Server Engineering Lead - Elite Dangerous

Frontier is an independent video game developer and publisher, crafting immersive gaming experiences with fun gameplay and unparalleled artistic quality. Renowned for its iconic creative management simulation games, Frontier captivates players worldwide with immersive and authentic game worlds. The modern studio is located in the vibrant technology hub of Cambridge (UK). The talented team at Frontier are dedicated to nurturing our existing portfolio and delivering our exciting future roadmap.

This role is offered on a full in-studio basis or a hybrid basis (minimum 3 days per week in the studio). We can provide a comprehensive relocation support package as part of any offer, should you need to relocate.

WHAT’S THE ROLE?

We’re looking for a Server Engineering Lead to join the Elite Dangerous team and help deliver exceptional online experiences to our players. You’ll bring strong technical expertise, leadership ability, and a passion for high‑quality game development.

In this role, you’ll work with Linux‑based distributed systems on AWS, contribute hands‑on code (primarily PHP), and collaborate closely with our in‑house Cobra engine and cross‑platform game code. You’ll lead and mentor a team of server developers, guiding their growth while providing technical direction across major features and systems.

You’ll also share responsibility for the performance, reliability, and cost‑efficiency of our online services, working with other discipline leads to ensure we deliver smooth, scalable, and engaging experiences for our players.

This is a fantastic opportunity to join the team behind our multi‑million‑selling, cross‑platform titles, help shape the next generation of server engineers, and contribute directly to the future of our games.

WHAT YOU’LL BE DOING

• Leading the development of major game features and systems
• Contributing technically through hands-on programming, systems administration, and wider technical responsibilities
• Managing and mentoring developers, providing feedback and guiding them with their documentation
• Designing and implementing systems using clean, maintainable, and well‑documented code
• Collaborating with project leadership and production to define the contents for key deliverables and milestones, and working with stakeholders to deliver the technical and creative vision for the project
• Maintaining secure and reliable online services across cloud and on‑prem environments
• Developing and supporting tools that enable non‑technical teams to create content and manage the game’s online services effectively.
• Contributing to operational incident response during core hours, with additional participation in evening and weekend on‑call support as required.

WHAT YOU’LL BRING

• Extensive experience of object-oriented programming in a dynamically typed script-based language, such as PHP, Python or Typescript

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• A genuine passion for video games.
• A track record in the development of quality high performance, high availability server systems
• Safely and confidently navigate a mature codebase, bringing clarity, structure, and engineering judgement to complex systems
• Extensive experience in developing distributed systems with open source components such as databases, caches, firewalls, load balancers and networks.
• Experience of Linux systems administration
• Expertise in people management and leadership skills with a passion for developing individuals and teams.
• A history of handling the non-coding technical aspects of development, such as branch management, TRC analysis, bug/crash triaging, and so forth.
• A proactive approach to collaborative learning and knowledge sharing with colleagues.

BONUS IF YOU HAVE

• Experience working with a game engine, preferably having shipped a cross-platform game title that included Consoles
• Experience designing, configuring and maintaining networking and security systems (TCP/UDP, Routing, NAT, Firewalls, etc)

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• Experience programming in compiled languages such as C++, C#, Go or Rust
• Experience scaling, performance & reliability optimisation of distributed systems
• Distributed database architectures (Relational, Document, Key/Value, Graph, etc)

WHAT WE CAN OFFER YOU

You will work with talented and passionate people to support, develop or publish our sophisticated and enduring games, in a creative, collaborative and inclusive environment. We love what we do, and we work hard to provide outstanding experiences for our players.

Wellbeing is a big focus at Frontier, and we are continually evolving how we can support our people. We encourage a healthy work/life balance and provide a range of wellbeing activities, initiatives and sessions to support both mental and physical health.

We offer a competitive salary and benefits package, which includes a success-based annual bonus, share option schemes, life assurance, private family healthcare, flexitime working hours, enhanced maternity/paternity leave, in-house subsidised catering, support with relocation, a Cycle to Work scheme, free bike servicing, and social activities and events.

We strive to create an environment where everyone can fully demonstrate their capability and potential. If you therefore need any reasonable adjustments to support you during the recruitment process, please speak to your Talent Acquisition representative.

For queries, please email: recruitment@frontier.co.uk