Principal Software Engineer - Content Platform

Roblox; San Mateo (CA); On-site; USD 345,040 - 399,420; Full time

Job summary

Roblox is seeking a Principal Software Engineer (Backend, Distributed Systems) to design backend services that enable game creators to reach a wide audience. This role is based in San Mateo, CA and requires over 13 years of experience in backend development and distributed systems. Candidates should be proficient in languages such as C#, Java, or Python. The salary range is $345,040 — $399,420 USD. Join us in shaping the future of human interaction and technology.

Qualifications

• 13+ years of experience working on scalable and reliable backend systems.
• Experience architecting and leading mission-critical applications.
• Creativity in solving hard problems and envisioning improvements.

Responsibilities

• Design and build backend services for game creators.
• Solve unique technical challenges in a scalable environment.
• Mentor and develop fellow engineers.

Skills

Backend development

Distributed systems

C# or Java or Go or C++ or Python

Team collaboration

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or related field

Master’s degree (preferred)

Job description

About Roblox

Every day, tens of millions of people come to Roblox to explore, create, play, learn, and connect with friends in 3D immersive digital experiences– all created by our global community of developers and creators.

At Roblox, we’re building the tools and platform that empower our community to bring any experience that they can imagine to life. Our vision is to reimagine the way people come together, from anywhere in the world, and on any device. We’re on a mission to connect a billion people with optimism and civility, and looking for amazing talent to help us get there.

A career at Roblox means you’ll be working to shape the future of human interaction, solving unique technical challenges at scale, and helping to create safer, more civil shared experiences for everyone.

Role Overview

The Creator Content Platform Team provides a secure, scalable, and extensible foundation for ingestion, processing, storing, managing, and serving user content. As a Principal Software Engineer (Backend, Distributed Systems), you will design and build backend services to help game creators reach the broadest audience possible. You will help us build & scale large distributed systems, data processing and analysis pipelines, an access control system, Open Cloud APIs all of which are central for all content created in Roblox.

You Will

• Solve a variety of unique technical challenges
• Have the independence, opportunity and the end‑to‑end responsibility to design, build, test and deploy services within the Roblox ecosystem
• Guide the future technical direction of the team and have impact on engineering
• Be a technical bar‑raiser for high code quality, architectural designs, and long‑term approaches
• Mentor and develop fellow engineers on the team
• Design systems and services that are scalable and resilient
• Collaborate with passionate engineers, product managers and other Roblox team members cross‑functionally

You Have

• Experience: 13+ years of experience working on backend, distributed systems that are scalable and reliable. Experience architecting, designing and leading the implementation of mission‑critical applications at scale.
• Knowledge: Proficiency in one or more programming languages (C#, Go, Java, C++, Python or similar). Bachelor’s degree (or equivalent) in Computer Science or related engineering field; Master’s is a plus.
• Creativity: Take a creative and strategic approach to solving hard problems and envisioning ways to improve and grow system capabilities. Vision for product excellence.
• Team-oriented mindset: Work effectively as part of a team and collaborate with all participants to develop optimal solutions. Share knowledge with teammates.

Compensation

Roles that are based at our headquarters in San Mateo, CA: The starting base pay for this position is as shown below. The actual base pay is dependent upon a variety of job‑related factors such as professional background, training, work experience, location, business needs and market demand. Therefore, in some circumstances, the actual salary could fall outside of this expected range. This pay range is subject to change and may be modified in the future. All full‑time employees are also eligible for equity compensation and for benefits as described on this page.

Annual Salary Range

$345,040 — $399,420 USD

Work Location & Schedule

Roles that are based in an office are onsite Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, with optional presence on Monday and Friday (unless otherwise noted).

Equal Opportunity Employer

Roblox provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws. Roblox also provides reasonable accommodations to candidates with qualifying disabilities or religious beliefs during the recruiting process.

Additional Notes

For US based roles only, please note the company may not be able to employ candidates for this role who have United States work authorization related to certain U.S. visa categories or support future H‑1B sponsorship at this time.