On a daily basis, your focus will be on the success and direction of your team, supported by targeted hands-on technical execution. Your core responsibilities will include:

Team Management & Mentorship: Serve as the leader for the graphics team. You will conduct 1:1s, guide career development, coordinate workloads, and mentor engineers to upskill them in modern rendering paradigms.
Lead Technical Direction: Drive the rendering strategy in close collaboration with the Technical Director, engineering leadership, and production.
Client & Stakeholder Communication: Act as the primary technical point of contact for external clients, hardware vendors, and internal partners, translating complex technical jargon for non-technical audiences and managing expectations.
Cross-Discipline Collaboration: Work closely with the art team to align visual goals with technical solutions and ensure assets meet strict performance and memory budget targets.
Targeted Hands-on Implementation: Maintain hands-on involvement by coding critical graphics technology.
Performance & Optimization Oversight: Guide the team in profiling and optimizing the entire rendering pipeline. You will set memory and performance budgets and assist in diagnosing GPU/CPU bottlenecks.
Technology Strategy: Evaluate and guide the integration of modern rendering technologies

Proven Leadership: Extensive experience managing and guiding engineers, coordinating workloads, and successfully owning significant graphics or engine-level systems in a cooperative, cross-functional environment.
Communication: Strong communication skills, and the ability to work effectively in a co-dev environment.
Strong C++ & GPU Programming: Demonstrably strong C++ skills in a large shared codebase, alongside deep knowledge of common shader languages, Shader Model 6 and HLSL/GLSL.
Modern Graphics APIs: Extensive experience with modern graphics APIs (DirectX 12, Vulkan) and modern GPU driven rendering.
Ray Tracing: Deep, practical knowledge of DXR/Vulkan ray tracing, BVH acceleration structures, path tracing and denoising techniques..
Applied Mathematics: Strong foundation in 3D math, linear algebra, geometry, and calculus as they apply to graphics rendering pipelines.
Physically Based Rendering (PBR): Proven experience with PBR pipelines, the lighting equation, Micro-Facet BRDFs and Global Illumination systems.
Advanced Debugging: Exceptional debugging skills to help your team effectively track, diagnose, and solve complex rendering issues.
AAA Experience: Experience working on AAA game engines or large-scale real-time rendering systems.
Console Architecture: Familiarity with console-specific graphics APIs and hardware architecture (PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, Switch)., All relevant qualifications considered

We're looking for a Lead Graphics Programmer to join our award winning team in Middlesbrough (UK), home to the beautiful North Yorkshire coastline and countryside.

Start your day any time between 8:00am and 10:00am
35 working hours per week with a 1 hour lunch break (with the opportunity to flex down to 30 minutes or up to 2 hours)
Opportunity to apply for hybrid working (up to 2 days working from home per week)
28 days annual leave (20 days annual leave + 8 days bank holiday)
1 day leave for your birthday and 1 day leave if you're moving house
Up to 10 days discretionary annual leave during our end of year break
A brand new, state-of-the-art studio facilities that includes a market hall serving nutritious, subsidised meals, round-the-clock gym access, an auditorium and more
Subsidised market hall with food, freshly prepared daily by our in-house hospitality team
Free breakfast options, juice, hot drinks and fruit.
Employee referral bonus (up to £2000!)
Electric Car Scheme
Cycle to Work scheme
Free game codes, game swag and merchandise
Family-friendly leave available
Christmas Saving Scheme
Free parking
Best-in-class tools and workflows so you can focus on creativity
Annual Profit Share
Length of Service
Annual High Performer Award
Vitality Private Healthcare, discounts and rewards for you, your spouse and children (upon the successful completion of your 6 month probationary period)
Access to mental health and wellbeing support via Plumm (includes 4 free video therapy sessions per month for both the employee and up to 3 family members aged 18+), unlimited text therapy, courses, meditations
A personalised development plan with dedicated support tailored to your growth and goals
Access to an accredited Academy providing professional qualifications (and access to 500 UK discounts and offers via TOTUM when registered as a student)
A dedicated Workplace Experience team responsible for work environments, workplace and quality of employee life services to help foster collaboration, creativity and innovation
In-studio wellbeing programmes and People team support
Free activities via our Bus Tours programme (where on occasion, partners and children are welcome to join you)
Many team events to celebrate team and game milestones
Sponsored team activities including football, basketball, book club, movie club and more
Opportunity to contribute to our internal Employee Diversity and Equality Network

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