Machine Learning Engineer II - Unpublished R&D Product

As a Senior Machine Learning Engineer on an unpublished R&D product, you will be responsible for designing and implementing AI/ML driven tools for one of Riot’s most exciting new games. You will work closely with designers, producers, and other engineers to understand their needs, and will be hands-on in conceptualizing, planning, implementing, and maintaining AI-powered solutions to increase developer efficiency.  We’re looking for someone who is passionate about empowering their team to deliver great player experiences, works well in cross-disciplinary teams, is aware of the latest trends, and finds practical applications of AI/ML technologies.

Responsibilities:

• Work closely with developers to discover and conceptualize opportunities for AI-powered workflow enhancements
• Partner with engineering leaders to help define the team’s future vision for AI-based developer tooling and workflows
• Lead the application of AI/ML systems to solve developer and player facing problems
• Keep up with technical developments in the industry relating to AI/ML and find practical applications that help solve the team challenges
• Partner with central teams to share AI-based solutions across Riot’s portfolio
• Model the team’s best practices for tools architecture and implementation
• Support and advance the team’s adoption of AI/ML tools through mentorship, documentation, and advocacy
• Provide documentation and trainings on new tools and workflows to internal customers

Required Qualifications: 

• 5+ years (or equivalent depth) of professional experience in software engineering, including experience delivering innovative workflow solutions
• Experience working with AI/ML systems in a production-ready environment
• Applied knowledge in one or more of the following: reinforcement learning, imitation learning, decision-making under uncertainty, LLM, AI planning, or multi-agent systems
• 2+ years experience working in a AAA game engine (i.e. Unity, Unreal, etc.)
• Proven ability to navigate ambiguous problems with cross-disciplinary stakeholders
• Strong communication skills across technical and non-technical audiences
• B.S. in computer science or equivalent experience
• Proficiency in C++

Desired Qualifications:

• Experience working with modern ML/data science libraries and frameworks such as PyTorch/TensorFlow, pandas, etc.
• Experience developing tools that integrate with art pipelines (e.g. Maya, Blender, etc.)
• Working knowledge of tooling solutions utilized in AAA games around the industry
• Experience developing tools that integrate with both client and backend systems
• History of contributing to engineering culture and best practices
• Experience working on distributed teams

For this role, you'll find success through craft expertise, a collaborative spirit, and decision-making that prioritizes the delight of players. We will be looking at your past studies, experience, and your personal relationship with games. If you embody player empathy and care about players' experiences, this could be your role!

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 or you’re supporting the company as a whole, everyone at Riot is part of our mission. And just like in our games, we’re better when we work together. Our goal is to create collaborative team