Principal Software Engineer (C++/Game Development)

Company

Riot Games develops League of Legends and other player-focused games and experiences.

What you will do

• Set technical direction and lead architecture for complex initiatives spanning multiple teams.
• Design and guide player-facing systems across the game client, engine, UI, content, tooling, and services.
• Identify technical risks and dependencies, clarify tradeoffs, and balance player experience, quality, performance, scope, and schedule.
• Improve system quality, reliability, observability, maintainability, and live-service operations, including incident response and root-cause analysis.
• Establish shared patterns and standards, and review technical designs, RFCs, and implementation plans.
• Mentor senior engineers and Tech Leads, improve engineering workflows, and represent the Purchase Points theme in architectural discussions.

Requirements

• 8+ years of professional software engineering experience, or equivalent experience delivering complex software systems.
• Expert-level C++ experience in large, complex, and long-lived codebases.
• 6+ years of professional game-development experience, or equivalent depth with game clients, game engines, interactive products, or related technologies.
• Experience designing and shipping player-facing systems, with strong knowledge of architecture, performance, memory, concurrency, debugging, and maintainability.
• Experience setting technical direction across multiple teams or a broad product area without formal authority.
• Ability to collaborate with non-engineering partners and communicate complex problems and tradeoffs clearly.
• Track record of mentoring senior engineers and delivering multi-month or multi-year technical efforts with broad product or organizational impact.

Nice to have

• Experience with around-game systems such as game UI, screens, client navigation, player journeys, progression, social, identity, or shopping.
• Experience with proprietary game engines, content tools, pipelines, or authoring workflows.
• Experience with UI architecture, real-time performance profiling, or client integration with online services.
• Experience shipping and operating a live game or globally distributed consumer product.
• Familiarity with League of Legends or strong motivation to learn the game and its player experience.

Culture & Benefits

• Open paid time off policy and flexible work schedules.
• Medical, dental, and life insurance.
• Parental leave for employees, spouses or domestic partners, and children.
• Retirement benefits with a company match.
• Matching donations of time and money to nonprofit charitable organizations.
• Collaborative, player-first environment focused on player empathy and diverse perspectives.