the game's direction.

This is a physics‑based game built by a small team. You'll guide the team across challenging gameplay and systems work, and you'll help ensure our codebase remains stable, readable, and performant as the project scales. You'll also step up early as a team leader: owning the technical roadmap, advocating for engineering needs, improving code quality and technical documentation, and accelerating a small team of existing programmers.

What do we mean when we say 'Lead'?

This role is listed at a Lead level. For us, that means you are accountable for the success of the programming team, not just your own output.

You bring strong technical judgment, you communicate clearly, and you can guide a small team through ambiguity. You make informed bets in the best interest of the project, and you raise the bar for quality and maintainability.

You'll succeed here if you are both a strong builder and a strong leader:

• You take on complex problems proactively
• You maintain technical clarity across the project
• You unblock others and help the team ship
• You help programmers stay focused on what matters
• You mentor and accelerate programmer growth

Within 1 Month you'll…

• Build relationships with your peers through 1:1 meetings, to understand the collaboration between your roles. Begin planning for how you will work together and support each other's goals.
• Fully onboard to the team's workflows, tools, and version control practices and identify early areas for improvement.
• Build a working understanding of the project's current technical architecture, the team's constraints, and the near‑term milestone priorities. Identify high-risk areas in the codebase.
• Start contributing hands‑on in Unity/C# with a focus on learning about the existing programming patterns, best practices, and quality bar.
• Demonstrate cultural understanding and values alignment by leveraging inquisitiveness and courage while learning about the company

Within 3 Months you'll…

• Lead the programming team in thoroughly evaluating and improving the project's technical architecture. Identify and action areas of ambiguity in the project's technical direction, and build lightweight documentation where it is missing.
• Lead the development of a technical roadmap. Map out key technical decisions and draft a plan to progress the project's codebase towards a shippable state. Lead risk evaluation, time budgeting, and making support-related needs visible (time, tools, or staffing).
• Take ownership of a technically demanding feature: conduct research, build the initial implementation, and create the architecture and documentation needed for other programmers to build on your work.
• Step into people leadership: set clear expectations with direct reports, create feedback rhythms, and co-author a hiring pipeline with HR so the team can act opportunistically.
• Partner with production on scope: provide engineering context, propose options, and guide compromises that preserve quality and schedule.

Within 6 Months you'll…

• Support the programming team with clear technical direction through production ramp-up: unblock work, clarify ownership, and maintain momentum through ambiguity.
• Keep the codebase shippable as it scales: enforce a consistent quality bar through reviews, standards, and targeted improvements to architecture, systems, tooling, and documentation.
• Establish a predictable build + integration rhythm, define what "shippable" means, and ensure releases can be assembled and validated.
• Establish yourself as a reliable pillar of strategic programming leadership across the studio: scale mentorship through communities of practice and encourage knowledge-sharing across teams and engines.

Within 12 Months you'll…

• Operate as the clear technical leader for the project: own key technical decisions, ensure follow‑through, and keep the team moving through complex problems.
• Lead and scale the programming team: manage direct reports well, maintain a consistent bar for performance and craft, and ensure hiring/onboarding supports the roadmap.
• Ensure the programming team is set up to ship: maintain build stability and release readiness, and guide the team's upskilling toward launch.
• Prepare the project for the road beyond Early Access: establish a sustainable update cadence, clarify what "Early Access" vs "1.0" means for this project, and implement ownership and release processes that let the team ship without bottlenecking on the lead.

Why our job descriptions look like this

Our job descriptions look different than the average, and that's on purpose We find the normal approach to be far too prescriptive. Defining explicit qualifications and requirements would be us defining how you should have acquired a certain skillset. What these generally achieve is intimidating those who don't fit the mold to not apply. That's not our style. In an effort to be inclusive, and clear, we take a more descriptive approach. Read through the opportunity, and the description of the work you'll be doing. Decide for yourself if the work excites you, and is something that you are able to rise to the challenge of.

Benefits

• Unlimited paid time off, with a 2-week minimum
• Flexible hybrid schedule, with a focus on in-office
• Health Spending Account of $3000/year
• Charitable matching of $2000/year
• Investment in professional development, with support from external consulting
• Access to the benefits above without a probationary period

Location

Halifax, Nova Scotia (Hybrid)

Department

Engineering

Employment Type

Full-Time

Minimum Experience

Manager/Supervisor

Compensation

$90-105K CAD/yr