Principal Gameplay Engineer - Tech Lead & Tooling

Riot Games; Los Angeles (CA); On-site; USD 229,000 - 320,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical insurance

Dental insurance

Life insurance

401k with company match

Open PTO

Parental leave

Job summary

Riot Games in Los Angeles, CA seeks a Principal Software Engineer and technical lead to own key gameplay systems and drive complex design decisions. You will lead with technical ownership and collaborate with cross-disciplinary teams to build systems that bring players' dreams to life.

With 8–12 years in game development and expert C++, you will mentor engineers, shape tooling, and deliver impactful gameplay improvements across environments, physics, audio, and navigation.

Qualifications

• 8–12 years of experience in game development.
• Expert in C++ within complex codebases.
• Experience shipping games across PC, console and mobile.
• Proven ability to mentor developers and lead technical designs.

Responsibilities

• Collaborate with external teams to shape player experiences.
• Provide feedback on tooling and design tradeoffs.
• Advise product leaders on direction and benefits for teams.
• Design prototypes to answer product and technical questions.
• Lead game content tooling for external teams.
• Mentor engineering teammates and drive best practices.
• Deliver improvements to gameplay tools expanding design space.
• Implement complex system changes and drive execution.

Skills

8-12 yrs experience

C++ expert

Gameplay systems

Mentor developers

Technical designs

Game content tools

Cross-team collaboration

Job description

Riot Games in Los Angeles, CA seeks a Principal Software Engineer and technical lead to own key gameplay systems and drive complex design decisions. You will lead with technical ownership and collaborate with cross-disciplinary teams to build systems that bring players' dreams to life.

With 8–12 years in game development and expert C++, you will mentor engineers, shape tooling, and deliver impactful gameplay improvements across environments, physics, audio, and navigation.