Job Description
Wanted: Colonist Engineering Lead
Working Hours: We work asynchronously and value outcomes over hours
Location: Fully Remote, Anywhere in the world
Compensation:
- Competitive salary paid in USD.
- Negotiable range based on experience and location
- Stock options (own a piece of Colonist)
About Colonist
We’re building the biggest digital board game platform on the internet. Last year, our players spent 2,466 years playing 45 million games on our Settlers of Catan alternative. We’re a fully remote, asynchronous team spread across multiple continents, focused on crafting extremely polished digital board games that people truly love.
About The Role
As a Engineering Lead at Colonist, your mission is to own our increasing technical complexity by making sound architectural decisions, improving development processes, and raising the technical bar across the organization. This is a high-impact leadership role for someone who thrives on systems thinking, architectural clarity and positively impacting millions of players.
What You’ll Do
- Evolve our TypeScript + Node.js + React + WebSocket systems for scalability, maintainability, and performance
- Shape our system design and infrastructure direction with long-term clarity in mind.
- Identify and remove bottlenecks in CI/CD, testing, and deployment reliability
- Mentor team members and help them reach mastery
- Raise technical standards by ensuring code quality, best practices, and documentation are maintained across projects
- Build and maintain a high-performing team
- Translate company and product goals into clear engineering plans and deliverables
- Strengthen our engineering values, encourage ownership, and scale a culture of continuous learning
Requirements
- 7+ years of professional software development experience
- Proven experience leading or managing engineers
- Deep expertise in TypeScript, React, Node.js, and WebSocket systems
- Strong understanding of system architecture, scalability, and maintainability
- Experience improving CI/CD pipelines, release processes, and team workflows
- Clear, structured written communication (async collaboration is our norm)
- Demonstrated ability to mentor and coach others
- Proven ability to elevate software development teams’ technical standards
- Strong judgment and decisiveness under uncertainty
Nice to Have
- Experience in real-time multiplayer or game backend systems
- Open-source contribution or technical community engagement
- Background in remote-first or async teams
Our Values at Colonist
We strongly adhere to these values in our team – if these resonate, then you’ll love working here!
Dependability
We’re self-driven players who deliver without needing supervision. When we commit to something, we make it happen.
Ownership
We take full responsibility and go beyond our roles to improve Colonist. Each of us acts like we own the company, because through our stock options, we do.
Clear Communication
In our remote environment, written communication is key. We’re direct, structured, and always keep our team in the loop.
Efficient Execution
We move fast and focus on impact. Instead of getting stuck on perfect solutions, we find practical ways forward and get things done.
Continuous Learning
We’re curious problem solvers who love a challenge. We constantly seek new ideas, embrace feedback, and aren’t afraid to change our minds when we’re wrong.
Benefits and Compensation
Compensation
- Competitive salary paid in USD
- Stock options (own a piece of Colonist)
Benefits
- Fully remote team spread across multiple time zones
- Flexible hours, we work asynchronously and value outcomes over hours
- Unlimited vacation
- Work equipment provided
- Monthly budget for productivity tools
Growth
- Work directly impacts 5M+ yearly active players
- Rapid learning opportunities
- Work with exceptional colleagues on challenging projects
- Freedom to identify and solve problems
- Access to all company metrics and discussions
- Expect deep work and autonomy with clear expectations and accountability
