Software Engineering Manager, Riot Games
Content Access Platform
Player-focused game development platform
Be an early applicant
Player-focused game development platform
1001+ employees
Be an early applicant
1001+ employees
Company mission
To be the most player-focused game company in the world.
Role
Who you are
- Bachelor's or Master’s degree in Computer Science or a related field, or equivalent professional experience
- 5+ years experience as a Software Engineer, preferably on technical product teams that built tooling for services and APIs
- 2+ years experience directly leading an engineering team either as an Engineering Manager or Technical Lead
- Experience managing engineers and actively participating in their growth and development
- Experience recruiting candidates and growing an engineering team
- Experience with distributed systems, microservices, and software at a high scale
- Experience operating and maintaining live services, including handling emergent issues and on-call troubleshooting
- Ability to work non-standard hours including evening hours to overlap with Los Angeles timezone
- 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!
Desirable
- Experience building services using Java, Kotlin, or Go
- Experience developing using cloud infrastructure (such as AWS, GCP), using containers and orchestration (such as Docker, Kubernetes), managed using infrastructure as code (such as Terraform, Ansible)
- Experience with CI/CD pipelines (such as GitHub Actions, Jenkins)
- Experience with relational databases (such as MySQL)
- Experience with event driven architectures and technologies (such as Kafka)
- Experience with web-based UIs
What the job involves
- As an Engineering Manager, you’ll guide an engineering team through all the phases of the software development and operations lifecycle
- You’ll also serve as a people manager, mentor, and coach for the engineers, overseeing performance management, growth opportunities, and accountability
- As a Software Engineering Manager within the Content Access Platform group of teams, you will lead the engineering team that builds and operates product configuration pipelines and tooling which enable game teams to successfully ship content to players
- You will partner with customer teams on each Riot game, central technology teams, and teams in Tencent to ensure we are making excellent decisions, upholding a high quality bar, and operating efficiently in service of those players
- You will report to the Software Engineering Manager for the Content Access Platform group of teams
- Manage a team of 6-10 Software and QA Engineers; coaching them, providing performance management, identifying growth opportunities, and ensuring positive results
- Partner and collaborate with Product Leads, Delivery Leads, and Technical Leads within the team and within Content Access Platform to align on the plan the team executes against
- Align with service teams across Content Access Platform, and the wider Player Platform business unit, on product configuration pipelines and tooling, and best practices for using them
- Support the technical vision and roadmap by allocating engineers and skill sets to meet goals and deliver results
- Own the interviewing and onboarding process for new engineering team members
- Be accountable for the technical health of the products owned by the team
- Stay hands-on with the team's tech, overseeing the technical design and deliverables of the team and working with the team's technical leadership
- Regularly engage with the codebase by participating in code reviews and non-critical tasks
- Build healthy relationships with other engineering teams across Riot globally, in order to foster cross-team collaboration
- Connecting with key stakeholders virtually in Los Angeles every week, overlapping with US operating hours
- Own and operate live services, meeting reliability expectations, handling emergent issues, and supporting engineers during on-call troubleshooting
- Make time to connect with key stakeholders virtually in Los Angeles, CA every week during US operating hours
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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