VR Engineer (Senior)

Hipster Whale is a multi-award-winning Australian studio located in the heart of Melbourne. Their first release, Crossy Road, quickly became a viral success, and Crossy Road titles have amassed more than 330 million downloads to date. Hipster Whale has joined forces with world-renowned companies along the way, including Bandai Namco and Disney, to create more top-charting games like Crossy Road Castle, PAC-MAN 256 and Disney Crossy Road. Their mission is to make bright and funny Arcade Action games with broad appeal that players will continue to enjoy for years to come!

The Role

At Hipster Whale, we're passionate about creating bright and funny arcade action games that appeal to broad audiences—games that players will continue to enjoy for years to come!

We’re seeking a Senior Engineer with specialisation in VR to push the boundaries of immersive gaming experiences. Collaborating with artists and level designers, you’ll rapidly iterate on ideas to create responsive, engaging, and performant mixed-reality experiences that captivate players. If you’re passionate about spatial and interaction design and enjoy problem-solving within established codebases, this opportunity offers a great mix of creativity and technical challenges.

This is a full-time, on-going position based at our studio in Melbourne, Australia. Candidates must have a suitable visa allowing them to work in Australia. Our team currently works hybridly, with a minimum of two days per week in the office (Mondays and Thursdays) and the option to work remotely from home on other days. We support individual flexibility arrangements and will accommodate requests wherever possible.

We’re proud to have an inclusive work environment and encourage members of all backgrounds and perspectives to apply!

Responsibilities

• Creatively develop solutions to help make our games as fun and rewarding for our players as possible
• Primarily use C# and Unity to support the team with refining and debugging our games
• Prototype and iterate upon new game features and mechanics
• Work with our artists and level designers to rapidly iterate on new gameplay mechanics
• Add platform specific functionality, while managing performance and compliance requirements
• Optimise the game for target devices

About You

• You’re an experienced cross-platform games programmer, having worked on several published titles.
• You hold a deep interest in developing games for VR and AR
• You have practical experience with mobile game development and understand the journey from concept to polished release.
• You enjoy the process of diving into an established codebase, learning its structure, and finding ways to improve and expand it.
• You’re adaptable and capable of setting goals independently, while also collaborating effectively within a team.
• You’re passionate about arcade, casual, and mobile games, and have a focus on crafting responsive and engaging gameplay experiences.

Requirements

• 5+ years professional experience, ideally working with Unity and C#, or willingness to adapt to from C++
• Computer science degree, games programming degree, or demonstrably equivalent skills
• Have worked on shipped mobile and VR games
• Strong spatial and interaction design skills
• Strong linear algebra and 3D maths skills
• Experience in optimising performance for VR platforms 
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills
• Legally able to work in Australia

Bonus Points

• Has worked on a shipped Vision Pro title
• Comfortable working with emergent XR technologies 
• Lifecycle experience publishing and optimising titles for various platforms
• Network programming experience
• Any physics experience (forces, angular velocity, friction, etc.)
• Ability to teach and share your knowledge with technical and non-technical people alike
• Demonstrable skills or interest in game design, art, UX or other cross-disciplines
• Familiarity with agile development (Jira, Kanban, sprints, etc.)
• We’re also keen to hear about any other interests that you may have which could contribute positively to our studio!

Critical Info

• Base salary is 120K+ AUD (excluding super) depending on experience and skills
• This is a full-time, on-going position, based in Melbourne, Australia
• Applications are open until filled
• We aim to move through the recruitment process as quickly as possible and will respond to all applicants regardless of the outcome.
• Due to the large volume of applications we receive, we’re unfortunately not able to provide specific feedback to each applicant.

How to Apply

• Please share a cover letter explaining your interest in the role and why you would like to join the Hipster Whale team
• Please provide a CV detailing your experience
• Examples of your technical work (demos or code samples) are always fantastic to see
• Note that we use the Employment Hero / Swag platform to assist with our recruitment process. We don't expect you to autofill the application using the AI tools, nor populate a Swag profile on the platform, simply submit a personally written cover letter and CV document.

If you experience technical difficulties, you are welcome to send through an application via jobs@hipsterwhale.com instead. Please add [POSITION TITLE - YOUR NAME] in the email subject line and include answers to the following questions in your application:

Questions for Candidates

• Do you have 5 or more years of professional experience, having worked on shipped titles?
• What shipped VR or AR titles have you worked on? What parts did you work on?
• Are you located in Melbourne or willing to relocate if successful?
• Can you provide links to your work and illustrate which parts you worked on (or didn’t)?