Gardens Interactive is hiring: Technical Director in Los Angeles

At Gardens Interactive, we’re crafting rich worlds designed to bring people together and foster meaningful connections. As our Technical Director, you’ll combine engineering excellence with thoughtful leadership, empowering a talented team to solve unique challenges in clever, resourceful ways. This role focuses on creating player-first experiences, fostering a culture of trust and collaboration, and continuously raising the bar for what multiplayer games can achieve.

At Gardens, we value creativity, curiosity, and teamwork. Our engineers thrive in design-driven environments, tackle ambiguous problems with enthusiasm, and are always eager to learn. If you’re excited by the challenge of creating sustainable, scalable solutions, polishing the craft of authentic leadership, and bringing communities together through games, we’d love to hear from you.

• Collaborate with designers to translate innovative ideas into actionable technical solutions, ensuring alignment with our shared vision.

• Lead engineering discussions to refine strategies, choose tools, and optimize workflows that maximize creativity and iteration speed.

• Mentor team members, offering guidance, feedback, and support to empower them in solving unique challenges.

• Strategize with leadership on technical decisions, resource allocation, and live-service priorities to ensure sustainable success.

• Ensure clarity and communication across all disciplines, fostering an environment of trust and collaboration.

• Drive technical vision and strategy by leveraging your expertise to make informed decisions on technology, tools, and frameworks.

• Deliver engineering excellence by supporting the team in creating robust systems in Unreal Engine 5 that bring innovative multiplayer interactions to life.

• Lead with empathy and curiosity, inspiring and mentoring the engineering team while fostering a culture of collaboration and growth.

• Partner with design to push the boundaries of multiplayer gameplay, solving new challenges for social interactions and shared experiences.

• Champion innovation by navigating ambiguity and thinking resourcefully to create solutions that elevate the player experience.

• Leadership experience in cross-cultural teams.

• Multilingual fluency or experience shipping games for international markets.

• Published AAA Titles with a range in experience from Conception and Prototyping to Launch and Live Services.

Who We Are

We're a forward-thinking, distributed game studio founded by the creators behind titles like Journey, What Remains of Edith Finch, Blaseball, Dustforce, Ashen, Guild Wars 2, Firewatch, and more! Our name reflects our mission: to cultivate rich, immersive worlds that foster meaningful connections and lasting friendships. We believe in creating lush, living environments where players can engage in surprising multiplayer experiences and grow together with the support of their communities.

Our commitment to diversity, inclusivity, and transparency drives us to create a work environment where every voice is heard and valued. As a fully-distributed studio, we support our team in living and working from wherever they choose, offering competitive pay, stock options, flexible non-accrual paid time off, 35-hour work weeks, and comprehensive benefits, including full medical, vision, dental, and 401k contributions.

We're excited to be developing our flagship project — a shared 3D fantasy adventure inspired by our favorite online gaming memories. This is the world we’re passionate about building and the world we want to experience every day.

Gardens Offers:

• Competitive Salaries and Pay Transparency

• Stock Options

• Medical, Dental, and Vision Coverage (100% for Individuals and 90% for Dependents)

• Life Insurance, Short Term & Long Term Disability, and other numerous benefits

• 401k contributions (USA) / RRSP plan + DPSP contributions (Canada)

• Paid Parental Leave

• Biannual Company Retreats

• Continued Education Allowance

• A fully-distributed studio. We aspire to support employees living and working where they want.

Benefits and perks listed may vary depending on the nature of your employment with Gardens and the country in which you work.

Encouragement:

We believe that diverse perspectives make our team stronger and our games better. If you’re excited about this role but don’t meet every single requirement, we encourage you to apply anyway. Studies show that marginalized groups, especially those of women and people of color, are less likely to apply unless they meet every criterion. At Gardens Interactive, we value potential, passion, and a willingness to grow. We hope you will join us in shaping the future of gaming.

Note:

Unfortunately, it has come to our attention that people have been contacted by scammers impersonating Gardens Interactive. Said individuals are offering opportunities with the intent of stealing financial information. Please be advised that our team's correspondence regarding positions (including tests, offers, and interviews) is associated with a gardens.dev email. Don't hesitate to reach out via direct message on LinkedIn or careers@gardens.dev . We will never ask you for your financial information.

Compensation Range: $200.9K - $223.3K