About Kinetic Games

We’re an independent games studio best known for creating Phasmophobia, enjoyed by millions of players worldwide. Our team is passionate, creative, and collaborative and we’re looking for someone equally enthusiastic about games to join our growing team.

We’re a small, friendly team that values creativity, openness, and personal growth. Whether you’re helping various departments or talking about your favourite horror game, you’ll be part of a supportive environment where passion and curiosity are celebrated. You’ll be joining a small but ambitious team where your ideas are valued, your growth is supported, and your development truly matters.

About the role:

We’re looking for an experienced Multiplayer Programmer to take ownership of our networked gameplay systems. You will be responsible for designing, implementing, and maintaining robust multiplayer architecture that supports millions of players in a live environment. This is a senior-level role requiring strong distributed systems thinking, performance awareness, and production experience shipping multiplayer titles. You will work closely with gameplay engineers, designers, QA, and production to ensure our multiplayer experience is authoritative, scalable, secure, and performant across platforms.

This role is hybrid based at our office in Southampton. At this time, we are unable to provide visa sponsorship. Applicants must have the right to work in the UK.

We’re ideally looking for someone who can start as soon as possible.

Your responsibilities will include:

• Design and maintain client–server architecture
• Implement and optimize state replication systems
• Improve server authority and validation systems
• Optimize bandwidth and server usage
• Debug and resolve desync, latency, and networking edge cases
• Collaborate with gameplay engineers to ensure multiplayer-safe feature
• implementation
• Profile and improve network performance across PC and console platforms
• Contribute to technical direction for online systems

Requirements:

• 4+ years professional experience in game development
• Proven experience shipping at least one multiplayer title
• Strong C# proficiency
• Experience with Unity multiplayer frameworks (Netcode, Mirror, Photon, or custom solutions)
• Experience debugging complex synchronization issues
• Ability to write clean, maintainable, production-ready code
• Strong communication skills and ability to work cross-discipline

Deep understanding of:

• Client–server networking models
• Replication strategies
• Latency mitigation techniques
• Network optimization and bandwidth constraints

Nice to Have:

• Strong knowledge of Phasmophobia
• Experience on live or multi-platform projects
• Background in gameplay or systems design
• Experience shipping modern console multiplayer titles
• Familiarity with backend services and matchmaking systems
• Knowledge of anti-cheat strategies and server validation
• Experience supporting live service games at scale

Benefits & Perks

💰 Competitive salary

💼 5% Employer Match Pension Scheme

💸 Annual performance bonus + Company performance bonus

🍽️ Weekly free team lunches – good food, great company!

🎉 Regular social events – we love bringing our teams together!

🏠 Hybrid & flexible working options

🕓 Flextime – because life doesn’t always fit 9–5

✈️ Team getaways

📦 Relocation package to help you settle in

🏅 Employee of the Month vouchers

🧘 ♀️ Personal wellbeing allowance

🤝 Referral scheme

🎓 Training & Development Budget – invest in your growth with courses, conferences & learning resources

🚀 Training & career development support

💚 Vitality Health Insurance – includes Vision, Dental & Travel cover

🛡️ Aviva Life Insurance

🎂 30 days holiday, including your birthday and a dedicated wellbeing day

🎄 Christmas studio shutdown – enjoy the holidays, on us!