Riot Games was founded in 2006 by Brandon Beck and Marc Merrill with the intent to change the way video games are made and supported for players. In 2009, Riot released its debut title League of Legends to worldwide acclaim. The game has since gone on to become the most played PC game in the world and a key driver of the explosive growth of esports. Players are the foundation of our community and it’s for them we continue to evolve and improve the League of Legends experience. Riot Games is headquartered in Los Angeles, CA and has 23 offices worldwide.   

As a Software Engineer III on Research & Development working on an early stage product, you are armed with a wealth of knowledge in full stack game technologies, curiosity and an open mind for learning and knowledge work, and the flexibility to support rapid explorations during prototype. You will use a strong sense of pragmatism and your previous game development knowledge to focus limited mindshare on the most valuable learning and discovery opportunities in order to chart the path out of the prototype for our new game. You will work in a small team alongside a product lead, designers and artists to answer fundamental questions and eventually build experiences that will fulfill our players’ impossible dreams. 

Responsibilities

• Brainstorm, design, and implement game features to find answers to product, development, and technical questions. Work with cross-disciplinary teams.
• Write prototype code across a variety of technologies with a focus on accumulating insights that can be applied in future development stages.
• Support product and discipline leads to identify focus areas, handoff points, and provide the best solution to empower them to iterate and learn quickly in the development phase.
• Partner closely with the Engineering Lead to cultivate and model an environment of learning, exploration, and psychological safety for all disciplines, empowered by technology. 
• Set the technical direction, architecture requirements, and standards for the team during prototype, focused on rapid learnings, leading and contributing to technical design and implementation.
• Build relationships with and leverage the experience of technical leaders inside of Riot to design and lead technical direction and implementation of scalable and performant solutions as development advances into pre-production.
• Mentor other engineers on the team in all aspects of game development.

Required Qualifications:

• 6+ years of game development experience with depth in multiplayer game architectures
• 2+ years experience as team Technical Lead, or as subject matter expert in a specific engineering domain across multiple teams
• 1+ years experience using Unreal Engine or other modern game engines
• Experience developing systems that support games in close collaboration with other disciplines in game development
• Experience partnering with teammates across multiple disciplines in a daily work capacity
• BS in Computer Science, or proven understanding of Computer Science fundamentals

Desired Qualifications:

• Product sense and player empathy in making tech decisions
• Experience building gameplay systems supporting gameplay designers
• Experience building metagame systems in a development and operational environment
• Experience building tools and pipelines with close collaboration with art, design, and production
• Experience developing game backend systems 
• Experience working on games in the concept and prototyping phase or other environments focused on discovery and knowledge work
• Knowledge of content-heavy games or RPGs

For this role, you'll find success through craft expertise and a collaborative spirit that prioritizes the delight of players. We will look at your past studies and experience, but for this role, we also look for dedicated people with a personal relationship with games. If you embody player empathy and care about players' experiences, this is the role for you!

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 benefits pages for more information.

Riot Games fosters a player and workplace experience that values teamwork embodied by the Summoner's Code and Community Code. 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 thriving together and our ongoing work to build the most inclusive company in Gaming.