[Tech] Lead SDET / Tools Engineer

About tools & automation
The team builds and maintains engineering tools and test automation for a large-scale Unreal Engine 5 open-world title. The Lead provides technical leadership across all tools and engineering projects delivered by the team for this ambitious AAA project. Current areas include:

• In-editor performance and compliance visualization. Real-time viewport overlays that surface rendering cost (triangle density, texture memory, light overlap, material complexity) and asset-setup compliance (LODs/HLODs, naming, collision, lightmap UVs) directly inside the UE editor.
• DCC-side asset validation. A host-agnostic checker that enforces per-LOD budgets (triangles, texture resolution, material slots, draw calls, rig bones, collision) across Blender, Maya, and Houdini, surfacing results in-tool and gating non-compliant assets at Perforce or Git submit time.
• Automated content capture and data extraction. An autonomous Unreal subsystem that traverses World Partition, isolates and renders modular assets, props, and buildings, then exports structured JSON metadata at open-world scale.
• In-engine developer workflow tools. In-editor panels such as a bug reporter that files issue-tracker tickets directly from the running game, with automatic screenshots, logs, build/changelist, and world-coordinate capture.
• The custom Unreal test-automation framework. The in-house replacement for third-party automation tooling, covering object query, input simulation, performance-regression detection, and CI/CD-ready test running. The Lead owns its technical direction alongside the wider tools portfolio.

Position purpose
As Lead SDET / Tools Engineer, you are accountable for technical direction and engineering delivery across the full client portfolio, including Core Tools and test automation. You lead a team currently comprising eight SDETs and Test Automation Engineers, with ownership of architecture, engineering standards, technical priorities, and delivery quality.
You are the primary technical counterpart for client stakeholders, translating needs into a shared roadmap and achievable commitments. You balance new development with maintenance and support, delegate subsystem ownership to senior engineers, and develop the team through coaching and technical feedback.
This is a hands-on technical leadership role spanning C++/UE5 tools, Python DCC and pipeline tooling, and the C#/.NET test-automation framework. You contribute to critical designs and code while enabling specialist engineers to own implementation; leadership covers every workstream, not only Core Tools.

Duties and responsibilities

• Own the technical roadmap across tools and automation projects. Agree priorities, scope, acceptance criteria, and delivery milestones with client stakeholders and the Test Automation Director; manage dependencies and competing requests.
• Own architecture and engineering standards across UE5 editor/runtime plugins, Python pipelines, and the C#/.NET automation framework. Lead design reviews, document decisions, and resolve cross-project trade-offs in maintainability, extensibility, and performance.
• Lead the eight-person team through planning, work allocation, technical reviews, and delivery follow-through. Delegate ownership to Senior / Principal engineers, coordinate dependencies, and avoid single-person knowledge or approval bottlenecks.
• Act as the primary technical contact for client stakeholders. Run requirements and design discussions, demonstrate progress, communicate risks and options clearly, and negotiate scope changes against team capacity.
• Remain hands-on with critical designs, prototypes, code reviews, and difficult defects in UE5 C++ tools and Python pipelines. Guide Perforce, REST/OAuth2, JSON, and CI integrations with the engineers responsible for each component.
• Coach SDETs and Test Automation Engineers at all levels. Give regular feedback, agree technical development goals, support onboarding and hiring, and provide performance and capability input to the Test Automation Director.
• Own estimates, capacity planning, and technical-risk tracking across workstreams. Report delivery forecasts and blockers, replan when assumptions change, and escalate staffing, scope, or schedule decisions to the Director before commitments are missed.
• Coordinate resolution of cross-project failures involving engine internals, rendering, World Partition, build pipelines, or automation infrastructure. Assign incident ownership, communicate impact, and ensure root causes and follow-up fixes are addressed.
• Partner with artists, designers, QA, and gameplay and engine developers to validate workflows. Own rollout readiness, documentation, adoption, and support arrangements for tools and automation delivered.
• Set quality gates for code review, automated tests, CI reliability, and release readiness. Track tool adoption, automation stability, and workflow impact with stakeholders; use results to prioritize technical debt and improvements.
• Assess Unreal Engine, DCC, and AI-assisted tooling changes against project needs. Protect client code, credentials, and data in integrations; agree access and AI-use constraints before rollout.

