Principal Software Developer, Zynga

• B.Sc. in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent education / work experience
• 6+ Years game industry / mobile app experience as a software developer
• Shipped titles and/or live games experience, especially mobile (iOS / Android)
• Expert knowledge in C#
• 3+ Years Unity experience, including engine-level and low-level systems work
• A solid understanding of client/server architecture in modern mobile games
• Understanding, interest and knowledge of server-side architecture in mobile games
• Solid foundation in data structures, algorithms and software methodologies
• Demonstrated experience diagnosing and resolving performance issues such as load times, frame rate, and memory usage
• Experience upgrading, integrating, or maintaining third-party libraries, SDKs, or engine versions
• Experience with the AWS ecosystem, Kubernetes, and back end monitoring technologies such as Datadog
• Excellent communication skills and comfort working in a collaborative environment
• Excellent ability to foresee and proactively resolve blockers, technical risk, and points of failure
• Excellent ability to function in an asynchronous distributed work environment while still tuning in to key team meetings
• Experience with git
• Experience with performance profiling and optimization tools

Desirable

• Zynga is looking for a Principal Software Engineer level in the Austin, Eugene, Toronto, San Mateo, Carlsbad, or Chicago areas
• This position will be to develop and maintain the core client technology, engine-level systems, and infrastructure for a game with a cozy vibe targeting a casual audience. You should have a passion for engineering excellence and be comfortable diagnosing and solving deep, systemic technical problems, such as improving load times, frame rate, memory footprint, and other cross-cutting performance concerns. You’ll need to operate with rigorous engineering discipline while working largely independently to plan and execute complex, multi-week technical initiatives
• We have a well-rounded, highly motivated, distributed team with a mission-driven culture working on a new game. We need a self-driven engineer who confronts challenges with optimism, communicates clearly and easily, and takes a great deal of pride in their work. You’ll have an opportunity to own core engine and infrastructure work, including upgrading and maintaining third-party libraries and dependencies, evolving build and tooling pipelines, and making foundational changes to the client architecture that unlock future feature roadmaps for the rest of the engineering team
• Define, architect, and develop core systems and client infrastructure in Unity and C#
• Diagnose and resolve complex, game-wide technical issues such as slow load times, low frame rates, memory pressure, and build/runtime stability
• Own the evaluation, upgrade, and maintenance of third-party libraries, SDKs, and engine dependencies
• Design and implement foundational architecture changes that enable future feature roadmaps for feature-focused engineers to build upon
• Produce technical design documentation and implementation plans for infrastructure and systemic initiatives
• Scope and cost work accurately from loosely defined requirements, presenting estimates with clear assumptions and identified risks
• Adapt plans and technical approaches when requirements or platform constraints change
• Review code, technical design documentation, and implementation plans for other team members
• Proactively profile, optimize, and refactor code to meet team performance and stability KPI goals
• Explore, develop, and integrate new technologies and tools that benefit the broader engineering team
• Work closely with other engineers to lead multi-week or month-long infrastructure and tooling efforts
• Give team and divisional tech talks on architectures that you’ve built
• Work to improve and evolve team process and engineering standards
• Help to mentor other engineers