Freelance Indie Game Developer Jobs (NOW HIRING)

Apple Games is the home of gaming on Apple’s platforms, including iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, and Vision Pro. Join the Game Services Framework team to help us build the developer-facing technologies that drive discovery, engagement, and connectivity for games in the Apple ecosystem. We have an exciting roadmap of features supporting games ranging from mobile, to indie, to AAA, and interacting with a wide variety of operating system areas. Apple Music, Apple Podcasts, Apple Books, and the App Store. Our products operate at a massive scale, meeting Apple’s high expectations with high performance to deliver a huge variety of entertainment to more than 150 countries in over 35 languages. The engineers on our team build secure, end-to-end solutions. We develop the custom software used to process all the creative work, the tools that providers use to deliver media, all the server-side systems, and the APIs for many Apple services. We use those systems to build out delightful and easy-to-use customer experiences for our media services. Thanks to Apple’s unique integration of hardware, software, and services, engineers here partner to get behind a single unified vision. That vision always includes a deep commitment to strengthening Apple’s privacy policy, one of Apple’s core values. Although services are a bigger part of Apple’s business than ever before, these teams remain small, nimble, and multi-functional, offering greater exposure to the array of opportunities here.
Description
As a Senior Gaming Platform Engineer on the Apple Games Frameworks team, you will own and evolve the critical infrastructure that connects game developers to the full capabilities of Apple's devices and services. Your mission is to unlock the unique features of Apple platforms-from advanced graphics and spatial computing to social gaming services-making them accessible to developers across diverse game engines and development environments. Your primary focus will be maintaining and expanding Apple's open source Unity plugins while building the next generation of tooling and frameworks that will make a broader range of Apple technologies available to Unity developers and extend our reach to additional game engines and development environments. You'll be responsible for designing and implementing cross-platform bridging solutions, automated C#/Swift interoperability systems that eliminate manual binding code, and developer tools that reduce integration complexity for game developers. Your work will directly impact thousands of developers and millions of players, enabling richer gaming experiences that take full advantage of what makes Apple platforms special. This role requires deep technical knowledge of game development platforms, runtime systems, and cross-platform integration challenges, particularly in Windows-based development environments where most game developers operate.
Preferred Qualifications
Unity Engine plugin development experience and familiarity with Unity's native plugin architecture
C# and .NET/Mono runtime experience
Swift, Objective-C, or other Apple platform development experience
Experience with other game engines (Unreal, Godot, etc.) and their plugin systems
Background in compiler toolchains, code generation, or language runtime implementation
Client/server networking and multiplayer game development experience
Previous experience building developer tools or SDKs at scale
Minimum Qualifications
5+ years of experience with multi-platform systems programming and API development
Strong proficiency in C/C++ programming (essential for game engine integration)
Experience with C# or Objective-C/Swift, with willingness to learn and work across both ecosystems
Strong knowledge of memory management, runtime systems, and platform-specific integration challenges
Proficiency with Windows development environments and toolchains used by game developers
Experience with cross-language integration, data marshalling, or native API binding challenges
Understanding of game engine architectures and plugin development patterns
Experience maintaining open source projects and working with developer communities
Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent experience
Pay & Benefits
At Apple, base pay is one part of our total compensation package and is determined within a range. This provides the opportunity to progress as you grow and develop within a role. The base pay range for this role is between $139,500 and $258,100, and your base pay will depend on your skills, qualifications, experience, and location.
Apple employees also have the opportunity to become an Apple shareholder through participation in Apple's discretionary employee stock programs. Apple employees are eligible for discretionary restricted stock unit awards, and can purchase Apple stock at a discount if voluntarily participating in Apple's Employee Stock Purchase Plan. You'll also receive benefits including: Comprehensive medical and dental coverage, retirement benefits, a range of discounted products and free services, and for formal education related to advancing your career at Apple, reimbursement for certain educational expenses - including tuition. Additionally, this role might be eligible for discretionary bonuses or commission payments as well as relocation. Learn more about Apple Benefits
Note: Apple benefit, compensation and employee stock programs are subject to eligibility requirements and other terms of the applicable plan or program.