Principal engineer.
I make systems fast - ideally before they're slow.
Engines, build pipelines, render loops, services under load - C, C++, Go and the GPU. Performance is an architecture decision: called early it is cheap, called late it is sometimes a rewrite. I will tell you which one you are looking at.
Performance
Something is too slow - or is about to be
Best case I am in at design: set the budget, build to it, prove it holds. Failing that, profile end to end, rank where the minutes actually go, and give you a straight answer on whether it is fixable in place or whether the design cannot get there.
Engines & graphics
Engine work, down to the GPU
Proprietary engines across DirectX, OpenGL, Vulkan and WebGL - rendering, simulation, scripting, tools and asset pipelines - shipped in games played by tens of millions. Currently a from-scratch Vulkan renderer in C. New engine work, or work inside the one you already run.
Realtime systems
Live systems where late means wrong
Multiplayer rooms, screen sharing, event streams that feed analytics as they happen. Go, NATS and JetStream for the backbone; C++ where it meets the client. Built so a small team can run it afterwards.
I'm Lee Hickey, a principal engineer: architecture through implementation, hands on throughout. I have led as well: technical director at Deep Red, coordinating thirty engineers, then twelve years running my own studio. I take contracts through Hidden Bridge, and I'm open to permanent roles.
Most recently an Unreal cook pipeline, a DuckDB and NATS analytics backend, and cross-platform desktop apps where latency was the product. Behind that, thirty years of proprietary engines, renderers and games shipped to tens of millions. On client work I use what is already there - Unreal, DuckDB, NATS - and build only where nothing fits. In my own time, a game on an engine and backend I am writing from scratch.
The through-line is knowing what a system will cost before it is built, and being able to measure it once it is. Shipping to a budget - frame time, cook time, tail latency - is mostly that one skill wearing different clothes.
Recent writing
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A contract or a permanent role. Tell me what it is, what it has to hit, and when. I'll say quickly whether I'm the right person - including if the answer is that you don't need me yet.