Principal Technical Sound Designer

Mob Entertainment is a startup multimedia studio that is best known for our hit indie horror game "Poppy Playtime".  This franchise is one of the hottest new properties in gaming, and our team is naturally expanding as our ambition expands.  To give a taste of our brand's popularity, more than 200 billion YouTube views of Poppy Playtime related content have occurred since the game's launch 6 years ago. 

We’re looking for a Principal Technical Sound Designer with deep production experience building and shipping high-quality technical audio systems for AA/AAA games. This is a senior individual-contributor role for someone equally comfortable with audio systems architecture, Unreal Engine, Wwise, C++, Blueprints, optimization, mixing, tooling, and hands-on audio production.

What You'll Do

• Architect and build modular, scalable, and portable audio systems from the ground up using C++, Blueprints, Wwise, and Unreal Engine.
• Work across multiple AA/AAA game projects simultaneously, designing solutions that can scale across projects and teams.
• Develop deep integrations using the Wwise Unreal Engine API.
• Design and maintain sophisticated dynamic mixing and spatial audio systems in Wwise, supporting gameplay, dialogue, environments, cinematics, and changing player context.
• Develop advanced audio functionality using Unreal Engine MetaSounds.
• Profile and optimize audio for CPU, memory, runtime performance, and platform constraints.
• Architect and refine scalable, modular, and portable dialogue systems, balancing in-world immersion with gameplay and dialogue clarity.
• Build Unreal Editor modules, utilities, and tools that improve audio implementation workflows and reduce repetitive work.
• Create clear technical documentation and how-to guides that enable sound designers and junior technical sound designers to independently use and maintain the systems you build.
• Contribute hands-on sound design when needed.
• Deliver high-quality, production-ready results under short deadlines and high-pressure development conditions.

What We're Looking For

• Multiple shipped AA or AAA titles, with professional experience mixing shipped game projects.
• Experience supporting multiple AA/AAA projects concurrently.
• Deep expertise with Wwise, its Unreal Engine integration/API, dynamic mixing, and Wwise Spatial Audio.
• Extensive professional experience with Unreal Engine, C++, Blueprints, and MetaSounds.
• Proven experience in architecting and building core game-audio systems from scratch.
• Proven expertise optimizing game audio for CPU and memory performance.
• Proven experience developing audio systems for networked multiplayer games, including challenges such as replicated audio state/events, latency and synchronization, and multiplayer voice chat.
• Multiple proven examples of building and refining dialogue systems from the ground up.
• Deep experience developing Unreal Editor modules, utilities, and workflow tools.
• Strong technical documentation and knowledge-transfer skills.
• Professional sound design experience and a strong understanding of how technical systems support creative audio goals.
• Experience working in horror games or horror-focused interactive audio is strongly valued. At minimum, candidates should demonstrate familiarity with and enthusiasm for the genre and an understanding of how audio systems can support tension, atmosphere, player uncertainty, pacing, and dynamic scares.
• A demonstrated ability to make strong technical and creative decisions when time, performance, or production constraints are significant.

Principal-Level Expectations

We’re looking for more than familiarity with these technologies. Strong candidates should be able to demonstrate specific shipped examples of systems they personally architected, built, optimized, documented, and supported in production.

Salary Range:

The base salary range for this position is listed below. Final compensation within the applicable salary range will be determined based on factors such as the applicant’s experience, qualifications, and work location.

San Francisco, CA; New York City, NY; Los Angeles, CA; Seattle, WA; Boston, MA; & Seattle, WA DC Metropolitan Areas:   $164,000- $215,000USD annually

Austin, TX; Denver, CO; Nashville, TN; Atlanta, GA; Chicago, IL; Dallas, TX;  Miami, FL,  Portland, OR, Raleigh–Durham, NC, Philadelphia, PA, Minneapolis–St. Paul, MN, Phoenix, AZ
Salt Lake City, UT Metropolitan Areas:   $143,000 - $187,000 USD annually

All Other U.S. Locations: $121,000 - $159,000 USD annually

Benefits:

Mob Entertainment offers the following benefits to all eligible U.S.-based full-time employees: profit sharing; medical, dental, and vision insurance; 401(k) matching; FSA/HSA; paid time off; sick time; holidays; and parental leave.

Fraud Alert:

Beware of job scams: Mob Entertainment does not extend offers via text, social media DM, or without a completed application and interview. Please verify email address which should always originate from @mobentertainment.com.

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Mob Entertainment is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and complies with all federal, state, and local laws prohibiting discrimination in employment. We are committed to providing equal opportunities to applicants and employees without regard to race, color, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender, age, disability, military service, or any other protected class under applicable state or local law. Mob Entertainment also considers all qualified applicants with criminal histories consistent with Fair Chance laws as well as any other applicable state and local laws.