Lead Backend Engineer

thatgamecompany is seeking a Lead Backend Engineer for 'Sky: Children of the Light' to develop, scale, and improve mission-critical backend microservices. This role involves designing highly available systems for millions of concurrent players, monitoring system health, improving quality through code reviews and documentation, and collaborating closely with Gameplay, Engine, and Ops teams. The engineer will lead and provide technical guidance, balancing speed and quality in a dynamic live game environment.

Must Have

• 8+ years experience in backend for MMO or high-volume, distributed, low-latency web services.
• 5+ years experience leading geographically distributed remote teams.
• 3+ years experience collaborating with offshore partner teams.
• Fluency in functional (Erlang/Elixir) and multi-paradigm (Golang) languages.
• Experience with Kubernetes, Helm, and Docker.
• Strong opinions on network communication, resource scaling, automated deployment, security, reliability, data tracking/analysis.
• Familiarity with testing patterns and a passion for automated testing.
• Proficient with Linux, container-native development, orchestration, CI/CD, GitOps, debugging in network environments.
• Thorough understanding of tradeoffs in highly available, scalable, distributed systems and caching strategies.

Good to Have

• Sharable hobby projects relevant to the role (game engine, distributed app, multiplayer game).
• Experience with UDP, bit-level serialization, delta compression for efficient real-time game network code.
• Familiarity with performant C++ (custom game engine is in C++).
• Experience with relational (PostgreSQL) and NoSQL (MongoDB, Redis) databases.

Perks & Benefits

• Paid Time Off, Holidays, and Two Weeks Winter Break
• Medical, dental, and vision coverage for employees and dependents, starting on day one.
• Pet Insurance
• Compassionate leave for family care
• Pre-tax wellness stipend
• Pre-tax work from home stipend
• 401K program with company match
• Mental health resources (Headspace, EAP)
• Discount portal for everyday goods and services
• Employee inclusive and diversity initiatives (Grow Together)
• Support for personal professional development

Lead Backend Engineer

Location

Remote - US

Employment Type

Full time

Location Type

Remote

Department

Engineering

Lead Backend Engineer

Remote - US & Canada

For “Sky: Children of the Light”, thatgamecompany has developed a real-time, multiplayer game server system capable of handling a massive amount of concurrent users. Providing a reliable and low latency experience for our players is a priority. We build, test, and maintain systems for account and login, resource scaling, seamless matchmaking, and live updates. We need your help developing, scaling and improving these mission critical systems so that we can continue providing impactful multiplayer experiences to people around the globe.

On any given day at TGC, you might:

• Work with your peers to design and implement large-scale, highly available backend microservices that serve millions of concurrent players. Aim for zero downtime.
• Monitor system health and quickly respond to any failures or glitches to deliver a smooth online experience to players worldwide.
• Improve quality through code reviews, expanded test coverage, technical post-mortems, improved documentation.
• Encourage collaboration and domain knowledge sharing; reducing bus factor is a feature.
• Work and iterate very closely with members of our (distributed, remote) Gameplay, Engine, and Ops teams.
• Design testable, flexible features & systems that can withstand frequent changes to functional and performance requirements (this is a live game with a lot of new content, nothing is static!)
• Deliver! More specifically, strike a deliberate balance between speed and quality.
• Lead and provide technical guidance to peers and juniors..

Must have:

• 8+ years experience working on the back-end for an MMO or high-volume, distributed, low-latency web services.
• 5+ years experience leading geographically distributed remote teams.
• 3+ years experience collaborating with offshore partner teams.
• Fluency in both a functional language such as Erlang/Elixir and a multi-paradigm language such as Golang. You realize languages are just tools and you are already fluent in at least these two types.
• Experience with Kubernetes, Helm, and Docker.
• Have strong, informed opinions on the different approaches to managing network communication, resource scaling, automated deployment, security, reliability, and data tracking/analysis
• Be familiar with (and have passion for) testing patterns. We are behind the curve with automated testing and aim to get ahead of it.
• Be proficient with Linux, container-native development and orchestration, CI/CD, GitOps, and debugging in network environments.
• Have a thorough understanding of the tradeoffs involved in building highly available, scalable systems, caching strategies, and distributed systems.

Nice to have:

• Sharable hobby projects relevant to the role, eg: a game engine, a distributed container-based app, a multiplayer game using an existing engine.
• Experience with UDP, bit-level serialization, delta compression, and other techniques for developing efficient network code for real time games
• Our custom game engine is written in C++; the more familiarity you have with performant C++, the better.
• Have experience with both relational and NoSQL databases (PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Redis)

Check out our site, the Sky game, read the reviews. If you like what you see, we’d love to hear from you!

Perks:

• Paid Time Off, Holidays, and Two Weeks Winter Break
• Employees and their dependents get medical, dental, and vision coverage, regardless of their level, tenure, or position within the company. Moreover, these benefits start on the first day of the job—there’s no waiting period before they kick in.
• Pet Insurance for those who need it too.
• Compassionate leave for employees who needs to take care of their family members
• Pre-tax wellness stipend
• Pre-tax work from home stipend
• Access our savings plan (401K program) with company match
• Mental health resources including Headspace membership and Employee Assistance Program (CCA)
• Discount portal for everyday goods and services
• Employee inclusive and diversity initiatives such as Grow Together
• Support for personal professional development

We look forward to meeting you!

Applicants must be authorized to work for any employer in the U.S or Canada. We are unable to sponsor or take over sponsorship of an employment Visa at this time.

#LI-Remote

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