Principal Engineer, AI Platform

Epic Games; Cary (NC); On-site; USD 180,000 - 280,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, Dental, Vision coverage

401k with match

Unlimited PTO

Sabbatical

Mental health program

Job summary

Epic Games in North Carolina is seeking a Technical Lead / Principal Engineer for the AI Engineering team. You will provide technical leadership and architectural vision for AI-powered developer tools used by thousands of engineers across Epic, while hands‑on building core systems and mentoring the team.

From CLI and desktop tools to web apps and build‑process integrations, you will define the technical direction, set standards for AI tooling, and collaborate with leaders to identify strategic

Qualifications

• B.S. in Computer Science or equivalent with 10+ years building production software.
• Track record of technical leadership for complex software projects at scale.
• "Zero-to-one" platform ownership for new platforms before staffing and scale.
• Expert-level experience with REST APIs, microservices, and distributed systems.
• Experience operating Kubernetes and managing container security configurations.
• Interest in AI-assisted development tools and tooling standards.
• Ability to turn ambiguous problems into concrete technical strategies.

Responsibilities

• Provide technical leadership and architectural vision for AI developer tools used by thousands of engineers.
• Drive decisions for scalable, maintainable developer-facing tools across CLI, desktop, web apps, and integrations.
• Pioneer patterns for modern AI frameworks and agent architectures; set standards for the team.
• Partner with leadership to identify strategic opportunities and design/build/validate new platforms.
• Design and implement security, governance, and runtime isolation policies for AI platforms.
• Define measurement strategies and track impact to improve tool effectiveness.
• Mentor and grow a team of engineers; conduct architecture reviews and raise the bar for excellence.

Skills

Technical leadership

AI tooling

REST APIs

Kubernetes

Distributed systems

Mentoring team

Education

BS in Computer Science or equivalent

Tools

CLI tools

Web apps

CI/CD pipelines

Job description

WHAT MAKES US EPIC?

At the core of Epic’s success are talented, passionate people. Epic prides itself on creating a collaborative, welcoming, and creative environment. Whether it’s building award-winning games or crafting engine technology that enables others to make visually stunning interactive experiences, we’re always innovating.

Being Epic means being a part of a team that continually strives to do right by our community and users. We’re constantly innovating to raise the bar of engine and game development.

ONLINE INFRASTRUCTURE

What We Do

We enable Epic’s online services teams to build, deploy, and manage services that are used by more than half a billion players around the world. Our mission is to provide world class tools and platforms to improve the experience of our developers and make it easier, faster, and safer to build, operate, and scale their applications. We operate at massive scale as one of the largest cloud computing users in the world.

What You'll Do

As Technical Lead / Principal Engineer on the Al Engineering team, you'll provide technical leadership and strategic vision for the Al-powered platforms, tools, and services that accelerate development velocity and productivity across Epic. You'll guide a team of engineers in building high-impact products such as unified AI code review systems, Cloud agent hosting, a centralized AI knowledge base, and developer experience tools that serve thousands of folks across the company. This role sits at the intersection of Al innovation, practical engineering, and technical leadership. You'll set the technical direction for tools that developers across Epic use every day, establish best practices for Al-powered development tooling, mentor engineers, and shape how thousands of engineers write, review, and ship code. On top of that, you'll be hands‑on building complex aspects of the systems and working heavily with Al agents to implement, test, release, and operate these critical platforms.

In this role, you will

• Provide technical leadership and architectural vision for production-grade AI developer tools used by thousands of engineers across Epic's major codebases (Unreal Engine, Fortnite, and more)
• Drive architectural decisions for scalable, maintainable developer‑facing tools across multiple modalities: CLI and desktop tools, web apps, build process integrations, services, and APIs
• Pioneer and establish patterns for modern AI frameworks and agent architectures, setting standards for the broader team
• Partner with leadership and high‑value teams to identify strategic opportunities and design/ build/validate new platforms
• Design and implement security, governance, and compliance protocols for AI platforms, including secret management, workload identity, and runtime isolation policies
• Define measurement strategies and success metrics to track impact and continuously improve tool effectiveness
• Mentor and grow a team of software engineers, conducting architecture reviews and raising the bar for technical excellence

What we're looking for

• B.S. in Computer Science or equivalent experience with 10+ years building production software systems
• Track record of providing technical leadership for complex software projects from conception to delivery at scale
• Proven experience in "zero-to-one" platform ownership: leading the technical design, architectural strategy, and initial build‑out of new platforms before they are fully staffed and scaled
• Expert‑level experience with REST APIs, microservices, and distributed systems
• Experience operating and orchestrating scalable services on Kubernetes, including managing container lifecycle and security configurations
• Experience with and high level of interest in using and building AI‑assisted development tools (e.g., Claude Code, Cursor, Copilot)
• Proven ability to turn ambiguous organizational problems into concrete technical strategies and drive them to completion

EPIC JOB + EPIC BENEFITS = EPIC LIFE

Our intent is to cover all things that are medically necessary and improve the quality of life. We pay 100% of the premiums for both you and your dependents. Our coverage includes Medical, Dental, a Vision HRA, Long Term Disability, Life Insurance & a 401k with competitive match. We also offer a robust mental well‑being program through Modern Health, which provides free therapy and coaching for employees & dependents. Throughout the year we celebrate our employees with events and company‑wide paid breaks. We offer unlimited PTO and sick time and recognize individuals for 7 years of employment with a paid sabbatical.

ABOUT US

Epic Games is a leading interactive entertainment company. For over 30 years we've been making award‑winning games and engine technology that empowers others to make visually stunning games and 3D content that bring environments to life like never before. Epic's award‑winning Unreal Engine technology not only provides game developers the ability to build high‑fidelity, interactive experiences for PC, console, mobile, and VR, it is also a tool being embraced by content creators across a variety of industries such as media and entertainment, automotive, and architectural design. As we continue to build our Engine technology and develop remarkable games, we strive to build teams of world‑class talent.

Like what you hear? Come be a part of something Epic!

Epic Games deeply values diverse teams and an inclusive work culture, and we are proud to be an Equal Opportunity employer. Learn more about our Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) Policy here.

Note to Recruitment Agencies: Epic does not accept any unsolicited resumes or approaches from any unauthorized third party (including recruitment or placement agencies) (i.e., a third party with whom we do not have a negotiated and validly executed agreement). We will not pay any fees to any unauthorized third party. Further details on these matters can be found here.