Must-Haves

• Strong, production-grade modern C++ and C#, with recent hands-on delivery of maintainable UE5 tools and tested pipeline utilities (including pytest).
• Deep UE5 tools experience: editor plugins and runtime modules, Slate/UMG or Dear ImGui, subsystems, AActor lifecycle, reflection, console commands, and editor scripting; able to review designs and unblock engineers.
• Working knowledge of rendering and 3D content pipelines: LOD/HLOD, Nanite/Lumen, instancing/PCG, World Partition, texture and draw-call budgets, collision, rigs, and profiling with Unreal Insights.
• Demonstrated technical leadership of engineers across concurrent workstreams: architecture decisions, delegation, mentoring senior engineers, and accountability for team delivery rather than only individual contributions.
• Production integration experience with Perforce workflows and automation (submit triggers or P4 APIs), plus HTTP/JSON REST APIs, OAuth2, timeouts, and retries.
• Test-automation and CI/CD engineering experience: test strategy, reliable automated execution, failure diagnosis, and reporting. Able to guide framework architecture and integration with C#/.NET specialists; expert C# coding is not required.
• Portfolio-level architecture and lifecycle ownership: maintainable interfaces, host-agnostic design, code-review standards, rollout and support planning, and managing technical debt across tools.
• Direct stakeholder-management experience: turning ambiguous needs into priorities and acceptance criteria, estimating and planning against capacity, negotiating trade-offs, and communicating risks to technical and non-technical audiences.
• 6+ years of professional software or tools engineering, including 2+ years leading engineers or technical delivery, and a substantial UE5 contribution on a shipped or live project; equivalent demonstrated experience is considered.

Nice-to-Haves

• DCC plugin scripting for Blender, Autodesk Maya, Substance Painter, or similar tools.
• Houdini scripting and pipeline automation (hou, SOPs, PDG/TOPs).
• Generative-AI integration into engineering tools, including LLM APIs, failure triage, log analysis, or visual verification, with attention to evaluation and client-data handling.
• Hands-on development experience using Python or other scripting languages
• Render-programming depth (HLSL, custom passes or RDG) and/or Chaos physics.
• UE automation frameworks, GitLab CI or Jenkins, JUnit-style reporting, and TestRail or Jira integrations.
• Image capture, screenshot comparison, or visual-verification tooling.

• Desktop app development experience (Windows, macOS)

Qualifications
Graduation. A Computer Science degree or a related field is a plus.

Behavioral skills

• A genuine interest in video games and how developer tools improve production workflows and the player experience.
• Builds trust with engineers and client stakeholders; handles disagreement directly and constructively.
• Makes sound technical decisions under ambiguity, explains trade-offs, and revisits decisions when evidence changes.
• Takes responsibility for team outcomes, raises risks early, and follows through on agreed actions.
• Balances delivery pressure with engineering quality; sets realistic expectations and challenges unachievable commitments.
• Develops others through delegation, review, and coaching; gives talented engineers autonomy with clear accountability.
• English: advanced level, with clear written and verbal communication for client discussions, design decisions, and delivery reporting.

Reporting relationships and organizational impact
Reports to the Test Automation Director. Provides technical leadership for the full project's tools and test-automation portfolio and the current team of eight SDETs and Test Automation Engineers. Senior / Principal engineers retain delegated subsystem ownership. Partners with client engineering, art, design, QA, and production stakeholders; works with the Director on staffing, performance input, delivery escalations, and commitments requiring management approval.


Working conditions

• B2B contract, long term (6+ months)
• Fully remote work, potential option to work from office in Warsaw if preferred