What a bunch of (mostly) handsome
and talented people
and talented people
Turbulenz is a fast-growing internet technology company, responsible for developing the technology and platform that enables the revolutionary online game network, turbulenz.com. Turbulenz is an emerging games platform that instantly delivers high quality 3D games in the web browser to gamers around the world. Turbulenz is currently in open beta and everyone is invited to have a play.
Turbulenz was founded in early 2009 by a group of former Directors and Programmers from Electronic Arts. Since then, the team has grown to include developers and business leaders from some of the world's leading entertainment companies such as Apple, Sony, Google, Microsoft, Square Enix, Eidos and Realtime Worlds.
Turbulenz is privately funded and has raised over $5 million to date.
Turbulenz' vision is to create the world's greatest and most engaging gaming experience across all game genres and all types of gamer demographics. With a relentless focus on quality, Turbulenz endeavours to become the leading games platform for developers and gamers alike. Turbulenz is heavily investing in the creation of its own high-quality 3D content as well as providing tools and technology for third party developers to develop, test, publish, and monetise their games on turbulenz.com. Ultimately, we will continuously work to ensure that Turbulenz remains the home of instantly accessible, high-quality and engaging games.
Before joining Turbulenz, Duncan was a lead engineer in the R&D department at Square-Enix in Tokyo, dealing with upcoming platforms and approaches to many-core systems. During his time in the industry he has also been an FAE at NaturalMotion working with customers in the US and Japan, and an Engineer at EA collaborating with several studios on shared rendering technology. Prior to entering the games industry Duncan spent 5 years as a post-graduate student in Japan.
Some of Duncan's favourite games are Guitar Hero, Metal Gear Solid and many of the Nintendo classics such as the Mario and Zelda series. His hobbies also include playing guitar badly.
Niki was the first girl in her class aged 11 to have a Game Boy, although she was sadly the worst at playing it. From that day she has been a fan of all things Nintendo, she has loved playing Tetris, Super Mario, Pikmin, Denki Blocks and the Zelda and Professor Layton series.
Caution, Niki is famously a bad loser, so it's best to let her win or even better not to consider playing with her in the first place.
She is a devourer of literature and isn't ashamed to admit that she likes to alternate between modern classics and trash.
Niki joined Turbulenz after working across Europe at E.ON Energie, Merrill Lynch and most recently Ernst & Young. She is fluent in English, German, and French.
Blake is the closest thing Turbulenz has to a professional game player, having clocked up more hours playing Final Fantasy in his life than most people have spent sleeping. There are almost no games he's unable to turn his hand to, and is surprisingly proficient at rhythm games. (Surprisingly because his real world guitar playing and drumming don't quite match up to the financial and time investment he's made over the past 20 years.)
Blake still holds the title as the third best table football player at EA. Although he's rumoured to be promoted to second, after previous champions have been deported from the European Union for libel and tax evasion.
Blake was previously a Senior Software Engineer at EA where he worked with game teams, developing and optimising their game systems. He was the lead engineer for EA's Fight Night demo showcased at the PlayStation 3 launch conference at E3 2005. He has worked on a wide range of titles including Battlefield: Bad Company, Fight Night Round 3, Spore, Medal of Honor: Airborne, Need for Speed and Skate.
After notching up a series of unbeatable record scores on "Hungry Horace" (he found an exploit bug) Simon started programming in BASIC on a 16k Sinclair ZX Spectrum. Rapidly tiring of typing in listings from magazines, he PEEKed and POKEed his way into the mysteries of Z80 assembly language. This led onto hacking up map editors for the classic insect horror game "Ant Attack" and the turn-based fantasy wargame "The Lords of Midnight".
This led to a summer job for the once proud chemical company ICI, where he racked up thousands of pounds of central mainframe charges plotting the infinitely detailed Mandelbrot set.
Having carefully avoided studying computer science at university (fearing it would make programming seem dull) - taking physics and experimental psychology instead, he started working professionally in games, joining the Liverpool based publisher and developer "Psygnosis". This became absorbed into Sony Computer Entertainment, from which Simon defected to EA in "the great Formula1 wars" around the turn of the millennium. At EA he worked on tools and systems for the last four magical Harry Potter games - despite this he still hasn't mastered broom-flying (perhaps it just doesn't work with a mop?)
