Technical Associate Director

ABOUT LUCID DREAM

Lucid Dream is a custom game and interactive experience studio. We help leaders in medical, scientific, and technical industries use emerging technology to transform the way they engage, train, and explain complex science to providers and patients. Inspired by games, we create immersive and interactive experiences for VR/AR, mobile, desktop, and web-transforming education and engagement through purposeful play.

Located in the heart of downtown Durham, NC, our office at the historic American Tobacco Campus is a short walk from world-class dining and entertainment venues including the Durham Bulls Athletic Park and the Durham Performing Arts Center (DPAC).

ABOUT THE ROLE

As Technical Associate Director, you will lead the technical execution of our projects, working closely with the development team while also contributing directly as a developer. You'll set the technical vision for our projects, oversee implementation, and ensure efficient workflows-but you'll also roll up your sleeves and write code alongside the team. We're looking for someone who thrives in both leadership and hands-on development, balancing big-picture strategy with direct contributions to programming and engineering. This is an exciting opportunity to shape interactive experiences that make a real impact while staying deeply engaged in the creative and technical process.

Please note this is a hybrid position requiring three days of in-office work per week in Durham, NC, and two days work-from-home.

PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES:

Technical Leadership (60%):

• Oversee the development of interactive experiences and games.
• Ensure high technical quality, innovation, and timely delivery.
• Address technical challenges with scalable, maintainable, and creative solutions.
• Work with project managers to schedule the development team's time, coordinate with contractors, and optimize workflows to keep projects on track, on time, and within scope.
• Design and implement technical solutions in collaboration with the Creative Director to ensure the client's creative vision and project goals are being met.
• Support team growth, foster technical excellence, and stay ahead of industry trends to drive innovation.
• Run regular testing on alpha, beta, and final version of our interactive and game experiences.
• Support the deployment team by maintaining our "conference kit", documenting troubleshooting steps and streamlining the process for go-live deployments.

Code Quality & Multi-Platform Development (40%):

• Establish best practices, maintain coding standards, and guide development across mobile, desktop, and VR/AR platforms.
• Write clean, well-documented code that sets a standard for the development team; must have a strong working knowledge of C#.
• Lead the creation of game frameworks that increase efficiency and repeatability.
• Lead by example in creating architectures that allow the team to achieve high throughput and maintain high levels of quality.

WHAT YOU'LL NEED TO SUCCEED:

• 5+ years of relevant industry experience, with at least 2 years in a leadership role.
• Strong experience developing and shipping interactive experiences or games in Unity.
• Experience leading development teams, mentoring developers, and fostering a positive engineering culture.
• Ability to troubleshoot, debug, and optimize performance across different platforms.
• Ability to work closely with creative, production, and client teams to achieve project goals.
• Background in creating interactive applications for education, science, or similar sectors preferred but not required.
• Familiarity with other game engines such as Unreal Engine and/or experience with Swift is a plus.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills.

WHAT WE OFFER:

• Robust company culture committed to our core mission and values
• Amazing group of talented colleagues, and a management team dedicated to transparent leadership and helping everyone grow and thrive
• Competitive salary
• Employer-sponsored health, vision, and dental
• 401(k) Retirement Plan with company match
• Responsible Paid Time-Off Policy
• Hybrid Work policy
• Parental Leave Policy
• Downtown Durham office with parking
• Monthly team-building events
• The opportunity to work on meaningful projects at the intersection of games, science, and education
• A collaborative, small-team atmosphere where your contributions have a direct impact
• Professional development opportunities and support for ongoing learning

Lucid Dream is an Equal Opportunity Employer that gives all qualified applicants consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability or veteran status. We are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees based on mutual respect. All employment is decided on the basis of qualifications, merit, and business need.