Lead Backend Engineer — Live Services (Remote)

2K; San Mateo (CA); Remote; USD 169,000 - 250,000; Full time

Job summary

31st Union in San Mateo, California is seeking a Lead Backend Engineer to guide the studio's backend services, own architecture, and mentor engineers across US and EU studios. You will drive API design, deployment, and on-call readiness while maintaining performance and cost efficiency.

The role requires expertise in Unreal Engine, distributed systems, and cloud deployments (AWS). It enables leadership across multiple time zones with a focus on robust, scalable backend services.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field, or equivalent experience.
• Led backend engineers on a shipped AAA title, preferably live-service or competitive multiplayer game.
• Fluent in C#, and proficient in Python or Go.
• Strong grasp of distributed systems, concurrency and scalable service design.
• Hands-on experience with MongoDB/DocumentDB and Redis.
• Has deployed and operated production services on AWS.

Responsibilities

• Lead backend engineering team: conduct regular 1:1s, set goals, provide feedback, and lead hiring.
• Own architecture of studio-hosted services and deployment topology.
• Set engineering standards for code review, testing, documentation and on-call readiness.
• Own backend planning: maintain backlog, estimate work, set sprint priorities against roadmap.
• Maintain CI pipelines and deployment automation for services.
• Own monitoring, incident reporting, and on-call rotation for studio services.

Skills

C#

Python

Go

C++

Unreal Engine

Distributed systems

AWS

Kubernetes

MongoDB/DocumentDB

Redis

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field

Tools

Kubernetes

Helm

APIs

Job description

31st Union in San Mateo, California is seeking a Lead Backend Engineer to guide the studio's backend services, own architecture, and mentor engineers across US and EU studios. You will drive API design, deployment, and on-call readiness while maintaining performance and cost efficiency.

The role requires expertise in Unreal Engine, distributed systems, and cloud deployments (AWS). It enables leadership across multiple time zones with a focus on robust, scalable backend services.