Intermediate Software Engineer

About Big Viking Games

Big Viking Games is a profitable, self-funded live-service game studio based in Toronto. Since 2011, we’ve been building and operating virtual worlds with deep player-driven economies and long-term engagement at their core.

Our flagship titles, YoWorld and FishWorld, have served millions of players over their lifetime. These are enduring products with loyal communities, evolving content systems, and rich in-game economies built around virtual goods and player-to-player interaction.

We operate with a small, high-leverage team and a bias toward action. Increasingly, we are embracing AI-first workflows to scale production, accelerate iteration, and operate more efficiently.

This is a hybrid role with three (3) days in office.

About the Role

Big Viking Games is hiring an Intermediate Software Engineer to build and maintain YoWorld and Fish World, our long-running live-service virtual worlds.

As an Intermediate Software Engineer on these projects, you'll work primarily on the front end utilizing both a TypeScript and HTML5 game client and occasionally work on a PHP backend — shipping features and fixes to a live player base on a weekly cadence. Reporting to the Engineering Manager, you'll work alongside a senior team on a mature, large-scale codebase where your work goes live in front of players quickly.

We operate in an AI-forward environment focused on scaling output, so you're someone who's comfortable reaching for modern AI tooling to move faster without cutting corners on quality.

What You'll Do

Write robust, efficient, and maintainable code across our stack — TypeScript, HTML5, Javascript, and PHP.

Build and maintain tools and client features in JavaScript/TypeScript.

Work with network code — sockets and REST APIs — and asynchronous, real-time systems.

Review code and give constructive feedback to other developers.

Use performance profilers (memory analyzers, CPU profilers, network sniffers) to diagnose and improve existing code.

Investigate and resolve difficult bugs in production.

Work within our CI/CD workflow (GitHub Actions, Docker) following modern best practices.

Requirements

What You Bring

3+ years of professional software development experience.

A track record of shipping multiple features in a live production environment.

Solid command of at least one of Java, TypeScript, or PHP, and the ability to work across all three.

Comfort writing efficient SQL and reasoning about caching and data-store trade-offs.

A sound understanding of algorithmic complexity, general system architecture, and source control.

A Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or Engineering is strongly preferred.

Nice to Have

HTMX experience.

ActionScript and flash experience.

PHP experience.

Strong SQL/MariaDB experience

Experience with Redis, Memcached

Experience with Docker, and CI/CD pipelines.

Comfort working in large, long-lived codebases and improving them incrementally.

Comfort using AI coding assistants (e.g., Claude) in a real workflow.

Free-to-play or live-service game development experience.

Benefits

Compensation

The expected compensation range for this role is $80,000 - $105,000 CAD, based on experience, qualifications, and overall fit.

Benefits

Comprehensive benefits package (health, dental, and vision) including HSA/WSA spending account from Day One

Participation in the Employee Stock Option Plan (ESOP)

RRSP participation and matching

15 Vacation Days + 10 Wellness Days

Big Viking Games is committed to creating an inclusive and accessible environment for all candidates. We

welcome applications from individuals of all abilities and will provide accommodations throughout the hiring process as needed. If you require any accommodations, please email hr@bigvikinggames.com so we can work with you to support your needs.