About Sumo Leamington
Established in 2019, Sumo Leamington is led by a team of industry veterans with a wealth of experience in the games industry.
With three core specialisms: service-based games, free to play titles and mobile, the team at Sumo Leamington are focussed on creating games which players keep coming back to – day after day, year after year.
As winners of the TIGA Star Employment Award for 2021, recipients of the GI Biz 2020 Best Places to Work Award and listed as one of the UK’s 100 Best Large Companies to Work for in 2021, Sumo Digital has enjoyed 18 years of stability and growth since its formation in 2003 and continues to strive for excellence across every single project.
The team at Sumo Leamington is growing, and we’re looking for the industry’s brightest stars to help bring a series of incredible projects to life.
The role @ Sumo
We are looking for an enthusiastic and talented programmer to join our backend team and to contribute to our AAA games projects. You will design, develop and maintain scalable backend services to support a high number of concurrent users, providing client libraries to allow client-side programmers to interface with these services.
Key responsibilities
- Become a developer on a multiplayer-only PC game
- Implement backend features for the game with performant and maintainable code. Here are some examples of areas you might work on:
- Player accounts and inventory
- Leader boards
- Matchmaking
- Steam integration
- Collaborate with the game development team to understand backend requirements, delivering a scalable and resilient backend infrastructure that can scale to the demands of a high concurrent player count.
- Develop systems to deploy game servers and monitor and maintain their health and performance, in development and production environments
- Help the team develop and document the backend architecture of the product
What we would like from you
- If you have experience in some or most of the skills below, we’d love to hear from you. The array of Server & Cloud technology in use in modern software is near infinite, so the following list should be viewed as an example of the typical technology we use in projects at our studio, but we would encourage applicants who have experience of any other areas of backend development, as your experience is valuable, and we are mindful that good developers can learn and adapt quickly.
- Experience using Cloud Services, any one or more of: AWS, Azure, Google Cloud Platform
- Experience with production-level cloud infrastructure at scale.
- Any one or more of the programming languages: C#, Go, Python, JavaScript / TypeScript
- Docker
- Linux/Unix platforms
- Databases
- Shell scripting
- Git
- Reviewing other programmers code & providing constructive feedback and checks.
- Strong technical documentation skills.
- Working with various project stakeholders to understand & define clear requirements.
Other useful (but non-essential) experience
- Task management & ticketing systems such as JIRA.
- Confluence.
- Development using the Unity game engine
- Experience in the videogame industry
- Infrastructure-As-Code E.g., Terraform, CloudFormation
Benefits of working at Sumo Leamington
- Option to work fully remotely, or with occasional office visits if you wish.
- We provide all our developers with top of the range development hardware
- Management training program
- 1 day per month, everyone in the studio participates in our Studio Learning Day, where everyone can learn new skills which are relevant to their role.
- Work with an incredibly friendly & diverse team.
- A great work/life balance, with No Crunch policy.
- Regular 1-on-1 meetings with your manager, to make sure we’re listening to you & supporting you.
- Lots of holiday - 21 days of per year, plus Duvet day, your birthday off, and Christmas week off!
What We Offer:
· Annual Bonus & Annual Salary Reviews
· Electric Car Scheme
· Salary Sacrifice Pension Scheme
· Flexible Working
· 27 Days Holiday, including your birthday a duvet day and Christmas
· Holiday ‘buy and sell’ scheme
· Access to 4,000 Udemy Courses, The Gnomen Workshop, GDC Vault and more
· Enhanced Mat/Paternity & Adoption pay
· Free Life Assurance - 4x Salary
· Free Income Protection Scheme -up to 75%
· Free Dental Insurance
· Supportive Employee Assistance Programme with confidential 24/7/365 helpline & app
· Access remote GP, Mental Health, Physio appointments & medical second opinions
· Additional flexible benefits scheme
· Cycle to Work Scheme
· Mental Health First Aiders
· Payroll Giving Scheme
· Game & Book Libraries
· Long service & project completion awards
· Wrap Parties
· Alternative Travel Prize Draw
· The Sumo GameJam
· Great family events
· Studio clubs, inc. running, board games, film…
· Life Drawing
· Yoga Classes
· Free fruit and drinks
· Employee Referral Bonus
· Career Development
Where do we stand on diversity?
At Sumo, we want to enable everyone to bring their full, authentic selves to work every single day. We acknowledge that the games industry is far from perfect and a global organisation with people all over the world, from all kinds of backgrounds, we know it’s part of our duty to provide everyone at Sumo with a safe, accepting and affirming working environment.
We encourage and welcome applicants from all backgrounds.
More about Sumo Leamington:
Sumo Leamington is situated just outside of the town centre and was recently awarded the Games Industry BIZ Best Diversity Award – a testament to its ongoing commitment to creating a home for everyone. The Studio features many onsite facilities – everything needed for the team to create the world’s best games!
Ranked the happiest town to live in two official polls, Leamington Spa is a hidden gem nestled amongst the stunning countryside of Warwickshire and remains a hotspot for talented individuals and creative minds within the games industry. Those living in Leamington Spa can enjoy:
oLocal attractions such as Jepson Gardens and the Royal Pump Rooms
oA rich and diverse culture
oAn expansive history and stunning architecture
oPicturesque scenery, outstanding gardens and walking routes
oBeautiful museums and galleries
More about Sumo Digital:
Sumo Digital is an award-winning international family of studios. Recent releases from Sumo Digital studios include: BAFTA-Award winning Sackboy: A Big Adventure, Hood: Outlaws & Legends, Control Ultimate Edition on Google Stadia, Apple Arcade Award-winning Little Orpheus, Hot Shot Racing, WST Snooker and Spyder.
