Lead Engine Programmer

Posted:
2/20/2026, 4:09:49 AM

Location(s):
Cary, North Carolina, United States ⋅ North Carolina, United States

Experience Level(s):
Senior

Field(s):
Software Engineering

Pay:
$109/hr or $226,720 total comp

WHAT MAKES US EPIC?

At the core of Epic’s success are talented, passionate people. Epic prides itself on creating a collaborative, welcoming, and creative environment. Whether it’s building award-winning games or crafting engine technology that enables others to make visually stunning interactive experiences, we’re always innovating.

Being Epic means being a part of a team that continually strives to do right by our community and users. We’re constantly innovating to raise the bar of engine and game development.

PROGRAMMING - UNREAL ENGINE

What We Do

Unreal-powered projects have been on the bleeding edge of real-time entertainment for over 20 years. Our team of programming experts are always innovating to improve the tools and technology that empower content developers worldwide.

What You'll Do

As part of the Unreal Engine team, you’ll be leading a group responsible for the entire technology stack behind Unreal Editor for Fortnite, empowering creators to build bigger and better experiences while pushing the boundaries of the state of the art in dynamic content authoring and delivery. In addition to evolving our tools for user-created content, you’ll also be involved in extending this technology to serve the needs of our first-party titles, such as Battle Royale, Lego Fortnite, and more. Our work will reshape how all of these products are built and evolve Fortnite into a true open metaverse platform. Most importantly, you’ll work with a creative, energetic, and fun team to continue making Unreal the best engine available for game development.

In this role, you will

  • Lead a team that maintains, optimises, and enhances workflows and tooling behind UEFN.
  • Be a vision holder for our medium and long-term UEFN pipeline development strategy.
  • Architect the systems and approaches to making large-scale changes incrementally in a live product
  • Work closely with game teams to gather and satisfy stakeholders’ requirements.
  • Actively contribute to the codebase, troubleshoot issues, and ensure their timely resolution.
  • Plan, schedule, and prioritize work with and for your team, identify risks, and determine mitigations. 

What we're looking for

  • Proven experience leading a programming team
  • Strong C++ programming skills
  • Proven experience in architecting, developing, and releasing large systems
  • Can drive forward long-term development goals whilst delivering on short-term wins, holding a team accountable for their output
  • Demonstrates a passion for improving developer workflows and user experience
  • Ability to communicate and work across organisations, networks, build relationships, and coordinate with other teams 

ABOUT US

Epic Games spans across 25 countries with 46 studios and 4,500+ employees globally. For over 25 years, we've been making award-winning games and engine technology that empowers others to make visually stunning games and 3D content that bring environments to life like never before. Epic's award-winning Unreal Engine technology not only provides game developers the ability to build high-fidelity, interactive experiences for PC, console, mobile, and VR, it is also a tool being embraced by content creators across a variety of industries such as media and entertainment, automotive, and architectural design. As we continue to build our Engine technology and develop remarkable games, we strive to build teams of world-class talent.

Like what you hear? Come be a part of something Epic!

Epic Games deeply values diverse teams and an inclusive work culture, and we are proud to be an Equal Opportunity employer. Learn more about our Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) Policy here.

Note to Recruitment Agencies: Epic does not accept any unsolicited resumes or approaches from any unauthorized third party (including recruitment or placement agencies) (i.e., a third party with whom we do not have a negotiated and validly executed agreement). We will not pay any fees to any unauthorized third party. Further details on these matters can be found here.