Virtual Reality Game Developer
Description
Virtual Reality Game Developer
Ready to build worlds people won’t want to leave? Here, you’ll ship VR experiences that feel fast, fluid, and alive. We move quickly. We test in-headset daily. We celebrate small wins, fix what’s not working, and keep players at the center. If that sounds like your kind of game, let’s talk.
Why this role matters
Great virtual reality isn’t just code and shaders. It’s presence. It’s comfort. It’s that moment a player forgets the real world for a second and laughs out loud. You’ll craft those moments. We’ll count on you to turn rough prototypes into polished, optimized builds that run smoothly on devices like Quest and PC VR. The work touches gameplay systems, interaction design, and performance tuning—because VR comfort and framerate really do make or break the magic.
What you’ll make happen
You’ll jump into live gameplay and new ideas. Some days you spike a locomotion prototype; other days you hunt a nasty hitch until it’s gone. You collaborate with artists, designers, and QA to get features over the line. Clear, frequent playtests guide decisions. When a build needs a frame back, you find it.
You’ll:
- Build interactive systems—grabbing, throwing, climbing, haptics—that feel intuitive and responsive in-headset.
- Implement VR UX patterns that reduce motion sickness and improve comfort, like snap-turning, vignette options, and smart teleport.
- Optimize CPU/GPU with profiling, culling, batching, and shader simplification so 72/90Hz holds steady.
- Wire up gameplay logic, achievements, and analytics to learn from real player behavior.
- Ship updates through a steady CI/CD pipeline with code reviews and automated builds.
Day‑to‑day snapshot
- Morning huddle: 10 minutes, cameras on. Quick blockers. A meme or two. It’s fine to bring coffee.
- Focus time: deep work on core mechanics in Unity or Unreal Engine.
- Headset hour: daily playtesting to feel progress and catch regressions early.
- Review: short async comments on a pull request so you’re not stuck waiting.
- Wrap: post a GIF or a short clip. Celebrate the tiny win. Move the goalpost forward.
The tech you’ll touch
- Engines & languages: Unity (C#) or Unreal (C++), plus tools like Rider or Visual Studio.
- Platforms: Meta Quest, SteamVR, OpenXR.
- Systems: physics, animation, input, shaders, lighting, audio spatialization.
- Tooling: Git, Perforce, Jenkins/GitHub Actions.
What helps you shine
Talk straight. Ship often. Own your craft. If you thrive on feedback and iteration, you’re already close. The checklist below helps, but if you’re missing a box and can learn fast, don’t count yourself out.
- Strong experience building real‑time 3D features in Unity or Unreal.
- Comfortable with C# or C++ and debugging tools (profilers, frame capture, logs).
- A handle on VR comfort: locomotion trade‑offs, hand tracking quirks, interaction design.
- Performance instincts: scene organization, draw calls, material/shader cost.
- Collaboration: you write clear commits, give kind code reviews, and ask for help early.
- Player empathy: you listen to playtest notes and fix the friction that breaks immersion.
Nice‑to‑have extras
- Multiplayer experience (lobbies, sessions, netcode basics).
- Mobile VR or mixed reality exposure.
- Familiarity with accessibility in VR and inclusive design.
- Experience with procedural content or tools for level designers.
True story time
A few months back, Maya, one of our gameplay devs, noticed new players kept dropping items by accident. Tiny issue, big annoyance. She recorded five playtests, saw the pattern, and tweaked grab thresholds plus a small haptic nudge. Drop rates fell by half the next day. Players stopped fighting the system and started having fun. That’s the kind of practical, human fix that makes this work satisfying.
Another moment: on a Friday build, a boss encounter stuttered right as the arena lit up. Annoying. Tomas dove into the renderdoc capture, found an overdraw hotspot, and refactored the particle pass. The stutter vanished. We ended the week cheering in the headset, not in the spreadsheet. Small story, big smile.
How we work (remote‑first, people‑first)
Remote can get lonely. We keep it human with weekly game jams, short huddles, and optional co‑working rooms. Cameras are welcome, pajamas too. You’ll have a travel budget for a couple of on‑site sprints a year. Time zones? We overlap a few core hours so we’ll actually talk, then protect deep work the rest of the day. Clear docs beat noisy chats.
We care about balance. Heads‑down time is real. Meetings are short. If you need a quiet day to crush a task, say it. If you’re stuck, raise a hand and pair up. We learn publicly and move on. No heroics. Just steady momentum.
Your first 90 days
Day 0–30 — Learn the codebase, set up tools, and ship a small feature to production. Pair with another dev to learn our interaction patterns and VR UX playbook.
Day 31–60 — Own a mechanic end‑to‑end. Example: refine teleport and smooth locomotion options, with analytics to measure comfort and retention. Share a short post on the impact.
Day 61–90 — Lead a mini‑milestone. Rally design and art, plan tasks, push the build, and present results in a headset demo. Leave behind docs others can build on.
What tools you’ll rely on
- Unity Profiler or Unreal Insights to track CPU/GPU.
- Frame capture tools for draw call and GPU timing.
- Issue tracking in Jira or Linear. Short tickets. Clear outcomes.
- CI/CD to automate builds and keep releases predictable.
Pay, perks, and hours
- Annual base salary: $110,500 (USD), remote.
- Flexible hours with a few shared core hours for sync.
- Hardware stipend for your VR setup and a solid dev machine.
- Generous PTO and wellness days. Take them. Come back fresh.
- Learning budget for courses, engine licenses, or a conference you’ve eyed.
How we keep players comfortable
We take motion sickness seriously. You’ll help bake in comfort settings—vignette, turn speeds, room‑scale options—and test with a variety of players. Accessibility isn’t an extra; it’s part of the feature. Clear tutorials. Subtle guidance. Smart defaults. When in doubt, test again.
Growth path
You can go deep on rendering, lead gameplay, or step into technical direction. Prefer people leadership? Mentor a small squad, grow into a lead, and guide features from pitch to patch. Prefer craft mastery? Specialize in physics, animation, or XR input and become the person folks tap when they hit a wall.
Collaboration, without the buzzwords
You’ll work with folks from different backgrounds—designers who think like players, artists who care about silhouettes and readability, producers who unblock instead of over‑meeting. We keep documents short and decisions visible. If something doesn’t make sense, ask. If a process slows you down, say so. We’ll fix it together.
What will set you apart
- You prototype fast and throw things away without ego.
- You’re calm in the profiler and curious in the playtest.
- You think about comfort and presence as much as polygons.
- You explain trade‑offs so non‑engineers can decide confidently.
Wondering how your day will look here?
Short answer: build, test, learn, repeat. Long answer: you’ll chat with a designer about a puzzle flow, tweak a shader to make a surface pop, refactor an input handler because left‑handers deserve love too, then hop into a playtest where someone does the one thing you couldn’t predict. You smile, take notes, and make the game better. That cycle is the job.
Ready to step up?
If you’re nodding along, you’re our kind of developer. Bring your curiosity. Bring your taste. Bring that itch to make virtual worlds feel effortless and fun. Apply through the platform where you found this posting—no long cover letter needed. A portfolio or a short video of something interactive you’ve built speaks louder than buzzwords.
We’re excited to see what you’ve made. Let’s hit the ground running and ship something players can’t wait to share with friends. Because when a first‑time player laughs, ducks, reaches out, and forgets the room for a moment—that’s the win we chase together.
Quick reality check: Building for VR can be messy. Frames drop. Controllers drift. Inputs surprise you. Honestly, that’s half the fun. We tweak, test, and try again until it clicks. If that sounds like your happy place, we’ll get along just fine.


