Staff Software Engineer, Engine Performance (Tools) - Central Technology, Unreal Ecosystem

Riot Games; Los Angeles (CA); On-site; USD 193,000 - 269,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical insurance

Dental insurance

Life insurance

Parental leave

401k with company match

Open PTO

Job summary

Riot Games in Los Angeles is seeking a Staff Software Engineer for the UnEco team to drive features, mentor engineers, and raise the bar on performance and tooling.

You will own multi-month to year-long initiatives, collaborate across game, infrastructure, and developer tooling groups, and ship robust, scalable systems that enhance player experiences.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of software engineering experience.
• Expertise with C++.
• Experience with modern game engines.
• Experience with large game teams.
• Ability to debug, profile, and optimize complex projects.
• Strong knowledge of common game and software design patterns.
• Experience collaborating with teammates across multiple disciplines.
• Experience shipping games across multiple platforms.
• Experience with developer tools to improve productivity.

Responsibilities

• Be hands-on in development, writing excellent code that sets a high standard for other engineers.
• Work with leadership on prioritization of work efforts and identifying opportunities for impact.
• Partner with game teams to diagnose issues and improve player-facing performance.
• Partner with infrastructure teams to analyze and drive recommendations around bandwidth optimization, server density, resource utilization, etc.
• Improve and optimize the developer experience, including improving cook and build times, editor load times, and understanding and fixing developer pain points.
• Lead the technical execution of multi-month to year-plus work efforts across the business unit, holding teams to established standards.
• Help teams navigate ambiguity and complexity by breaking down problems, identifying risks, and clearly communicating trade-offs.
• Work on a range of tech stacks including underlying infrastructure, build and test automation, release pipelines, and developer tooling for internal teams leveraging the Riot Unreal Ecosystem.
• Work with stakeholders across the organization to address their pain points and exceed their expectations for how optimization and performance improvements can be realized without sacrificing quality.
• Be a standard-bearer and role model of Riot values for your team and others.
• Be a force multiplier for your team. Mentor senior engineers on your team and enable them to deliver complex projects.

Skills

C++

Modern game engines

Large code bases

Debugging & profiling

Developer tooling

Cross-team collaboration

Tools

Unreal Engine

Unreal Insights

Pix

Job description

Riot engineers bring deep knowledge of specific technical areas but also value the opportunity to work in a variety of broader domains. We work with both new and current technology, creating innovative solutions to overcome high-volume obstacles and to deliver player value. As a Staff Software Engineer, you'll drive important features and provide other engineers with a clear illustration of extraordinary engineering.

The UnEco (or Unreal Ecosystem) team has an impact on a wide array of topics, including audio, test automation, runtime performance, tooling, and CI/CD. As a Staff Software Engineer on the UnEco team, you'll gain organizational alignment by building a strong engineering vision and offering creative solutions to technical problems. You will also serve as a mentor for your fellow engineers, helping guide their performance and finding growth opportunities delivering compelling player experiences. The ideal candidate in this role will bring substantial experience in both performance optimization and tooling, enabling them to be versatile across both partnering with game teams to deliver solutions to complex performance issues and provide central tooling solutions to help teams deliver faster and with more confidence.

Responsibilities

• Be hands-on in development, writing excellent code that sets a high standard for other engineers.
• Work with leadership on prioritization of work efforts and identifying opportunities for impact.
• Partner with game teams to diagnose issues and improve player-facing performance.
• Partner with infrastructure teams to analyze and drive recommendations around bandwidth optimization, server density, resource utilization, etc.
• Improve and optimize the developer experience, including improving cook and build times, editor load times, and understanding and fixing developer pain points.
• Lead the technical execution of multi-month to year-plus work efforts across the business unit, holding teams to established standards.
• Help teams navigate ambiguity and complexity by breaking down problems, identifying risks, and clearly communicating trade-offs.
• Work on a range of tech stacks including underlying infrastructure, build and test automation, release pipelines, and developer tooling for internal teams leveraging the Riot Unreal Ecosystem.
• Work with stakeholders across the organization to address their pain points and exceed their expectations for how optimization and performance improvements can be realized without sacrificing quality.
• Be a standard-bearer and role model of Riot values for your team and others.
• Be a force multiplier for your team. Mentor senior engineers on your team and enable them to deliver complex projects.

Required Qualifications

• 5+ years of software engineering experience
• Expertise with C++
• Experience working with modern video game engines
• Experience working with large game teams
• Experience working with large code bases
• Experience debugging, profiling and optimizing complex projects
• Strong knowledge of common game and software design patterns
• Experience collaborating with teammates across multiple disciplines
• Experience shipping games across multiple platforms
• Experience with profiling tools like Unreal Insights or Pix
• Experience with tools engineering to support internal development
• Experience building and maintaining developer tools that improve engineering productivity and enable efficient software development across teams.

Desired Qualifications

• Experience with Unreal Engine 5
• Experience building online games
• Experience with rendering in Unreal Engine titles

For this role, you'll find success through craft expertise, a collaborative spirit, and decision-making that prioritizes the delight of players. We will be looking at your past studies, experience, and your personal relationship with games. If you embody player empathy and care about players' experiences, this could be your role!

Our Perks

Riot focuses on work/life balance, shown by our open paid time off policy and other perks such as flexible work schedules. We offer medical, dental, and life insurance, parental leave for you, your spouse/domestic partner, and children, and a 401k with company match. Check out our benefits pages for more information.

At Riot Games, we put players first. That mission drives every decision in our quest to create games and experiences that make it better to be a player. Whether you're working directly on a new player-facing experience or you're supporting the company as a whole, everyone at Riot is part of our mission. And just like in our games, we're better when we work together. Our goal is to create collaborative teams where you are empowered to bring your unique perspective everyday. If that sounds like the kind of place you want to work, we're looking forward to your application.

It's our policy to provide equal employment opportunity for all applicants and members of Riot Games, Inc. Riot Games makes reasonable accommodations for handicapped and disabled Rioters and does not unlawfully discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, handicap, veteran status, marital status, criminal history, or any other category protected by applicable federal and state law. We consider for employment all qualified applicants, including those with criminal histories, in a manner consistent with applicable federal, state and local law, including the California Fair Chance Act, the City of Los Angeles Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance, the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers, the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, and the Washington Fair Chance Act.

Duties

Per the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance, the following core duties may create a basis for disqualifying candidates with relevant criminal histories:

• Safeguarding confidential and sensitive Company data
• Communication with others, including Rioters and third parties such as vendors, and/or players, including minors
• Accessing Company assets, secure digital systems, and networks
• Ensuring a safe interactive environment for players and other Rioters

These duties are directly related to essential operations, safety, trust, and compliance obligations within our organization. Please note that job duties may evolve based on business needs and additional responsibilities may be assigned as necessary to maintain operational efficiency and security.

(Los Angeles Only) Base salary range between $192,500.00 - $269,400.00 USD + incentive compensation + equity + 401K with company match + medical, dental, vision, and life insurance + short and long-term disability + open PTO.