Staff Client Engineer

Cloud Gaming • “Play any PC game on any device!”

San Francisco, CA • Onsite • 6 People • B2C Software & Services / Gaming • Engineering • $100k-$200k

About Highscore

Highscore (highscore.com) is a cloud gaming startup based in San Francisco, CA.

Highscore’s long-term mission is simple: enable everyone to play any game, on any device, anywhere, instantly.

Built on a proprietary streaming technology and infrastructure stack, Highscore offers a personalized “Install & Play” model that lets players link their existing PC game libraries, then install + stream any game they own within seconds.

We’re currently in a closed feedback period, with 200K+ emails on our waitlist.

About the Team

We’re a small team (6 full-time folks) and just raised a Seed round from top-tier Silicon Valley investors, including Human Capital, IA Ventures, Slow Ventures, Offline Ventures, and angels from Dropbox, Figma, ModRetro, TBPN, Meta, and Plaid.

Our CEO was previously co-founder and CTO of a startup that created its own Linux distro (a fork of Gentoo), built a suite of ‘remote store management’ tools, and had a successful bootstrapped exit in 2019. Our other co-founder leads marketing & operations and has built, acquired, and scaled products that have generated over $1M in revenue.

Highscore’s founding team includes engineers from SpaceX, Journee, and the creator of the Unity Asset Store’s top-ranked netcode library. We’re looking for a staff client engineer excited to work on a small team to define, build, and expand the Highscore platform.

We have a hard-working, but fun culture - we host weekly gaming events with our community, attend headline industry events like GDC, and spend a good amount of time dogfooding our own product. :)

About the Role

TL;DR: Highscore is looking for a staff client engineer to help us scale our clients & create a better experience for users!

You’re excited by the idea of getting in early at a fast-growing startup, and helping to shape the company’s vision, product, and culture.

You’re interested in one or all of the following:

• Owning and architecting our cross-platform UI.

• Owning and developing new 1st-party clients for Highscore.

• Owning and developing new features for our ‘Highscore Premium’ subscription product.

What the Candidate Will Do / Expectations

• You’ll work closely with our CEO to own, develop, and shape the future of the Highscore platform!

• You will build and ship high-quality products quickly.

• You will focus on the user and build features to solve their needs.

• You will help drive the technical roadmap forward by contributing to architectural decisions + building new clients and features from inception to production.

• You have high attention to detail that is reflected in the quality of your work, but you’re still able to balance taking on tech-debt with business requirements.

• You have a passion for your craft that drives you to improve systems and code without being explicitly told.

• You are excited by the opportunity to grow with the company! 🚀

Tech

Our current web client is primarily written in React (Next.js). Our backend systems use C, C++, Zig, and Golang.

We’re considering creating a more cross-platform-compatible UI using React Native in the near future.

We use Notion, Linear, GitHub, and Discord for async communication and project management.

That said, we’re all ears to new technology that can help us move faster. Join us to make an impact on our stack!

Qualifications

• 4+ years of Software Engineering experience.

• Deep familiarity with low-level systems languages like C, C++, or Zig.

• Deep familiarity with React Native + React.

• Familiarity with building desktop and / or mobile applications from scratch.

• Comfortable diving into standard / 3rd-party libraries to make changes.

• Familiarity with common profiling tools / best practices.

• Comfortable with greenfield projects - working with the team to define requirements, talking to users & incorporating feedback, and taking a project from inception to production.

• Strong attention to detail + care deeply about optimizing client performance.

Bonus Points

• Experience working with real-time streaming systems.

• Familiarity with graphics APIs or low-latency media pipelines.

• Previous startup or founder-level experience.

• Strong design intuition or visual / UI craftsmanship.

Skills

C, C++, Zig, Rust, Golang, React, React Native, OpenGL, WebGL, GLSL, Networking, Systems

Interview Process

• Zoom Screen or Coffee / Lunch (30 minutes - 1 hour)

  • Chat about your background to ensure the role is a good fit + give you an opportunity to ask questions about Highscore!

• Take-Home Task + Follow-up Technical Call (2 hours - 4 hours)

  • You’ll be given a challenging take-home task that’s designed to test your problem-solving skills. You can use your own IDE, etc. — the task is designed to take a few hours maximum, then we’ll have a short Zoom or Coffee, and we’ll walk through your solution + thought process on the task.

• Team Interviews (1-2 hours)

  • You’ll speak with 1–2 other folks on the team to ensure alignment with the team + role expectations.

• Reference Checks + Paid Work Trial (1 week - 2 weeks)

  • You’ll provide us with 1-2 references from people that you’ve worked with in the past.

  • After we check in with your references, we’ll then do a paid (fixed hourly rate) work trial (we can work around your schedule — a few evening hours, mornings, etc. are fine). You’ll work with the team to complete real tickets, have a chance to ask any questions that might come up, and get a feel for what working with us will be like!

• Offer extended

Our interview process is meant to simulate what working at Highscore is like as closely as possible. We love candidates who have checked us out online and come prepared with questions about Highscore.

Compensation + Benefits

We offer above-market salary and equity, health + vision, hybrid / in-office work, a high-independence environment, and unlimited PTO.

Highscore is an equal opportunity employer, and we value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, disability status, or any other protected class.

Link to Apply:

https://forms.highscore.com/clientengineer