Principal 'Game Feel' Engineer — Unity

Principal 'Game Feel' Engineer — Unity (Game Programmer / SW Eng San Francisco , California Direct Hire Mar 17, 2026)

Can You Make a Button Press Feel Like a Tiny Celebration?

Our client has built an AI companion with millions of daily users, $20M ARR, and a $115M Series A already in the bank. There's one thing standing between them and extraordinary: the moment‑to‑moment feel of being inside its world isn't there yet. They know it.

That's the job. Fix All of It. Own All of It. Ship Constantly.

WHAT YOU'LL OWN

The complete feel layer: character interactions, world navigation, camera behavior, environmental objects, VFX, micro‑animations, and haptics.

Rapid prototyping — slam out variants, put them physically in founders' hands, iterate fast.

The internal standard for what "good" feels like, YOU are the bar‑setter.

Tuning systems you design and build yourself, no designers in the way, no approvals needed.

WHO THIS IS FOR

Someone who can hear "this feels floaty" and close the gap to "I could do this all day", through taste, iteration, and restraint.

A designer who pushes code: you build your own tuning knobs, tie into existing systems, and need no babysitting.

Fluent in Unity or Unreal (Unity preferred); solid enough C# to implement and tune without a systems engineer holding your hand.

A personal library of feel references, games you've played, dissected, and learned from.

Energized by tight feedback loops, early prototypes, and direct founder input.

Someone who prefers autonomy over process and measures success by what ships, not when.

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