Senior Data Activation & Platforms Engineer

Game Companies; Santa Monica (CA); On-site; USD 103,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

401(k) with Company match

Paid holidays and vacation

Mental health & wellbeing programs

Relocation assistance

Job summary

Activision in Santa Monica is seeking a Senior Software Engineer for the Data Activation & Products team to set engineering standards, build internal tools, and bring production-grade rigor to data platforms and pipelines.

This role emphasizes application engineering: building dependable internal tools, backend platforms, and service layers that interface with a wide web of telemetry, cloud infrastructure, event streams, and internal microservices.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or equivalent practical experience.
• 5+ years of engineering and product work.
• Strong backend programming proficiency, with Python as the primary language.
• Proven experience in API design, integration, and performance tuning.
• Strong SQL skills and hands-on experience with both relational and NoSQL databases.
• Practical experience integrating with streaming architecture (Kafka, Pub/Sub).
• Working knowledge of cloud platforms (GCP or Azure) and container workflows (Docker, Kubernetes).
• Solid foundation in standard software engineering practices, including automated testing, CI/CD, and system monitoring.
• Practical experience using AI-assisted development tools effectively, with technical judgment to evaluate, test, and challenge outputs.
• A curious self-starter with strong analytical problem-solving skills, ability to work independently, learn quickly, and collaborate across teams.

Responsibilities

• Set Engineering Standards: Lead through hands-on development, thoughtful code reviews, and discipline leading work - making robust design, automated testing, CI/CD, and clear documentation part of everyday work.
• Application Development: Design and build production-grade internal applications, web tools, and backend services that make people's lives better.
• Service & Data Integrations: Build robust integration layers and consumers connecting diverse services (Kafka streams, relational databases, NoSQL stores, cloud storage, and internal platform APIs).
• Data Layer Architecture: Manage application state and data access efficiently across mixed storage technologies (e.g., PostgreSQL, Redis, Bigtable), ensuring low latency and data integrity.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner with product, design, engineers, analysts, and marketing to translate loosely defined needs into useful software, delivering iteratively as priorities shift.
• Production Ownership: Own what you build in production, troubleshoot issues, and continuously improve system performance, availability, and reliability over time.
• Evolve Architecture: Use modern tooling to accelerate prototyping, implementation, testing, and debugging, while maintaining accountability for the quality of production software.

Skills

Python

API design

SQL

Kafka

Cloud platforms

Docker

Kubernetes

CI/CD

AI-assisted development

Data pipelines

Education

Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science or equivalent

Tools

PostgreSQL

Redis

Bigtable

NoSQL databases

Job description

Activision in Santa Monica is seeking a Senior Software Engineer for the Data Activation & Products team to set engineering standards, build internal tools, and bring production-grade rigor to data platforms and pipelines.

This role emphasizes application engineering: building dependable internal tools, backend platforms, and service layers that interface with a wide web of telemetry, cloud infrastructure, event streams, and internal microservices.