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Software Development Engineer - Tools and Infrastructure

Who we are

A Thinking Ape builds communities through mobile games with emergent social play and original IP. We released our first game in 2009 and have been profitable and growing every year since. We are a bottom-up-driven company of small teams exercising product ownership and data-driven decision-making. Our portfolio of games is growing. We are scaling our infrastructure and entering new markets to capitalize on this growth and bring our games to more players.

What is the role?

As a Software Development Engineer on our Hammerhead team, you will be helping build the tools we use to create new mobile games and the infrastructure our live games run on, including Kingdoms of Heckfire, Party in My Dorm, and Kingdoms at War. You will design tools that enable engineers and designers on live game teams to execute quickly and deploy without fear. You will work on systems to scale our new releases from the population of a city to the population of an entire country. You will have a major impact on both our players and your coworkers, who will use what you create every day.

What will you do as a Software Development Engineer?

You will be responsible for building both the infrastructure to run our games in an efficient, stable, and scalable way, as well as the tools we use to test and deploy new features and content every day. Our distributed backend is built with a Django + MySQL architecture, and we’re working to migrate our environment to run in Docker.

You will:

• Build systems that let everyone at the company deploy to our distributed backend without worry.
• Design tools that keep our games running even when things go wrong.
• Create workflows to empower game designers to launch new features and content quickly and smoothly.

Who are we looking for?

The primary qualifications we’re looking for are:

• You are a tech generalist, an engineer with the desire to improve our processes from our laptops all the way to the cloud.
• You communicate your thoughts and ideas clearly in code and in writing.
• You have an interest in and play mobile gaming products.

Other qualifications that help are:

• You’ve used containerization systems like Docker before.
• You have experience working directly with the people who use your tools every day.
• You are familiar with relational database design and structure.

Remote first

We have committed to a remote first approach for 2021 with access to in-person collaboration spaces in Vancouver when safe to do so. Our intention is to use 2021 as the foundational year to develop our remote excellence and help shape the future of ATA. This means our roles are currently open to candidates who can work in Canada between the core hours of 11am - 4pm PST.

While everyone on our team is different, to thrive here you should:

• Be self motivated, take pride in your work and enjoy huge amounts of ownership.
• Set aside your ego and have wonderful arguments with your coworkers in order to create something better than any one person could individually.
• Challenge your own assumptions and use data to make decisions whenever possible.
• Be passionate about teaching others what you know and continuing your own growth every day.
• Not be afraid to fail–you experiment and learn from your mistakes.

What’s in it for you?

• Challenging problems, a strong collaborative team, and supportive leadership.
• Ownership over technical solutions and involvement in product decision-making.
• A flexible and inclusive environment, including whatever equipment you need to do your best work.
• A competitive compensation package that also includes budgets for health and professional development.
• A healthy review culture and team alignment towards engineering excellence.
• Regular syncs with your manager, transparent leadership, and a direct hand in your professional growth.

Our commitment to inclusion

We build communities. To do this to the best of our abilities, we need a workforce that reflects the diverse player communities we serve. We believe a variety of perspectives and experiences allows us to make better decisions and understand the needs of our players. We work hard to create an environment where everyone, from any background, can do their best work and feel like they belong at ATA.

Please consider applying even if you don't meet every qualification and let us know if you require any accommodations or support during the recruitment process.

Discover more

Check out our story to find out how we got to where we are today, and learn about our culture by following @athinkingape on social. You can also listen to Kenshi Arasaki, ATA CEO & Co-Founder, talk about what it’s like to work here .