Games - Server Programmer

Electronic Arts; Manchester; Hybrid; GBP 50,000 - 70,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading gaming company in Manchester is looking for an experienced Software Engineer specializing in Server Programming. This role involves developing scalable backend features for an online mobile title and collaborating with various teams to ensure high-quality releases. Ideal candidates will have significant experience in server-side engineering with C#/.NET, CI/CD practices, and database management. This position is hybrid, requiring three days in the office weekly.

Benefits

Healthcare coverage

Paid time off

Complimentary games

Qualifications

• 5+ years of server-side engineering experience with C#/.NET.
• Experienced in production-level live large-scale systems.
• Proficient in database schema design and optimization.

Responsibilities

• Develop software features end-to-end.
• Architect and improve core online systems for reliability and performance.
• Contribute to ensuring a stable experience for players.
• Create and maintain development and production environments.
• Lead incident response and post-mortem analysis.

Skills

Server-side engineering in C#/.NET

Experience with SQL and NoSQL databases

CI/CD experience (Jenkins/GitLab)

Performance and scalability design

Test automation experience

Tools

Git

DynamoDB

Redis

Job description

Locations: Manchester, Cheshire, United Kingdom

Description & Requirements

Electronic Arts creates next-level entertainment experiences that inspire players and fans around the world. Here, everyone is part of the story. Part of a community that connects across the globe. A place where creativity thrives, new perspectives are invited, and ideas matter. A team where everyone makes play happen.

Just 13 miles south of Manchester and a 15-minute train journey, is the attractive market town of Wilmslow. Here, among the boutique shops, independent cafes, and bars, is the stunning Playdemic studio. Acquired by EA in 2021, Playdemic is home to the top 10-grossing, BAFTA-winning mobile smash, Golf Clash. Having opened at the beginning of 2020, our award-winning, bespoke studio space offers conventional desk space, indulgent breakout areas, meeting rooms, and alternative workspaces. The office has been designed to create an environment that encourages and allows our team to do their very best work.

The Golf Clash Team is seeking an experienced Software Engineer with a primary background in Server Programming to develop features and technology across our online systems. You'll architect and deliver scalable backend features for a live mobile title, own and evolve our CI/CD and deployment infrastructure, and partner with design, production, client, QA and CS to ship high-quality features safely and at pace.

This role is located at our Wilmslow-based office, working in a hybrid capacity, including 3 days in office.

Responsibilities

• Develop software features end-to-end.
• Architect and improve core online systems (game server, multiplayer engine, session and player-data services) for reliability, performance and cost at scale.
• Contribute to selected initiatives to ensure a stable experience for our players (e.g., server evaluation/prototyping, infrastructure improvements, technical debt reduction).
• Review and break down pre-production features, shaping architecture and sequencing to de-risk delivery across client, backend and infrastructure
• Create and maintain dev/prod/QA environments that mirror live, allowing smooth testing and predictable releases.
• Production deployments and stable GitLab fork merge request approvals, ensuring high-quality standards for code, test coverage and observability before integration.
• Out-of-hours support / incident response, leading mitigation and post-mortems to minimise player impact and improve MTTR.
• Contribute to maintaining our application services, databases, and caches (e.g., DynamoDB, SQL variants, and Redis).
• Build and maintain web-based tools to empower QA and Customer Support.
• Contribute to the evaluation and improvement of internal processes and systems (branching strategy, code review quality, testing frameworks, release practices, on-call health).

Must Haves

• Server-side engineering in C#/.NET (e.g., ASP.NET, Web APIs) with production experience in live, large-scale systems.
• Experienced with databases (SQL and NoSQL) and caching (e.g., Redis): schema design, query optimisation, data migrations, and operational best practices.
• Hands-on with CI/CD (Jenkins/GitLab), version control (Git/GitLab flows), infrastructure and hosting (on-prem and/or AWS), and observability (logs/metrics/tracing) for live services.
• Track record designing for performance, scalability, reliability and security, including load/perf profiling and budget setting.
• Ability to plan and deliver complex features; experienced at risk/dependency management, estimation and sequencing.
• Test discipline: unit/integration/system testing, test strategy for domains you own, and test automation to protect critical paths.
• Calm, structured approach to live incidents, leading mitigation, root-cause analysis and improvements.

About Electronic Arts

We’re proud to have an extensive portfolio of games and experiences, locations around the world, and opportunities across EA. We value adaptability, resilience, creativity, and curiosity. From leadership that brings out your potential, to creating space for learning and experimenting, we empower you to do great work and pursue opportunities for growth.

We adopt a holistic approach to our benefits programs, emphasizing physical, emotional, financial, career, and community wellness to support a balanced life. Our packages are tailored to meet local needs and may include healthcare coverage, mental well-being support, retirement savings, paid time off, family leaves, complimentary games, and more. We nurture environments where our teams can always bring their best to what they do.

Electronic Arts is an equal opportunity employer. All employment decisions are made without regard to race, color, national origin, ancestry, sex, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, genetic information, religion, disability, medical condition, pregnancy, marital status, family status, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. We will also consider employment qualified applicants with criminal records in accordance with applicable law. EA also makes workplace accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities as required by applicable law.