Senior Mod Developer

We’re looking for a Senior Mod Developer to join our team at Essential, the world’s leading Minecraft mod used by millions of players. As a Senior Mod Developer, you will take ownership of major features, collaborate across teams, and mentor fellow developers to encourage team growth.

What you will do

- Take ownership of the development of core systems and features.

- Review project specifications and designs with a critical eye, and collaborate with our product and design team to refine them.

- Mentor junior and mid-level developers by guiding them towards solutions, getting involved in pair programming, and knowledge sharing.

- Work around undocumented or changing platform behavior, including reconciling differences between a wide range of Minecraft versions.

- Review code from team members with an emphasis on correctness and cross-version compatibility.

- Improve how the team works as a whole by contributing towards internal tooling, code standards, and development processes.

Within 1 month, you will...

- Complete onboarding and gain understanding of our values, and product development process.

- Learn our internal workflows, development environment setup, and best practices.

- Build strong working relationships with other developers, your Engineering Lead, and other team members to ensure efficient collaboration.

Within 3 months, you will...

- Ship your first significant feature end-to-end.

- Become a regular code reviewer, focusing on correctness and compatibility across the Minecraft versions we support.

- Be comfortable debugging and writing Mixins in our codebase, focusing on compatibility with future Minecraft updates and other mods.

- Start supporting less experienced team members through pair programming and walking them through difficult problems.

Within 6 months, you will...

- Own a large feature or system within Essential and be the go-to person for it.

- Lead a migration to a new Minecraft version.

- Be someone that team members go to when they are stuck and help them grow the skills to solve problems on their own.

- Identify areas of the codebase that need attention and lead efforts to improve them.

Requirements

- Prior experience in a software engineering team.

- Strong programming experience with Java and Kotlin.

- Experience building complex user-facing applications.

- Experience mentoring other developers and giving code reviews.

- Ability to navigate ambiguity, investigate unfamiliar systems, and make technical decisions with confidence.

- Clear communication skills, with the ability to clearly articulate technical concepts and collaborate effectively across teams.

- Comfortable with Git-based workflows and project management tools such as Linear or Jira (we use Linear).

- Bonus: Experience with Minecraft modding or Mixin.

- Bonus: Experience with Kotlin coroutines and asynchronous programming.

- Bonus: Experience with CI/CD (we use GitHub Actions) and Python.

If you don’t see yourself fully reflected in every job requirement listed above, we still encourage you to reach out, apply, and tell us more about yourself in your application. Research has shown that women and underrepresented groups often only apply when they feel 100% qualified. We are committed to creating a more equitable, inclusive, and diverse company, and we strongly encourage applicants of all genders, ages, ethnicities, cultures, abilities, sexual orientations, and life experiences to apply.

What we offer

- 46.790€–53.809€ gross per annum based on 40 hours per week as an employee.

- 24 days PTO (plus Bank Holidays & Christmas Shutdown).

- Generous paid sick leave (varies per country).

- Clear career growth and progression opportunities within the company.

- Flexible working hours within legal and reasonable boundaries.

- Employment is currently available in Germany, the UK, Republic of Ireland and Austria, with Canada, the US and Croatia following soon. *Rate and benefits will differ based on local currency.*

- Fixed-term contractor arrangements available outside of employment countries. Not all benefits apply to contractors.

Additional information

- Applicants must be older than 18 years old.

- Fully remote.

Prior software engineering experience; strong Java and Kotlin; experience building user-facing applications; mentoring and code review; Git workflows; project management tools; ability to navigate ambiguity; clear communication.

Key Responsibilities

• developing core systems
• mentoring developers
• reviewing code

Skills & Tools

Java, Kotlin, Git, Linear, Jira, GitHub Actions, Python, Mixin

Job Details

• Category: Software Development
• Seniority: Senior Level
• Commitment: Full Time, Contract
• Workplace: Remote — Germany or United Kingdom or Ireland or Austria
• Salary: EUR 46,790 – 53,809 / year
• Languages: English

Benefits

• Generous paid time off

About Essential

A company developing the world's leading Minecraft mod used by millions of players. — Industry: Information Technology