Jackbox Games is best known for its rapidly expanding catalog of critically acclaimed party games including Quiplash, Drawful, Fibbage, The Jackbox Party Pack, The Jackbox Party Pack 2, and the recently released (and unsurprisingly named) The Jackbox Party Pack 3. As Jackbox Games moves into the last 83% of this century, we hope to build on our successful business by pushing the boundaries of party games with new technology, new game concepts, and new forms of interactivity. We also hope the sandwich shop doesn’t put too much mayonnaise on our sandwich next time.

We make party games where players interact with a game being displayed on a big screen using their phones or tablets as controllers. While our games are often played at home in small groups of 2-8 people, we also support large-scale games at conferences or via Twitch streaming where thousands of users can connect and interact.

We’re a small group (around 20 people) of very talented, funny, and creative individuals looking for a Backend Software Engineer to join our Chicago-based team.

Check out our website for more info about who we are and what we make. www.jackboxgames.com.

THAT’S LOVELY… BUT WHAT’S THE JOB?

We are looking for a software engineer with experience architecting, developing, and maintaining backend systems at scale.

As a small engineering team, we expect everyone to be able to jump into different projects and contribute to many aspects of our technology. However, this position is focused on owning and driving improvements to our AWS-based backend infrastructure, including scalable Node.js real-time messaging servers, traditional web servers, data stores, and other systems.

In the near future, we are looking to develop games that can be played at even larger scale, while still supporting the exponentially growi

ng user base for our existing games.

RESPONSIBILITIES

  • Work with VP of Technology to develop and maintain a roadmap for our backend systems
  • Lead architecture and implementation of new features and changes to backend infrastructure considering efficiency, maintainability, stability, and security
  • Research technologies, platforms and strategies to incorporate into our technology
  • Write automated tests and build scripts
  • Participate in prototyping and experimentation as we explore and develop new product ideas
  • Participate in code reviews and the release process for all relevant projects
  • Work with both internal and external QA teams to find and fix issues as they come up during production and testing

CANDIDATES SHOULD:

  • Have expertise with AWS services including EC2, S3, DynamoDB, SQS, Kinesis, Route53, OpsWorks, Lambda, and others
  • Have significant experience with large-scale web applications including knowing how to identify and address bottlenecks
  • Have experience architecting new systems, not just programming existing systems.
  • Be very comfortable in a Linux terminal
  • Have a mastery of core software engineering concepts: data structures, design patterns, algorithms, etc.
  • Be intimately familiar with at least one major programming language
  • Write clean, elegant code that can be easily understood by fellow software engineers
  • Love and embrace process
  • Have experience participating in a professional QA process.
  • Be professional, responsible, dedicated, friendly, flexible, patient and enthusiastic.
  • Have the ability to work independently or as part of a team, depending on the nature of the work you are doing.

AND IT WOULD BE NICE IF YOU ALSO HAD…

  • An understanding of game mechanics and intuition for what makes a game successful
  • Experience developing web applications and other tools
  • Great party game ideas

ANYTHING ELSE?

Yes.  We only hire nice, bright, funny people who are willing to work hard.  Jackbox Games is a group effort and you must work collaboratively with creative, technical, and business types. Everyone here shares a commitment to excellence and a desire to work in a comfortable, friendly atmosphere.

ARE THERE ANY PERKS?

  • Competitive pay and benefits.  401(k) with matching.  And we pay 100% of the cost of premiums for medical, dental, vision, disability and life insurance for our employees. We also cover a really nice chunk of the cost of premiums for spouse/partner/dependent medical, dental and vision insurance.
  • Casual dress and a flexible schedule.  Come in a sweatshirt, jeans, whatever, like everyone else here.
  • Creative work environment. We are lucky to work in a place that is full of intelligent, talented and innovative folks. Although most hours the place is deathly quiet (we’re a focused bunch), this is punctuated with hilarious outbursts and general merriment, which makes a nice way to spend the day.
  • Easy transportation. We’re very close to the “L” and the Halsted (#8) bus (right by the new Apple Store and Mega Whole Foods if that’s your kind of thing), and we have a transit FSA that allows you to dedicate pre-tax dollars to public transportation expenses.
  • Free food. Every week, we stock our kitchen with free snack foods.

INTERESTED?

Great, we look forward to reading your application – make sure it includes:

  • A cover letter that highlights three reasons you think you’d be great for the gig, focusing on how your past work experience has prepared you for this kind of position. We weigh cover letters heavily. Include a list of products, systems, or games you have worked on and your role in their development. Please feel free to write in your own voice – most cover letters are standard and boring, and that just isn’t us.
  • Your resume.

Email your application to:  jobs@jackboxgames.com with the subject “Jackbox Games Backend Software Engineer”

If you decide to apply, please know that every complete application will be carefully reviewed. Seriously! We know it is a time commitment to prepare an application. And we respect that effort by thoughtfully reviewing every complete application and responding one way or the other. But that kind of thoughtful review means that it sometimes takes us a while to get back to applicants, so please NO PHONE CALLS. The time we spend responding to phone calls and emails inquiring about where we are in the process is time that we could be spending moving the process along – so please be patient with us!

Thanks for your interest in Jackbox Games!

 

Published by cypheroftyr

Tanya DePass is the founder and Director of I Need Diverse Games, a non-profit organization based in Chicago, which is dedicated to better diversification of all aspects of gaming. I Need Diverse Games serves the community by supporting marginalized developers attend the Game Developer Conference by participating in the GDC Scholarship program, helps assist attendance at other industry events, and is seeking partnership with organizations and initiatives. Tanya is a lifelong Chicagoan who loves everything about gaming, #INeedDiverseGames spawn point, and wants to make it better and more inclusive for everyone. She founded and was the EIC of Fresh Out of Tokens podcast where games culture was discussed and viewed through a lense of feminism, intersectionality and diversity. Now she’s a co-host on Spawn on Me Podcast. Along with all of that, she’s the Programming Coordinator for OrcaCon, she often speaks on issues of diversity, feminism, race, intersectionality & other topics at multiple conventions throughout the year. Her writing about games and games critique appears in Uncanny Magazine, Polygon, Wiscon Chronicles, Vice Gaming, Paste Games, Mic, and other publications.