Senior Desktop Engineer (Linux Gaming)

Salary: £65,000 - £75,000

Location: Remote, but within the UK

Please note: We are unable to sponsor international visas at this time.

About Nexus Mods

Established in 2001, Nexus Mods is the largest video game modding platform on the internet - a household name in the PC gaming ecosystem.

• 80M+ registered members
• 980K+ mods for 5,500+ games
• 26B+ mod downloads

We’re currently focused on product modernisation, driving growth and building infrastructure for the next 10 years of community-powered modding.

Our Role

We’re looking for a Linux gaming specialist to join our Engineering team, working on the Linux experience for Vortex, Nexus Mods’ flagship desktop mod manager. Your main focus will be SteamOS and Steam hardware such as the Steam Deck, helping bring Vortex to Linux gamers and delivering on Nexus Mods’ commitment to SteamOS.

Vortex is a desktop application, currently Windows-first with Linux support on the roadmap. It runs on Linux today but is some way off parity with Windows, and most of the remaining problems come from gaming on Linux, such as Wine and Proton, game store compatibility and game-specific workarounds. You’ll also help us build a support strategy for Linux players and triage Linux issues as they come in. We’re looking for someone who knows how Windows games and modding tools behave on Linux and can make the changes themselves.

What You’ll Be Working On

• Developing and improving the Vortex experience on SteamOS and Steam hardware.
• Adapting existing functionality, particularly Windows functionality, to work with games running through Proton and Wine.
• Taking existing solutions and implementing them for Linux rather than reinventing everything from scratch.
• Shaping our Linux support strategy and triaging Linux issues from players.
• Establishing standards for Linux development and making it easier for our engineers to work on Linux.

Role Requirements

Must-haves:

• Extensive Linux gaming experience. Occasional use or owning a Steam Deck isn’t enough. Ideally you’re Linux-first and strongly prefer working on Linux.
• A strong understanding of Wine and Proton, and how Windows games and tools behave under them.
• Experience with SteamOS, and with how games are installed and launched on Linux across Steam and other stores and launchers.
• A genuine passion for gaming and gaming culture.
• Strong JavaScript / TypeScript experience in production.
• Solid Node.js experience, including async patterns, streaming I/O and child processes.
• Experience debugging production software on machines you don’t control.
• Experience triaging user-reported issues and turning vague reports into bugs you can reproduce.
• Clear communication and comfort working with other teams.
• Ability to balance speed, quality and pragmatism in a long-lived codebase with active community contributors.

Nice to haves:

• Linux modding experience.
• Familiarity with Nexus Mods and modding more broadly. Not essential, as we provide internal training.
• Hands-on Electron experience, including the main vs. renderer split.
• Strong React experience, including state management.
• Packaging, code signing and auto-update experience (electron-builder, Flatpak, or equivalent).
• Hands-on CI/CD experience.
• Experience taking a Windows-first app to Linux, or maintaining Windows/Linux parity in production.
• Background in launchers or content distribution clients (Steam, Heroic, Lutris, GOG Galaxy, modding tools).
• Open source contributions, especially to Linux gaming projects like Proton, Wine, Lutris, Heroic or Bottles.
• Understanding of gaming ecosystems, such as file formats, save management, load orders and plugin systems.
• Experience setting up or running user support processes.

Role Responsibilities

• Build and maintain Linux-specific features and platform integrations across the frontend, backend and integration layers of a desktop app used by more than a million people every month, across SteamOS, Steam hardware and desktop distros.
• Adapt Windows-first functionality (file system, permissions, case sensitivity, and running Windows modding tools under Proton) to work reliably on Linux.
• Make game discovery and launching work across Steam, other stores and third-party launchers.
• Work out game-specific fixes and workarounds, and keep them maintainable as the list grows.
• Tackle hard technical problems like platform-specific bugs, performance regressions and race conditions.
• Work across the delivery lifecycle, from prototyping to multi-sprint delivery of Linux support and parity work.
• Support packaging and distribution for Linux (e.g. Flatpak, AppImage, or equivalent).
• Triage incoming Linux issues and work with our community and support teams to set up a proper support process for Linux players.
• Diagnose field issues using crash reports, telemetry and logs across SteamOS and other Linux environments.
• Collaborate with other teams and review contributions from community contributors and internal engineers.
• Write clean, well-tested code and uphold high standards across CI/CD, packaging and documentation.
• Share Linux knowledge and support other engineers across pods.

Benefits of Working at Nexus Mods

Benefits

• We work a 4-day week of 32 hours, with no reduction in pay.
• An allowance of £25 each month to spend on video games.
• Employee Assistance Programme.
• Private BUPA healthcare for you and your family.
• A very flexible training budget.
• Regular social events throughout the year. Participation is optional!

Diversity and Inclusion

We celebrate diversity and want you to bring your whole self to work. Supporting an incredible community of tens of millions of users, we thrive on engaging as many views as possible to improve our platform. We see no reason why our culture should be any different.