Luca loves all things Nintendo, having primarily owned Nintendo consoles throughout his life thus far and playing through a large part of the Legend of Zelda, Mario and Metroid franchises several times. When not playing on a console, he spends his time watching films, cooking, roping on Worms Armageddon and when he's in the mood; working on his personal projects.
He is currently studying Joint Mathematics and Computer Science at Imperial College London when he's not out on his motorbike.
Michael's been working in the games industry since the launch of the original PlayStation. Previous roles include lead programmer on Beautiful Game Studios` Championship Manager, leading the engine team at Computer Artworks who produced tiles such as The Thing, and Sony Computer Entertainment.
Yota has been a gamer since he can remember. His first handheld was Nintendo's Popeye GameWatch. In his youthful days, he begged his parents to get him a TI-99/4A (American PC) and a NEC PC-8801MH (Japanese PC) so he could learn about computing. His parents were disappointed when they found out he was only using them to play games. He also used to pull all-nighters to finish playing Dragon Quest series on Famicon, Super Famicon and PlayStation.
Before joining Turbulenz, he managed two in-house technology teams at Sony Computer Entertainment (London Studio) responsible for the technology behind the SCE EyeToy franchise. Prior to Sony, roles included producing the best ever online hunting game, www.thehunter.com, Development Director at Electronic Arts and Senior Producer at Eidos Interactive, working with Japanese developers (Capcom, SCEI, Enix, Yuke's) and Core Design Studios.
Since he started playing The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy on his dad's Amstrad 1512 Joe has been playing games and writing code. He started his career at SCEE in London working on tools and animation for This is Football and The Getaway, and moved on via some city work to RenderWare. Having recently completed a PhD in 3D Computer Vision, he has moved back to his natural environment in the games industry, joining the crew at Turbulenz.
Joe plays video games quite a bit. He particularly likes Final Fantasy and spends far too much time and money on that series. He tends to prefer RPGs, but will play pretty much anything so long as it has a good story, is atmospheric or is just weird.
Rumours he accepted the job at Turbulenz because the offices are close to his favourite guitar shop are completely unfounded.
After spending a couple of years playing an occasional game of Chuckie Egg on a hand-me-down BBC Micro, Chris received a brand new NES with a copy of Super Mario Bros. This triggered the start of a gaming addiction that never ended, which led to thousands of hours being racked up on multiplayer Bomberman, Mario Kart, Worms Armageddon and Super Smash Bros over the next couple of decades.
These days Chris mainly sits in a dark room playing Dota, as well as various roguelikes, fighting games and 2D shooters. In the small part of his spare time that isn't spent playing games, he attempts to play the guitar and make game mods.
Before joining Turbulenz, Chris worked at Lionhead Studios where he created game prototypes and enemy AI, among other things. Prior to entering the games industry, he studied Computing (MEng) at Imperial College London.
Ben is a child of the 8-bit generation and super hero designer at Turbulenz. He's obsessed with the technology industry, a notorious Apple fanboy and pixel obsessive. Ben's always looking for ways to make Turbulenz products more innovative, easy to use and percentage points more awesome. Ben's never short of an idea for a new feature to make our customers smile and give our software engineers a headache.
Before joining Turbulenz, Ben was a visual effects artist at Philips Electronics and an experience designer at amBX. Ben studied BSc Digital Art and Technology at university and his favourite games include Theme Hospital, Black & White, Diablo, Total Annihilation, and Mirror's Edge.
Fooksie is the more hardcore gamer of the group. He is very competitive when it comes to games (and plenty of other things) and sticks to his PC playing mostly FPS and RTS genres; although he is a big fan of the Xbox Halo series.
Previously, Fooksie studied Mathematics and Computer Science at Bristol University, from which he graduated with a first in 2010. He spends a lot of his spare time drumming and is competing with Blake for the position of drummer in the Turbulenz band.
