Senior Engineer, ARM Platform Security – RICOCHET – Central Technology

ACTIVISION PUBLISHING, INC.; Los Angeles (CA); On-site; USD 115,000 - 213,000; Full time

Job summary

Activision Publishing, Inc. seeks a Senior Engineer, ARM Platform Security for the Ricochet team in Central Tech.

You will port key security features to Windows on ARM and help protect Call of Duty players from cheaters, enabling fair gameplay across PC platforms. In this role you will design anti-cheat technologies, analyze and enhance protection frameworks, and collaborate with engineers across studios to deliver performant, secure game security solutions in a fast‑paced game development

Qualifications

• Experience 8+ years of professional software development
• 5+ years of experience with Windows Platform on ARM
• Proven experience working on large-scale complex systems
• Experience with C++ codebases and refactoring
• Experience with CI/CD, scalability, and automation
• Expertise in debugging, optimization and performance tuning
• Knowledge & Skills Advanced knowledge of algorithms and data structures
• Deep understanding of the anti-cheat domain

Responsibilities

• Innovate and Evolve: Design and implement advanced anti-cheat technologies to stay ahead of emerging threats.
• Strengthen Core Systems: Analyze, update, and enhance existing protection frameworks to maintain top-tier security.
• Detect and Defend: Investigate, develop, and deploy cheat detection mechanisms that keep gameplay fair and fun.
• Collaborate Across Studios: Work closely with engineers across multiple teams to ensure seamless integration and performance.

Job description

Senior Engineer, ARM Platform Security – RICOCHET – Central Technology Requisition ID: R028288

Job Description

Call of Duty is one of the most iconic and successful video game franchises in the world, delivering unforgettable experiences to millions of players. At the heart of that experience is fair play—and that’s where the Ricochet team comes in. We’re on a mission to detect and eliminate cheaters swiftly, ensuring every player enjoys a level playing field. In this role as a Senior Engineer, your experience working with Windows on the Arm Platform will be critical as you help port some of our key security features to Windows on Arm. Your work will directly protect the integrity of one of the most beloved franchises in gaming as we bring it to more PC platforms.

What you bring to the table

The Game Security team’s priorities can change quickly based on the threat landscape. The following areas of ownership will act as a baseline. Therefore, this role includes, but is not limited to, the following responsibilities:

Responsibilities

• Innovate and Evolve: Design and implement advanced anti-cheat technologies to stay ahead of emerging threats.
• Strengthen Core Systems: Analyze, update, and enhance existing protection frameworks to maintain top-tier security.
• Detect and Defend: Investigate, develop, and deploy cheat detection mechanisms that keep gameplay fair and fun.
• Collaborate Across Studios: Work closely with engineers across multiple teams to ensure seamless integration and performance.

Why This Role Matters

Your contributions will help millions of players experience Call of Duty as it’s meant to be played - competitive, fair, and thrilling. You’ll tackle complex technical challenges, influence the future of anti-cheat technology, and make a real impact on one of the world’s largest gaming communities.

Player Profile Minimum Requirements

• Experience 8+ years of relevant professional software development experience
• 5+ years of experience with Windows Platform on ARM
• Proven experience working on large-scale complex systems
• Experience with C++ codebases and refactoring
• Experience working in an engineering organization with a focus on CI/CD, scalability, and automation
• Expertise in debugging, optimization and performance tuning
• Knowledge & Skills Advanced knowledge of algorithms and data structures

Key Attributes

• Strong passion for delivering high-quality products
• Curiosity and drive to understand how systems work under the hood, break them down, analyze their behavior, and improve them
• Passion for low-level systems work, including comfort reading and debugging compiled code at the assembly level
• Clear and effective communication skills, both written and verbal

Experience

• Experiences with Windows Internals
• Experiences with Windows Security
• Experiences working on the internals of a multi-player game engine
• Experiences in reverse engineering software analysis
• Knowledge & Skills Background in Mathematics and/or cryptography
• Deep understanding of C++ compilation, linking, and toolchains, including diagnosing compiler and linker failures and optimizing build performance
• Deep understanding or hands‑on experience in the anti‑cheat domain

Extra Points

• Experience
• Experience
• Experience

Your Platform

Central Tech works to support our development studios and their titles. Comprised of seven main teams, we have many specialties including big data, privacy and security, motion capture and animation pipeline technologies, graphics, build and infrastructure for studio development and data centers, optimization, systems programming and online services including matchmaking and networking. Central Tech is distributed globally with offices across the U.S., and in Canada, England, Ireland and Japan. Most of our teams are comprised of both engineering and research talent, allowing us to always have an eye on the future. Our talented engineers help with title development and provide valuable knowledge sharing between studios while our researchers are action‑oriented and keep a strong connection with the needs of the game studios. Central Tech is part of Activision. To learn more about us and our research, please visit us at https://research.activision.com/.

Our World At Activision

We strive to create the most iconic brands in gaming and entertainment. We’re driven by our mission to deliver unrivaled gaming experiences for the world to enjoy, together. We are home to some of the most beloved entertainment franchises including Call of Duty®, Crash Bandicoot™, Tony Hawk’s™ Pro Skater™, and Guitar Hero®. As a leading worldwide developer, publisher and distributor of interactive entertainment and products, our “press start” is simple: delight hundreds of millions of players around the world with innovative, fun, thrilling, and engaging entertainment experiences. We’re forging ahead to keep advancing gameplay with some of the most popular titles and sophisticated technology in the world. We have bold ambitions to create the most inclusive company as we know our success comes from the passionate, creative, and diverse teams within our organization. We’re in the business of delivering fun and unforgettable entertainment for our player community to enjoy. And our future opportunities have never been greater — this could be your opportunity to level up.

Rewards

• Medical, dental, vision, health savings account or health reimbursement account, healthcare spending accounts, dependent care spending accounts, life and AD&D insurance, disability insurance; 401(k) with Company match, tuition reimbursement, charitable donation matching; Paid holidays and vacation, paid sick time, floating holidays, compassion and bereavement leaves, parental leave; Mental health & wellbeing programs, fitness programs, free and discounted games, and a variety of other voluntary benefit programs like supplemental life & disability, legal service, ID protection, rental insurance, and others; If the Company requires that you move geographic locations for the job, then you may also be eligible for relocation assistance.

In the U.S., the standard base pay range for this role is $115,140.00 - $213,024.00 Annual. These values reflect the expected base pay range of new hires across all U.S. locations. Ultimately, your specific range and offer will be based on several factors, including relevant experience, performance, and work location. Your Talent Professional can share this role’s range details for your local geography during the hiring process. In addition to a competitive base pay, employees in this role may be eligible for incentive compensation. Incentive compensation is not guaranteed. While we strive to provide competitive offers to successful candidates, new hire compensation is negotiable.

Equal Opportunity / Diversity

We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status, among other characteristics. We are committed to working with and providing reasonable assistance to individuals with physical and mental disabilities. If you are a disabled individual requiring an accommodation to apply for an open position, please email your request to [e-mail]. General employment questions cannot be accepted or processed here. Thank you for your interest.