Senior Game AI Programmer

Creative Assembly is looking for an experienced Game AI Programmer to join our Total War Campaign AI Team based at our studio in Horsham, in the heart of West Sussex. This an excellent opportunity to work collaboratively with a diverse group of programmers, designers, and QA technicians. You will create efficient and effective game AI solutions to tackle the complex strategic and tactical challenges presented by Total War's blend of real-time and turn-based gameplay, helping us to deliver a challenging, immersive, and fun experience for our players! This position will focus on AI development for the turn-based Total War Campaign. Please be aware that although the AI Team, and CA more widely, have a keen interest in machine learning and related techniques, this developer position is focused on more traditional search and optimisation processes. Candidates with a primarily machine learning (or similar) background would need to be comfortable using or adapting to these approaches, and we would recommend the inclusion of a cover letter with your application to acknowledge this. This role is Hybrid and has an expectation of at least three days per week in-office in our Horsham studio, however Creative Assembly supports flexible working and we are open to discussion of working patterns as part of the recruitment process., As a Senior Game AI Programmer, you will be working with colleagues within and beyond the Campaign AI Team to help design and develop behavioural systems for the Campaign AI of Total War. On a day-to-day basis, you will:

• Support existing AI systems through incremental improvement, feature updates and debugging along with creating new AI systems in response to ongoing or upcoming project requirements
• Be expected to familiarize yourself with the existing codebase as well as contribute to the planning and execution of future AI systems' evolution
• Aid in mentoring more junior members of the team in their technical and professional development and set a good example of these and good team working practices.
  
  Excellent C++ programming skills and knowledge of more recent language features
• Previous game development experience that includes systems design
• Interest in AI and games
• Comfortable working in a collaborative, diverse and multi-disciplinary environment
• An ability to focus on working independently when needed
• Creative problem solving.
Desirable
• Experience developing AI or related systems in games, research, or other settings
• Knowledge or use of the MCTS algorithm
• Broad gaming experience and a sense for good game design
• An appreciation of Creative Assembly titles is an advantage.
  
  About Creative Assembly
It's an exciting time to be a part of our craft-led studio as we push boundaries, creating deep and detailed experiences that last. Our teams are diverse from across the world, from trainees to industry veterans who constantly challenge us and make sure we are striving for the best within our games and our studio life. We are united through our shared values of Quality, Focus, Teamwork, Respect and Trust and we win awards for our culture and our people-centric approach, having won a Best Place to Work Award for five consecutive years. We invest in our people, the studio, and our projects. We'll give you the creative freedom, tools, support, and development to achieve your potential. Our studios are based in Horsham, UK and Sofia, Bulgaria, including several bespoke state-of-the-art audio suites and a dedicated motion capture facility. We offer many benefits to support you and your family including:
• Additional medical and dental health insurance for you, your partner and kids, life insurance, and free health care screening
• Additional holiday allowance plus full studio closure over the Christmas and New Year period, as all Bulgarian Bank holidays
• Annual discretionary studio bonus
• Defined career development pathways and personalised training support including; SEGA Dev Day, internal masterclasses, prestigious creative workshops, on-site training with renowned specialists and global conference attendance
• Wellbeing support with an employee assistance programme
• Free games and merchandise plus access to our extensive games library
• Free breakfast every day - toast, cereals, yoghurts, fresh fruit, soft drinks and more in our fully stocked kitchen
• Office massages
• Studio parties for you and your family; such as our Summer and Christmas parties, Children's day party, wrap parties for game releases