Lead Software Engineer, Production Technology

Blizzard prides itself on continuing to support the historic games that made us who we are today. Keeping these games running as technology marches forward takes effort, and we need a hero to own and direct that effort.

Whether it's battling the Zerg in the Koprulu sector or defeating your opponents in the Nexus, these treasured classics need a versatile champion to maintain, shape, and advance the technology underpinning these games. You should be spec'd into engineering talents, with a passion for leadership and planning, and armed with a hunger to use modern technology to create sustainable solutions.

So, if you like merging technology with player experience, working with a small team and look forward to challenges that will create millions of new adventures for our players, we would love to hear from you.

As a Lead Software Engineer in the Prod Tech org at Blizzard, you may find yourself…

• Demonstrating your technical experience to coordinate and improve impact across several groups of cross-disciplined engineers while minimizing duplicated efforts

• Evaluating the technical challenges of our partner teams and applying your experience to help lead the assembled team(s) to provide strong value-driven solutions.

• Mentoring, developing, and inspiring, as well as learning from, the engineers that report to you

• Continuously working with Prod Tech leadership, as well as the business as a whole, to make our team a top-tier destination for the most dedicated engineers in the industry

• Sharing ideas and technology to partner teams throughout Blizzard in a clear and effective way

• Working with stakeholders to drive a blameless culture around incident management

You may succeed in this role if you…

• Love to solve novel and exciting problems

• Thrive on making big-picture impact and continuously looking for exciting positive change

• Measure and demonstrate improving service state and champion quality of team deliverables

• Take pride in your team and succeeding through others

• Are driven to nurture and develop highly effective engineers

• Strive to be better, more hard-working, and faster tomorrow than you are today

• Seek to identify and prioritize tasks for maximum impact on sustainability and resilience of code and infrastructure

• Possess the technical knowledge to understand the challenges facing the team

• Like to collaborate with others to solve problems, share knowledge, and provide feedback

• Can self-assess the needs of a system, codebase, or team, and make a case to prioritize that work

• Enjoy maintaining the uptime of always-on, always-available live global services

• Know when and how to say “No”

The Lead Software Engineer of Prod Tech will be expected to have extensive knowledge in the following areas:

• Programming background with C++

• Experience developing on multiple platforms - Windows, Mac, Linux

• Owning a tech stack from continuing development to live operation

• Developing and operating highly available, distributed, live, real-time services

• Developing in a context where many dependent services are owned by other teams

• Ability to lead and develop other engineers

• Ability to prioritize in ambiguous situations

• Working with mature legacy codebases

• Developing software that is used globally in compliance with local regulations

• Database development experience (RDBMS)

• CI/CD

• Linux and/or MacOS development experience

• Familiarity with C# and Python

This role is anticipated to be a hybrid work position, with some work on-site and some work-from-home. The potential home studio for this role is Albany, NY or Irvine, CA. However, we understand each person’s circumstances may be unique and will work with you to explore other possible options, including remote work arrangements.

Your Platform

Best known for iconic video game universes including Warcraft®, Overwatch®, Diablo®, and StarCraft®, Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. (www.blizzard.com), a division of Activision Blizzard, which was acquired by Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), is a premier developer and publisher of entertainment experiences. Blizzard Entertainment has created some of the industry’s most critically acclaimed and genre-defining games over the last 30 years, with a track record that includes multiple Game of the Year awards. Blizzard Entertainment engages tens of millions of players around the world with titles available on PC via Battle.net®, Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, iOS, and Android.

Our World

Activision Blizzard, Inc., is one of the world's largest and most successful interactive entertainment companies and is at the intersection of media, technology and entertainment. We are home to some of the most beloved entertainment franchises including Call of Duty®, World of Warcraft®, Overwatch®, Diablo®, Candy Crush™ and Bubble Witch™. Our combined entertainment network delights hundreds of millions of monthly active users in 196 countries, making us the largest gaming network on the planet!

Our ability to build immersive and innovative worlds is only enhanced by diverse teams working in an inclusive environment. We aspire to have a culture where everyone can thrive in order to connect and engage the world through epic entertainment. We provide a suite of benefits that promote physical, emotional and financial well-being for ‘Every World’ - we’ve got our employees covered!

The videogame industry and therefore our business is fast-paced and will continue to evolve. As such, the duties and responsibilities of this role may be changed as directed by the Company at any time to promote and support our business and relationships with industry partners.

We love hearing from anyone who is enthusiastic about changing the games industry. Not sure you meet all qualifications? Let us decide! Research shows that women and members of other under-represented groups tend to not apply to jobs when they think they may not meet every qualification, when, in fact, they often do! We are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment and strongly encourage you to apply.

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 accommodationrequests@activisionblizzard.com. General employment questions cannot be accepted or processed here. Thank you for your interest.

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.

Rewards

We provide a suite of benefits that promote physical, emotional and financial well-being for ‘Every World’ - we’ve got our employees covered! Subject to eligibility requirements, the Company offers comprehensive benefits including:

• 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.

Eligibility to participate in these benefits may vary for part time and temporary full-time employees and interns with the Company. You can learn more by visiting https://www.benefitsforeveryworld.com/.

In the U.S., the standard base pay range for this role is $121,500.00 - $224,880.00 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.