Principal Software Engineer, Foundations Developer Experience & Workflows

6 Months ago • 10 Years + • Research & Development

Job Summary

Job Description

As a Principal Software Engineer at Riot Games, you'll spearhead the design of developer workflows for VALORANT's multi-platform continuous delivery, ensuring a seamless player experience. You'll lead technical execution of large-scale projects, mentor senior engineers, and advise studio leadership on major technical decisions. Responsibilities include hands-on development, identifying impactful technology investments, establishing best practices for multi-platform game development, and collaborating with cross-functional teams. The role requires extensive experience in software development, particularly with C++, Unreal Engine, and game shipping on PC and consoles. You'll be a champion for developer experience and efficiency across engineering, design, art, QA, and audio disciplines, driving Riot's transition from hypergrowth to a scaled operating business.
Must have:
  • 10+ years professional software development experience
  • Shipping multiple games
  • 2+ years experience as a technical lead
  • 5+ years professional experience with C++
  • Unreal Engine game development experience (PC & Console)
  • Experience with large-scale interdisciplinary teams
Good to have:
  • Experience designing developer workflows for AAA games
  • Gen 9 Console game shipping experience
  • Multi-platform build pipeline design & maintenance
  • 2+ years professional experience with C#
Perks:
  • Open paid time off policy
  • Flexible work schedules
  • Medical, dental, and life insurance
  • Parental leave
  • 401k with company match

Job Details

VALORANT is moving from hypergrowth to becoming a scaled operating business, and your role will be pivotal in driving this transition. As a Principal Software Engineer on VALORANT Foundations, you will spearhead the design of developer workflows for multi-platform, continuous delivery development, ensuring a seamless player experience across all platforms. You will maximize business value for the studio by identifying, championing, and executing technology investments.  Your work will empower hundreds of developers located around the globe to build amazing experiences enjoyed by tens of millions of players each month.

You will bring a deep passion for the experience of Riot players and, by extension, that of its developers. You will lead the design and execution of technical solutions that VALORANT developers rely on to provide joy to players in a sustainable, consistent, and efficient manner across PC and console platforms. In service of that goal, your work will touch a diverse set of technical areas in order to address needs wherever they exist. You will draw on not only your deep technical expertise, but also your abilities to communicate, collaborate, mentor, and inspire across the organization. You will lead without authority, marshaling resources from various disciplines and holding teams to our high technical standards. As a technical leader, you will also advise studio leadership on major technical decisions, helping to set the technical direction for the game.

This role will report to the Director of Engineering Tech Lead for VALORANT Foundations.

Responsibilities:

  • Be hands-on in development, writing excellent code that sets a high standard for other engineers
  • Identify and champion the most impactful technology investments for studio leadership to prioritize, ensuring maximum business value
  • 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
  • Establish systems, tools, and best practices for multi-platform game development that improve developer experience and efficiency for all disciplines, including engineering, game design, art, QA, and audio
  • 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
  • Represent VALORANT in collaboration with central Riot teams and other Riot studios on co-development and technology sharing

Required Qualifications:

  • 10+ years experience in professional software development, including shipping multiple games
  • 2+ years of experience as a technical lead
  • Have been responsible for driving the design and execution of organization-sized efforts (1-year+ scope), including requirements gathering, planning, testing, and release or deployment
  • 5+ years professional experience with C++
  • Experience shipping an Unreal Engine game that targets PC and at least one of Console and Mobile
  • Experience working with interdisciplinary teams at scale

Desired Qualifications:

  • Professional experience designing and building developer workflows for a AAA game title.
  • Experience shipping a Gen 9 Console game
  • Experience with the design and maintenance of multi-platform build pipelines
  • 2+ years professional experience with C#

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 has a focus on work/life balance, shown by our open paid time off policy, in addition to 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 for more information.

Riot Games fosters a player and workplace experience that values teamwork embodied by the and . Our culture embraces differences as a strength, and our values are the guiding principles for how we approach work. We are committed to putting diversity and inclusion (D&I) at the center of everything we do, and promoting a fair and collaborative culture where Rioters treat one another with dignity and respect. We encourage you to read more about our value of and our ongoing work to build the .

 

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.

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. 

 

Similar Jobs

Worlds - Character Animator

Worlds

(Remote)
2 Months ago
Haven Studios  Inc  - Senior Level Designer

Haven Studios Inc

Montreal, Quebec, Canada (Hybrid)
1 Month ago
welevel  - Game Designer

welevel

Munich, Bavaria, Germany (On-Site)
4 Months ago
Riot Games - VFX Artist II - VALORANT, Premium Content

Riot Games

United States (On-Site)
3 Months ago
playrix  - Senior VFX Artist

playrix

Portugal (Remote)
7 Months ago
bytedance - Research Scientist in Foundation Model, Speech Understanding - 2024 Start (PhD)

bytedance

San Jose, California, United States (On-Site)
7 Months ago
NVIDIA - System Software Application Engineer

NVIDIA

Taipei City, Taiwan (On-Site)
4 Months ago
NVIDIA - System Software Engineer, GPU Development Tools

