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Principal Software Engineer - Esports

Riot Games was founded in 2006 by Brandon Beck and Marc Merrill with the intent to change the way video games are made and supported for players. In 2009, Riot released its debut title League of Legends to worldwide acclaim. The game has since gone on to become the most played PC game in the world and a key driver of the explosive growth of esports. Players are the foundation of our community and it’s for them we continue to evolve and improve the League of Legends experience. Riot Games is headquartered in Los Angeles, CA and has 23 offices worldwide.

Riot engineers bring deep knowledge of specific technical areas but also value the opportunity to work in many broader domains. As a Principal Software Engineer, you’ll work alongside other engineers to implement technical solutions at a company-wide scale. You’ll collaborate with teams to ensure high quality and stack applicability, and provide other engineers with a clear illustration of extraordinary engineering.

The Role

As a Principal Software Engineer in Esports Digital, you will lead the technical vision, strategy, and execution of the team that builds massively scalable systems which power Riot’s fandom and watch experiences such as LoL Esports, Valorant Esports, Wild Rift Esports. With the focus on creating experiences that make it both easier and more rewarding to be a fan, you will lead the engineering of innovative solutions that reimagine the watch experience to unleash fandom for millions of players and fans. Our teams are multi-disciplinary, so you will work directly with peers in Production, Design, Quality Assurance, Strategic Advisory, Player Support, and others.

You will be part of the Esports Digital initiative in Global Esports, reporting to the Director, Software Engineering.

Responsibilities

• Provide technical leadership towards both new feature development and existing systems, emphasizing operational excellence
• Collaborate with engineering leaders across Esports, League, Valorant and Wild Rift to surface systemic technical problems and identify creative & sustainable solutions
• Mentor the craft development of other technical leaders and senior engineers on the team
• Promote and oversee adherence to engineering excellence including code maintainability, quality, monitoring, and documentation, aligning to Riot technical standards
• Ensure sustainable, modern development practices are incorporated throughout the development lifecycle

Required Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience in Software Engineering, with deep practical knowledge in distributed systems development in Java
• Bachelor's, Master's degree in Computer Science or a related field, or relevant professional experience
• Experience as a technical lead, implementing software engineering best practices
• Experience developing distributed systems, including gathering requirements, designing, and leading the development across multiple teams

Desired Qualifications

• Experience with two or more of AWS Cloudfront, EC2, EKS, Fargate, Lambda, RDS
• Familiarity with "Infrastructure as Code" and tooling like Terraform
• Experience operating live services at global distribution and scale

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 the experiences of players, this could be the role for you!

Our Perks:

We offer medical, dental, and vision plans that cover you, your spouse/domestic partner, and children. Life insurance, parental leave, plus short-term and long-term disability coverage are also available. Riot will support your retirement benefits with a company match, and double down on your donations of time and money to non-profit charitable organizations. Balance between work and personal life is encouraged with open paid time off, and a play fund so you can broaden and deepen your personal relationship with games.

It’s our policy to provide equal employment opportunity for all applicants and members of Riot Games, Inc. Riot Games makes reasonable accommodations for handicapped and disabled Rioters and does not unlawfully discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, handicap, veteran status, marital status, criminal history, or any other category protected by applicable federal and state law, including the City of Los Angeles’ Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance relating to an applicant's criminal history (LAMC 189.00).