Software Engineer, Riot Games
Live Operations, Operability
$136.3-190.8k
+ equity
Player-focused game development platform
Job no longer available
Player-focused game development platform
1001+ employees
Job no longer available
$136.3-190.8k
+ equity
1001+ employees
Company mission
To be the most player-focused game company in the world.
Role
Who you are
- 2 years of professional software engineering experience (or equivalent)
- Proficiency in at least one back‑end language (e.g., Java, Go, or similar)
- Familiarity with service-based development and RESTful APIs
- Exposure to cloud platforms (e.g., AWS or GCP) and infrastructure‑as‑code (e.g., Terraform, Pulumi)
- Experience with CI/CD systems (e.g., Jenkins, GitHub Actions) and containers (Docker, Kubernetes)
Desirable
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or related field (or equivalent experience)
- Working knowledge of observability stacks (Datadog, Prometheus)
- Experience supporting live services, incident response, or reliability engineering
- Exposure to secrets management, caching, or messaging systems
- Familiarity with SQL and relational databases
- Some understanding of modern frontend frameworks (e.g., React, TypeScript) and comfort contributing to web-based tooling
What the job involves
- Riot engineers bring deep knowledge of specific technical areas and value the opportunity to grow across a wide range of domains
- As a Software Engineer on Live Operations: Operability, you’ll help build and maintain the services and tooling that keep our games and platforms reliable
- You’ll focus on back-end systems and operational tooling, with an emphasis on working with data that reflects the health and behavior of our live services
- You’ll collaborate with partner teams to deliver scalable, maintainable, and resilient solutions
- You’ll learn from senior engineers while contributing to the ongoing reliability and player experience of Riot’s live environment
- You’ll report to the team’s Engineering Manager
- Implement and maintain back‑end services and operational tooling that support live game and platform reliability
- Build RESTful service endpoints and improve service quality with tests, code reviews, and documentation
- Contribute to automation and observability across CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure, and service deployments
- Instrument services with metrics, logs, and traces; participate in defining alerting and SLOs with guidance
- Participate in incident response and on‑call rotations; help drive follow‑ups and improvements after incidents
- Collaborate with cross‑functional partners to deliver features and reliability improvements that scale globally
Our take
Riot Games has grown into one of the world’s most prominent online and mobile game developers, due in large part to the success of its 2009 flagship title League of Legends which hosts just under seventy million users every month.
Riot is riding the wave of online gaming growth, having made a well timed switch from PC-only into mobile-based gaming, as capitalising on the rising popularity of esports, with the League of Legends World Championships one of the most watched events in the space.
However, adding further titles to its resume will be key to building on its success, as League of Legends was its only offering for the best part of a decade. Since being acquired by Chinese tech giant Tencent in 2011, the company has grown significantly in Asian markets, opening its Shanghai Game Studio in 2021 and expanding its China Game Studio Group in 2022. These two hubs will help Riot Games make further inroads in a country where PC gaming is already huge and continues to grow.
Regardless of League of Legends' success both online and in live arenas, the company nevertheless experienced a round of layoffs internationally that amounted to 11% of its workforce. Pair that with legal troubles in 2024 concerning the company’s partnership with now bankrupt crypto exchange FTX, and Riot Games appears to be in a period of transition. Thanks to the strength of its gaming products, however, Riot will no doubt maintain a comfortable position within the gaming world.
Freddie
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
24% employee growth in 12 months
Company
Funding (2 rounds)
Sep 2009
$8m
SERIES C
Jul 2008
$7m
EARLY VC
Total funding: $15m
Company benefits
- We offer medical, dental, and vision plans that cover you, your spouse/domestic partner, and children
- Life insurance, parental leave, plus short-term and long-term disability coverage are also available
- Riot will support your retirement benefits with a company match, and double down on your donations of time and money to non-profit charitable organizations
- Balance between work and personal life is encouraged with open paid time off, and a play fund so you can broaden and deepen your personal relationship with games
Company HQ
Sawtelle, Los Angeles, CA
Leadership
Brandon Beck
(Co-Chairman)Having studied at the University of Southern California, they worked as a Management Consultant at Bain & Company. they left this role in September 2006 to co-found Riot Games, where they served initially as co-CEO.
Marc Merrill
(Co-Chairman)After a degree at the University of Southern California, they worked as a U.S. Bank Analyst and a Manager of Advanstar Communications. They co-founded Riot Games with Brandon in September 2006, alongside being a Principal of NaHCo3 since 2016.
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