NVIDIA

Bengaluru, Karnataka, India (On-Site)
1 Month ago
Google - Staff Software Engineer, Google Cloud

Google

(On-Site)
6 Months ago
bytedance - Research Engineer / Scientist - AI for Databases

bytedance

San Jose, California, United States (On-Site)
1 Month ago

Get notifed when new similar jobs are uploaded

Similar Skill Jobs

Riot Games - Staff Software Engineer, Machine Learning - AI Foundations

Riot Games

Los Angeles, California, United States (On-Site)
1 Year ago
playrix  - Lead C++ Software Engineer (Gameplay)

playrix

Armenia (Remote)
7 Months ago
Epic Games - Senior Pipeline Developer

Epic Games

London, England, United Kingdom (On-Site)
2 Months ago
Light Speed Studios - Senior VFX Artist

Light Speed Studios

Irvine, California, United States (On-Site)
3 Months ago
Digital extremes - Weapons and Cosmetics 3D Generalist

Digital extremes

London, Ontario, Canada (Remote)
4 Weeks ago
Absurd Ventures - Senior Technical Artist (Materials)

Absurd Ventures

San Rafael, California, United States (On-Site)
1 Month ago
playrix  - Senior C++/Python Software Engineer (Engine)

playrix

Montenegro (Remote)
7 Months ago
Tencent - Senior Technical Artist (UE5)

Tencent

Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China (On-Site)
3 Months ago
Netflix - ML Software Engineer (L4/L5) - Media Algorithms

Netflix

Los Angeles, California, United States (On-Site)
1 Month ago
Postcard games studio - Senior Gameplay Programmer

Postcard games studio

Irvine, California, United States (On-Site)
3 Weeks ago

Get notifed when new similar jobs are uploaded

Jobs in Dublin, County Dublin, Ireland

Google - Network Operations Engineer

Google

Dublin, County Dublin, Ireland (On-Site)
1 Month ago
Google - Customer Growth Associate

Google

Dublin, County Dublin, Ireland (On-Site)
1 Month ago
Google - Software Engineer II, Site Reliability Engineering, Google Cloud

Google

Dublin, County Dublin, Ireland (On-Site)
1 Month ago
playrix  - Strategic Sourcing Manager

playrix

Ireland (Remote)
4 Months ago
Larian Studios - Writer

Larian Studios

Dublin, County Dublin, Ireland (On-Site)
7 Months ago
net ease group - Procurement Business Partner

net ease group

Dublin, County Dublin, Ireland (On-Site)
3 Days ago
playrix  - Senior Recruiter

playrix

Ireland (Remote)
7 Months ago
Interactive Brokers - Global Operational Resilience Specialist

Interactive Brokers

Dublin, County Dublin, Ireland (Hybrid)
2 Weeks ago
playrix  - Senior C++ Software Engineer (Build System)

playrix

Ireland (Remote)
6 Months ago
Interactive Brokers - Trade Desk Representative - Client Services (German speaker)

Interactive Brokers

Dublin, County Dublin, Ireland (Hybrid)
2 Weeks ago

Get notifed when new similar jobs are uploaded

Research & Development Jobs

Google - ASIC Power Efficiency Engineer

Google

Sunnyvale, California, United States (On-Site)
1 Month ago
Playtika - Java Technical Lead

Playtika

Romania (Hybrid)
7 Months ago
NVIDIA - System Design Engineer

NVIDIA

Santa Clara, California, United States (On-Site)
2 Months ago
Google - Senior Research Scientist, Quantum

Google

Goleta, California, United States (On-Site)
1 Month ago
Riot Games - Staff Software Engineer III - VALORANT, Expressions Engineering

Riot Games

Los Angeles, California, United States (On-Site)
7 Months ago
bytedance - GPU/AI Application Platform Engineer Intern (Server Platform)

bytedance

San Jose, California, United States (On-Site)
3 Months ago
bytedance - Research Scientist (Computational Biology - AI-for-Science)

bytedance

Seattle, Washington, United States (On-Site)
1 Month ago
NVIDIA - Senior Package Layout Engineer

NVIDIA

Yokne'am Illit, North District, Israel (On-Site)
4 Months ago
NVIDIA - Senior Software Engineer - System Customization Team

NVIDIA

Yokne'am Illit, North District, Israel (On-Site)
4 Months ago
bytedance - Algorithm Engineer Intern (Multimedia Lab - Video Processing and Enhancement)

bytedance

San Jose, California, United States (On-Site)
3 Months ago

Get notifed when new similar jobs are uploaded

About The Company

Los Angeles, California, United States (On-Site)

Los Angeles, California, United States (On-Site)

Shanghai, China (On-Site)

Los Angeles, California, United States (On-Site)

Berlin, Berlin, Germany (On-Site)

Los Angeles, California, United States (On-Site)

Mercer Island, Washington, United States (On-Site)

Los Angeles, California, United States (On-Site)

Los Angeles, California, United States (On-Site)

View All Jobs

Get notified when new jobs are added by Riot Games

Level Up Your Career in Game Development!

Transform Your Passion into Profession with Our Comprehensive Courses for Aspiring Game Developers.

Job Common Plug