Principal Software Engineer, Services - Unpublished R&D Product

Riot Engineers bring deep knowledge of specific technical areas but also value the chance to work in many broader domains. As a Principal Software Engineer, you’ll also dive into projects that focus on team cohesiveness and cross-team goals. You’ll lead without authority and provide other engineers with a clear illustration of extraordinary engineering.

As a Principal Software Engineer on an unpublished R&D Product focused on backend services, you will be responsible for the entire back-end servicing the core gameplay of a new game. This includes defining interactions between client and server that are fundamental to every player’s experience (think: high load, high availability) and varying infrastructure and compliance requirements. This also includes ensuring we have monitoring and diagnostic capabilities to help us when things go wrong. You will ensure we have a solid technical foundation so when we get to launch at scale, everything goes smoothly.

Responsibilities:

• Design, build, and deliver internet scale backend services for a genre-defining game we will deliver globally to millions of people
• Own building features from in-game all the way down to the backend service implementation
• Champion the technical vision for the team with production and management
• Collaborate with leadership on planning and long term vision for gameplay related services
• Build features to improve server reliability and performance
• Implement server infrastructure in support of new gameplay features
• Build and support live services for the game
• Work with cloud technologies and services such as AWS
• Mentor more junior engineers on the team
• Collaborate effectively with art, design, and other disciplines within game development
• Review and identify risks and requirements for usage of shared technologies owned by other teams

Required Qualifications:

• 8+ years of experience building large scale backend systems or game services
• Experience developing large systems from scratch, including gathering requirements and designing scalable, production-ready architecture
• BS degree or equivalent experience
• Expertise with C++, Java, Golang, or any other modern language
• Experience with cloud computing and cloud technologies
• Has shipped and supported player facing game features

Desired Qualifications:

• Experience working on a global scale online game
• Experience with Unreal Engine
• Experience with C++ and Golang
• Experience working on both sides of client/service architecture
• Experience with CI/CD pipelines including Jenkins
• Experience with containerization technologies such as Docker

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 teams where you are empowered to bring your unique perspective everyday. If that sounds like the kind of place you want to work, we’r