At the age of 10 James wore a hole in a chair after sitting in the same spot for hours at a time playing on his families' computer. He has clocked up endless hours playing GoldenEye, Mario Kart, Tekken and Street Fighter with his friends. Although they seemed to spend most their time shouting, "From range!", "Shoryuken!" and "Spinning Hara-kiri!"
His favourite games of all time are the Ico, Super Mario and Zelda series. Perfection.
James was previously Director of Technology and Product Manager for the internal technology division at Electronic Arts. Prior to this, he led the engineering team at Criterion, which was bought by EA in 2004.
As a fast-growing and privately-owned company, Turbulenz is developing cutting-edge technology that will power the next generation of video games. We plan to shape the way video games of the future are designed, built and played. We like developers who are willing to go the extra mile, but in return we will work to make long hours the exception rather than the rule. If you want to be a part of something special, enjoy working on technology or solutions that are ahead of their time, you have come to the right place!
We are looking for bright, creative and hard working individuals who have a passion for games. At Turbulenz, you will get the unique opportunity to work for an industry defining early-stage technology venture, enabling you to get involved in the most exciting projects from day one onward.
We are a diverse and dynamic team and we encourage people from all backgrounds to apply to us. Most importantly, Turbulenz is an informal and fun place to work where there is no such thing as a day to day routine. If you are willing to put in the effort, you will be rewarded and you can progress rapidly in our company.
We offer a competitive salary and potential share options for highly qualified candidates and strongly performing employees. We also offer a company sponsored pension scheme as well as private medical and dental insurance. All our employees are entitled to 25 days annual leave and the working hours are flexible.
To apply for one of our current vacancies, please send an email with the job title in the subject line including your CV and a Cover Letter to Nicola Nehm.
Please note that all applicants must have a valid UK work permit.
We recruit people based on their skills, competencies and personal qualities required for the respective positions.
All CVs will be reviewed within 3 working days and we will get back to all candidates to let them know the outcome of their application. The next step for successful candidates will be a short telephone interview followed by a face-to-face interview at our office in Guildford.
If you're looking for your first professional job, please consider our graduate positions.
We are always on the lookout for exceptional talent. If none of the above vacancies fit the bill, please send us an email with your CV to Nicola Nehm stating what contribution you could make to Turbulenz.
We are looking for bright, talented people who have a passion for games and developing cutting edge technology. We are looking for programming experience but for us talent and enthusiasm are more important than work experience and qualifications.
If you are looking for a structured graduate programme and a day to day routine, Turbulenz might not be the right place for you. However, at Turbulenz we will give you the opportunity to make a valuable contribution from day one. We will give you early responsibility but at the same time all the support you need as we know starting your first ever job can be a daunting experience. The advantage of working for a small company is that you can get involved in many different projects and tasks right from the beginning. You will get a broad experience and you can decide over time which area you most enjoy working in and specialise in your chosen field.
If you are hard working and a fast learner, there is the option to progress quickly in your career as we don't follow strict time lines like in other graduate programmes. We also offer you a competitive salary, private medical and dental insurance, 25 days annual leave as well as flexible working hours.
We are now offering a number of positions for students on industrial placements. Candidates need to be in their penultimate year of university and need to be eligible to work in the UK.
During your placement, you will receive support through your personal mentor as well as the team's development manager. You will also be included in our structured appraisal process.
More information can be found in the Placement Student job description.
If you have any queries about these positions and how to apply, please drop an email to Nicola Nehm.
We have flexible start dates all year round. Interviews will be held on an ongoing basis throughout this year.
Please submit your CV (including A level and degree results) and a covering letter to Nicola Nehm.
Please note that all applicants must have a valid UK work permit.
Please make sure to state why you are passionate about game technology development and what unique contribution you could make to our team.
All CVs will be reviewed for the position requirements within 3 working days. We will get back to all candidates to let them know the outcome of their application. The next step for successful candidates will be a short telephone interview allowing us to get to know each other better. If we think you will be a good fit for the role, we will schedule a final stage face to face interview with you. This final interview will be a technical interview and will be held at our Guildford office.