Principal Data Engineer, TFT CoreTech

Riot Games; Los Angeles (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 260,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, and life insurance

Parental leave

401k with company match

Open paid time off policy

Job summary

Riot Games in Los Angeles, CA seeks a Principal Data Engineer for Teamfight Tactics CoreTech to own the data ecosystem's direction, schemas, and production operations. You will partner with engineering, design, product, analytics, and data science to translate needs into scalable data solutions while setting standards for governance and reliability.

This individual-contributor role guides multi-team initiatives, mentors engineers, and shapes data engineering standards across TFT and Riot,

Qualifications

• 8+ years of professional experience in data engineering or related discipline with principal-level scope
• Experience designing, building, and operating production data systems at scale
• Hands-on expertise in big-data tech including Python, GoLang, Spark, Scala, SQL
• Proficiency in cloud infrastructure (AWS or GCP) and Databricks
• Expertise in data modeling, schema design, data contracts, lineage, governance
• Experience establishing data-quality checks, observability, SLIs/SLOs, and operational docs
• Ability to set technical direction and lead complex multi-team initiatives
• Strong cross-functional communication and mentoring experience

Responsibilities

• Own technical strategy, architecture, and roadmap for TFT data ecosystem
• Design and evolve scalable batch and near-real-time data systems
• Establish data contracts across teams and validate telemetry
• Lead instrumentation design with game teams for feature readiness
• Ensure reliability, observability, incident response, and runbooks
• Lead data modeling and warehouse architecture for multiple teams
• Define data governance, lineage, retention, and compliance
• Reduce ambiguity by clarifying requirements and risks
• Improve velocity via automation and self-service tooling
• Drive cost optimization through architecture and capacity planning
• Contribute to recruiting, interviewing, and craft standards

Skills

Python

GoLang

Spark

Scala

SQL

Airflow

DBT

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science/Engineering/Information Systems or related field

Tools

AWS

GCP

Databricks

Job description

Riot Games in Los Angeles, CA seeks a Principal Data Engineer for Teamfight Tactics CoreTech to own the data ecosystem's direction, schemas, and production operations. You will partner with engineering, design, product, analytics, and data science to translate needs into scalable data solutions while setting standards for governance and reliability.

This individual-contributor role guides multi-team initiatives, mentors engineers, and shapes data engineering standards across TFT and Riot,