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 2XKO focused on backend services, you will be responsible for the entire back-end servicing the core gameplay of the 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
• Collaborate with leadership on planning and long term vision for gameplay related services
• Own building features from in-game all the way down to the backend service implementation
• 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
• 2+ years of experience as a technical lead
• Experience developing large systems from scratch, including gathering requirements and designing scalable, production-ready architecture
• BS degree or equivalent experience
• Expertise with C++, Java, or Golang
• Experience with cloud computing and cloud technologies

Desired Qualifications:

• Experience working on a global scale online game
• Experience with Unreal Engine
• 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 has a focus on work/life balance, shown by our open paid time off policy, in addition to 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.

Riot Games fosters a player and workplace experience that values teamwork embodied by the Summoner’s Code and Community Code. Our culture embraces differences as a strength, and our values are the guiding principles for how we approach work. We are committed to putting diversity and inclusion (D&I) at the center of everything we do, and promoting a fair and collaborative culture where Rioters treat one another with dignity and respect. We encourage you to read more about our value of thriving together and our ongoing work to build the most inclusive company in Gaming.