Nicolas Hognon

Lead / Senior Programmer · Technical Director

Neuilly-sur-Marne (93), France · nicolas.hognon@gmail.com · nicolas.hognon.com


Profile


C++ / C# developer specialized in video games and interactive applications since 1999. Deep expertise in engine systems, low-level programming, gameplay and tooling, backed by a proven leadership track — Lead on 10+ person teams in mobile production, now Associate Lead Programmer on Snowdrop (Ubisoft). Equally comfortable writing critical code and leading a technical team: standards, architecture, mentoring. Open to Senior / Lead Programmer or Technical Director opportunities.

Core Skills


Video Game Experience


Associate Lead Programmer – Snowdrop Engine
Ubisoft Paris Studio · Montreuil | Jan 2024 – Present
(Joined as Senior Engine Programmer · promoted Associate Lead Programmer Jan 2025)
  • Contributions to core systems of the Snowdrop engine (The Division, Mario + Rabbids, Avatar, Star Wars Outlaws): modularity, compilation & toolchains, low-level, file systems, asset dependency management.
  • Active involvement in architecture decisions, with a constant focus on robustness, performance and long-term maintainability.
  • Mentoring and technical leadership of junior and mid-level developers: code reviews, definition and enforcement of C++ standards across teams.

Technologies: C++ · C# · Perforce · Git/GitLab · Sharpmake · FastBuild · LLVM/Clang

Lead Programmer
Ubisoft Paris Mobile · Montreuil | Dec 2019 – 2023
(Senior Gameplay Programmer → Associate Lead → Lead Programmer)
  • Led a team of ~12 developers across 3 successive mobile projects (Tom Clancy's Elite Squad, Rainbow Six Mobile, unannounced project).
  • Owned technical quality, team organization and delivery on Unity (C#) productions with mobile constraints (performance, store, live-ops).
  • Hands-on gameplay and systems development: NavMesh, Addressables, Asset Bundles, UI Toolkit, in-app purchases, tracking.

Technologies: Unity3D · C# · Perforce · Git/GitLab · Android · iOS

Senior Gameplay Programmer
Novaquark · Paris | Jan 2016 – Feb 2019
  • C++ development on Dual Universe (massively multiplayer online game with a single persistent world, Unigine engine), client side: Dead Reckoning, animation, camera, UI.

Technologies: C++ 11/14 · Unigine · HTML/CSS/JS

Earlier Experience


Senior Engineer – SDK & Interactive Applications
ePawn · Paris | 2012 – 2016

Development and maintenance of the ePawn SDK (iOS / Windows / Android): low-level hardware interfacing, communication protocols (USB, TCP/IP) between physical objects and virtual environments. Demos and applications with Unity3D and Cocos2d-x. Led a small team of 3–4 people.

R&D Project Manager
Total Immersion · Suresnes | 2008 – 2011

Led the deployment team and development environment for an augmented reality solution (Ogre3D-based). Cross-platform ports: Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android, Web/Flash.

Senior Engineer – Engine & Tools
Virtools · Paris | 2000 – 2008

Development of the Virtools engine and tools (game engine and interactive 3D applications). Design and implementation of cross-platform low-level libraries: system abstraction (files, threads, synchronization), networking layer (TCP/IP, HTTP), ports for Windows, Linux, macOS. Virtools Web Player (ActiveX/Firefox) with deployment and online update infrastructure. Virtools Behavioral Server (multi-user applications, ODBC, Dead Reckoning). From 2006: technical project lead on Virtools 4 and Web products.

Software Engineer
Pacte Novation · Issy-les-Moulineaux | 1999 – 2000

C++ server modules for Hong Kong metro supervision (CSEE Transport). GUI application port for SNECMA.

Education & Other