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The role, as advertised by Playground Games
Playground Games is looking for an experienced Gameplay Engineer to support the talented Forza Horizon live team here in Leamington Spa.
While this role is based on site at the Playground Games studio in Leamington Spa, the successful candidate will be engaged via a managed service provider. Following completion of the interview process, the successful candidate will be connected with the provider for contractual details and onboarding.
About us:
As a first-party Xbox Game Studio, we are passionate about making genre-defining games that are accessible, beautiful, and, most of all, fun.
About the role:
As an Experienced Gameplay Engineer, you will be working with the art, design and engineering teams to deliver Gameplay or UI features and core technology features.
Our ideal candidate is an expert Gameplay Engineer who is passionate about their craft, autonomous, skilled in C++, and has a proven track record in games development.
Please note, we expect this work to continue for 18 Months and, as this position is offered through a managed service provider, we are unable to provide visa sponsorship for this role.
What you’ll do:
- Implement compelling Gameplay/UI features which will deliver into the existing Forza Horizon 6 live programme
- Develop core Gameplay, UI and engine features within our custom, proprietary engine
- Work closely with the Design team to empower them through our technology
- Become a key collaborator who can work effectively within a large multi-disciplined team
What you’ll bring:
- Gameplay/UI Engineering experience, with demonstrable work on at least one published title (ideally AAA).
- Strong C++ experience
- An eye to spot, and execute, improvements to code systems and processes to continually look to better how we work
- Excellent task planning and delivery mindset
- A genuine passion for video games.
Playground Games is proud to be an equal opportunity employer, we believe that diversity and inclusion fuels creativity. We are dedicated to creating a safe, comfortable and welcoming working environment.
We strive to build an inclusive culture that encourages, supports and celebrates the diverse voices of our team members. It drives our innovation and connects us closer to our players. We are committed to equity, diversity, and inclusion across age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation.
If you require any reasonable accommodation to apply for this position, please contact us on recruitment@playground-games.com
This role at a glance
This is one of 153 programming and engineering roles open in England today, out of 631 live games jobs across the UK, and Playground Games is hiring for 11 other roles alongside it. The title doesn’t name a seniority, so it most likely sits at mid level — the posting’s requirements are the best guide to the experience wanted. Playground Games doesn’t publish the salary here; across the 3 mid-level programming and engineering roles on the board that do, the median is £54k.
- Discipline
- Engineering
- Level (from the title)
- Mid-level
- On gamesJobs since
- 22 Oct 2026
- Other Engineering roles in England
- 152
About Playground Games
Playground Games is a Leamington Spa studio founded in 2010 and acquired by Microsoft in 2018, making it part of Xbox Game Studios. It is best known for the Forza Horizon open-world racing series, which it has developed since the first game in 2012.
Playground Games company profile and all 12 open roles →
Guide Game programming careers: specialisms, tests and portfolios →
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