Job Description

Blackbird Interactive is a creative-fueled, future-driven, independent game studio where the best talent in the industry can find long-term careers to help grow their abilities while working on a wide range of projects, which encompass world-class IPs as well as our own creations across multiple genres.
In 2022, we announced that our studio is implementing a four-day work week as well as supporting in-studio, remote within Canada, and hybrid work arrangements as permanent options to our employees.
We're looking for a Senior UI Software Engineer to help build, evolve, and optimize player-facing UI systems and in-game menus for Minecraft (Bedrock Engine) across console, PC, and mobile. You'll partner closely with design, UX, art, and gameplay to deliver accessible, performant, and beautiful interfaces at massive scale-supporting everything from onboarding flows to live service menus, store/marketplace surfaces, and cross-platform multiplayer experiences.
This role is remote-friendly in Canada (Pacific-time overlap required).
What You'll Tackle

• UI Systems & Features - Design, implement, and maintain UI features in C++ as well as React and Typescript on the Bedrock Engine, leveraging its data-driven UI frameworks (layouts, widgets, animation, navigation, input, and state management).
• Performance on All Devices - Profile and optimize CPU/GPU usage, memory, draw calls, and asset footprints for mobile-class hardware and console targets; ensure UIs remain snappy at 60fps+ where applicable.
• Rendering & Tech Integration - Work within the engine's rendering pipeline to ensure robust UI rendering, text shaping, localization, and theming; collaborate on batching, atlasing, and shader considerations for UI elements.
• Input & Accessibility - Build responsive input handling across gamepad, mouse/keyboard, and touch; champion accessibility (scaling, color/contrast, screen reader readiness, localization/RTL, IME).
• Live Service & Commerce Surfaces - Partner with service and content teams to implement data-driven menus, event surfacing, marketplace/storefront UI, and news/seasonal content hooks.
• Multi-Platform Compliance - Integrate UI that respects platform guidelines (Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, Windows, iOS, Android); support certification-related UI behaviors and platform entitlement/UX flows.
• Pipelines & Authoring - Improve UI authoring workflows (schemas, prefabs/templates, style tokens), content validation, and CI checks to keep iteration fast and safe for a global content team.
• Mentorship & Collaboration - Act as a technical point-of-contact for UI; review code, unblock cross-discipline partners, and set high quality bars for stability and player experience.

You'll Thrive Here If You

• Have 5+ years of professional experience in React, Typescript and C++ game/UI engineering, including at least one shipped multi-platform title (console + either PC or mobile).
• Have hands-on experience with engine-level UI systems (retained-mode or immediate-mode), including layout, animation, navigation/state, input, and data binding.
• Are comfortable profiling and optimizing UI performance (renderdoc or similar GPU tools, platform profilers, frame analyzers), and diagnosing platform-specific issues.
• Understand text and localization pipelines (font atlases, fallback fonts, shaping, bidi/RTL, plural rules) and can build resilient systems for global audiences.
• Communicate clearly across disciplines and take end-to-end ownership-from technical design through implementation, testing, and polish.
• Are comfortable with Git, and build systems/CI such as Jenkins, TeamCity, or ADO.

Nice-to-Have (Bonus XP)

• Experience developing UI within Minecraft Bedrock or another large data-driven UI framework
• Familiarity with console platform SDKs (Microsoft/Sony/Nintendo) and certification requirements as they relate to UI/UX.
• Knowledge of layout engines (e.g., flexbox-style systems), text shaping (e.g., HarfBuzz concepts), or accessibility standards (WCAG-inspired game UI practices).
• Prior work on live service games (feature flags, A/B tests, remote config) and store/commerce surfaces (catalog, entitlements, receipts).
• Passion for tooling and CI/CD, including automated UI validation (linting, schema checks, screenshot diffs) and shaving minutes off iteration time.

How You'll Work

• Collaborate with design, UX, and art to translate wireframes into robust, reusable UI components.
• Write technical designs, break down delivery plans, and uphold quality gates (unit/integration tests where appropriate, perf budgets, accessibility checks).
• Partner with gameplay and online/service teams to surface dynamic data safely and efficiently.
• Support stable cross-platform builds; participate in code reviews, risk management, and feature hardening.

$90,000 - $155,000 a year

Skills Required