Kairox Studios / Careers
Small team. Serious work. Games that earn the time players spend on them. If that sentence resonates, you might belong here.
Why Kairox
We scope projects to match our team size. When timelines slip, we adjust scope, not schedules. The people who built this studio came from environments where crunch was normalized, and they started Kairox specifically to change that.
Every contributor is credited in every game they worked on. No contractor exceptions. No contractor-versus-full-time distinctions in the credits roll. If you built something, your name is on it.
We do not have a hierarchy of titles. We have responsibilities. Every person on a project has a clearly defined area of ownership and the authority to make decisions within it without approvals from above.
We built our own engine because nothing else was right for what we make. We spend on good tools. We invest in proper hardware. We do not ask people to produce excellent work on inadequate infrastructure.
The kind of games we make are not possible at scale. They need people who are invested in them as creative objects, not as SKUs. If you want to work on something that genuinely requires your expertise, you will find it here.
Open Positions
Extend and improve the KX Engine's rendering pipeline. Work across rendering, physics, and systems-level code. You will own meaningful subsystems, not tickets.
What you will work on
What we are looking for
Create the spaces players will remember for years. You build environments that communicate atmosphere, history, and danger without relying on UI or explicit narrative.
What you will work on
What we are looking for
Design and iterate on combat across Kurogane and Neonfall. Player death should always feel deserved. Mastery should feel earned. The gap between both is your job.
What you will work on
What we are looking for
Implement optional co-op infrastructure for Kurogane. Latency-tolerant architecture required. The single-player experience must not be compromised by the networking layer.
What you will work on
What we are looking for
Compensation and Benefits
Benchmarked to senior-tier ranges in EU and NA markets. We pay the same regardless of where you are located. No location-adjusted pay.
A meaningful percentage of net revenue from titles you ship is distributed to the team. The better the games do, the better you do.
No core hours beyond a 4-hour overlap window. Work when your thinking is sharpest. Results are the measure, not presence.
Full medical, dental, and vision for you and dependents. For regions where public coverage applies, we provide a supplemental private plan.
No PTO tracking. Leadership models taking real time off. We have a suggested minimum of 25 days annually because we want people rested, not depleted.
Full workstation budget on day one, refreshed every three years. We include a peripheral and software budget for ongoing setup upgrades.
Annual stipend for courses, conferences, and books. No approval required below the threshold. Attend the conference. Buy the thing that makes you better at your work.
Your name in the credits of every game you contributed to. Permanent, non-negotiable, applies to contractors and full-time staff equally.
Hiring Process
Send us your application, portfolio, and a short note about what you are looking to build and why Kairox specifically. Generic applications do not move forward.
Response within 5 business daysA 30-minute conversation with someone from the relevant team. Not a formal interview. We want to understand your work and you want to understand ours. Mutual fit.
30 minutesA paid, bounded task relevant to the role. One week maximum. We review and discuss it together. We do not keep the work. You keep the fee regardless of outcome.
Paid / 1 week maxA 90-minute session with 3 to 4 people you would work with directly. Focused on collaboration and judgment, not trivia. An offer follows within 48 hours if it is right.
90 minutes / Decision in 48 hrsNot seeing the right role?
If you make things at a level we respect, tell us. Discipline matters less than the quality of your thinking and the quality of your work. We read every open application and respond to the ones that make us want to talk.