Staff Software Engineer, Core Tech - Unpublished R&D Product

Riot engineers bring deep knowledge of specific technical areas but also value the opportunity to work in a variety of broader domains. As a Software Engineer, you’ll also dive into projects that focus on team cohesiveness and cross-team objectives. You’ll drive important features and provide other engineers with a clear illustration of extraordinary engineering.

As a Staff Software Engineer, you will work with all team disciplines to design, implement, and iterate on modern game development workflows, pipelines, and AI for our unpublished MMO. You will report to the Engineering Manager of Core Tech. You will work with distributed servers and services, working on foundational and core technology of our MMO for years to come. You will also work in a small team alongside a product lead, technical artists, designers, and other engineers to ensure we can efficiently deliver on our player’s dreams.

Responsibilities:

• Design and implement sustainable, scalable solutions for a distributed network of servers and services, with responsibility for large, foundational components of MMORPG technology
• Lead and contribute to architecture requirements, technical design, and implementation across relevant systems, shaping the team’s technical direction and standards
• Partner with technical leadership to develop solutions, and collaborate closely with design to deliver high-performance systems that maximize player enjoyment
• Promote best practices and share expertise related to server performance, while mentoring engineers in your areas of specialization
• Work collaboratively to gather requirements, plan technical initiatives, and consistently deliver robust, scalable, and performant systems

Required Qualifications:

• 6+ years of professional experience as a software engineer in the game industry, including contributions to at least one shipped game title
• Proficient in C and C++, with strong debugging skills and a solid foundation in common game and software design patterns
• Extensive experience developing real-time online multiplayer games using Unreal Engine, with expertise in networking systems such as replication, RPCs, relevancy, and latency mitigation techniques
• Background in distributed server and services architecture, including server-to-server and server-to-client messaging, low-level networking with an understanding of TCP/IP, and interfacing with databases
• Demonstrated ability to collaborate effectively across multiple disciplines, coupled with strong product sense, pragmatic decision-making, and player empathy in technical choices

Desired Qualifications:

• Experience developing MMORPGs with a focus on game server architecture, including work with mid-sized engineering teams and iterative, agile development workflows
• Skilled in managing requirements and refining game development pipelines for efficiency and scalability
• Strong understanding of TCP/IP routing and bandwidth optimization techniques
• Familiarity with Unreal Engine 5, including Blueprint visual scripting, and working knowledge of Iris

For this role, you'll find success through craft expertise and a collaborative spirit that prioritizes the delight of players. We will look at your past studies and experience, but for this role, we also look for dedicated people with a personal relationship with games. If you embody player empathy and care about players' experiences, this is the role for you!

Our Perks:

Riot focuses on work/life balance, shown by our open paid time off policy and other perks such as flexible work schedules. We offer medical, dental, and life insurance, parental leave for you, your spouse/domestic partner, and children, and a 401k with company match. Check out our benefits pages for more information.

At Riot Games, we put players first. That mission drives every decision in our quest to create games and experiences that make it better to be a player. Whether you’re working directly on a new player-facing experience o