Senior Manager of Anti-Cheat Game Protection

As the Senior Manager of Anti-Cheat Game Protection for Call of Duty, you will lead multiple engineering teams to drive client-side technology, ensuring fair play and protecting game integrity. This role involves managing the current codebase, investing in new technologies, and maintaining systems with a DevOps mentality for availability and scale. You will define technical vision, foster collaboration, mentor talent, and contribute to a collaborative and innovative culture, making a significant impact on one of the world's largest gaming communities.

Must Have

• Lead and inspire multiple engineering teams focused on anti-cheat and game protection technology
• Define and communicate the technical vision and roadmap
• Balance execution and strategy by driving short-term deliverables and planning mid/long-term initiatives
• Foster collaboration across studios to deliver integrated solutions
• Promote a DevOps culture of reliability, scalability, and continuous improvement
• Develop and mentor talent, providing clear feedback and building a high-performing team
• Contribute to culture by actively shaping a collaborative, inclusive, and innovative environment
• 10+ years of experience in Software Development
• 5+ years of managing engineering team(s)
• Proficiency in C/C++ and Python
• Experience working in an engineering organization with a focus on CI/CD, scalability, and automation
• Advanced knowledge of algorithms and data structures
• Clear and effective communication skills, both written and verbal

Good to Have

• Game development experience
• Deep understanding or hands-on experience in the anti-cheat domain
• Devops experience
• Familiarity with Call of Duty Game Architecture and cheat ecosystem
• Knowledge of compiler theory and code obfuscation techniques

Perks & Benefits

• 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
• Voluntary benefit programs like supplemental life & disability, legal service, ID protection, rental insurance
• Relocation assistance (if required to move geographic locations)

Your Mission

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.

As the Senior Manager of Anti-Cheat Game Protection, you are responsible for driving the client-side technology that protects the integrity of one of the most beloved franchises in gaming. This involves managing and maintaining the current code base as well as identifying and investing in new technologies and services. All of this needs to be accomplished with a devops mentality to ensure that our systems are always available and operating at a reasonable scale.

What you bring to the table

The video game 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.

Therefore, this role includes, but is not limited to, the following responsibilities:

• Lead and inspire multiple engineering teams focused on anti-cheat and game protection technology
• Define and communicate the technical vision and roadmap, ensuring alignment with franchise goals and player trust
• Balance execution and strategy by driving short-term deliverables while planning for mid- and long-term initiatives
• Foster collaboration across studios to deliver integrated solutions
• Promote a DevOps culture of reliability, scalability, and continuous improvement across all systems and services
• Develop and mentor talent, providing clear feedback and building an engaged, high-performing team
• Contribute to culture by actively shaping a collaborative, inclusive, and innovative environment

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

• 10+ years of experience in Software Development
• 5 + years of managing engineering team(s)
• Proficiency in C/C++ and Python
• Experience working in an engineering organization with a focus on CI/CD, scalability, and automation

Knowledge & Skills

• Advanced knowledge of algorithms and data structures
• Clear and effective communication skills, both written and verbal

Key Attributes

• Strong passion for delivering high-quality products

Extra Points

Experience

• Game development experience
• Deep understanding or hands-on experience in the anti-cheat domain
• Devops experience

Knowledge & Skills

• Familiarity with Call of Duty Game Architecture and cheat ecosystem
• Knowledge of complier theory and code obfuscation techniques

Your Platform

Activision 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/

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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 not just looking back at our decades-long legacy; 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.

Ready to Activate Your Future?

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 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 accommodationrequests@activisionblizzard.com

. General employment questions cannot be accepted or processed here. Thank you for your interest.

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/

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