Staff Software Engineer, Tools (Full-Stack) - Central Creative

Riot engineers bring deep knowledge of specific technical areas but also value the opportunity to work in a variety of broader domains. As a Staff Software Engineer, you’ll drive important technical initiatives and provide other engineers with a clear illustration of extraordinary engineering.  We work with both new and current technology, creating innovative solutions to overcome high-volume obstacles and to deliver player value.

As a Staff Software Engineer (Full-Stack) on the Central Creative Tools team, you will work closely with artists, discipline leads, and other engineers to gather requirements and implement the long-term vision for the team’s tooling.  In this role you will be hands-on in conceptualizing, planning, implementing, and maintaining the tools that power content creation workflows utilizing Digital Asset Management (DAM) to make creatives more efficient. You will report to the Director of Technical Art on the team.

Responsibilities:

• Implement the foundational elements of the studio’s Digital Asset Management (DAM) system to support each game team’s creative tools ecosystem
• Be hands-on in development, writing excellent code that sets a high standard for other engineers.
• Evaluate, integrate, and operate AI-assisted engineering tools that improve code quality, reliability, security, performance, and developer productivity across the software delivery lifecycle
• Lead the technical execution of multi-month to year-plus work efforts across the business unit, holding teams to established standards.
• Help teams navigate ambiguity and complexity by breaking down problems, identifying risks, and clearly communicating trade-offs.
• Implement the technical vision, architecture, and execution for the tools engineering team in accordance with overall goals of team leadership.
• Collaborate effectively with production, design, art, and other engineering teams to deliver tools that are purpose-driven, robust, and scalable
• Champion tooling best practices across multiple teams including design, tech art, UX, and gameplay engineering
• Review and identify new and shared developer tooling technologies, both internal and external, as possible opportunities for the team
• Provide documentation and trainings on new tools and workflows to internal customers
• Partner with game developers, infrastructure engineers, and QA teams to align release processes with development needs.

Required Qualifications: 

• 6+ years of professional experience in software engineering, including experience delivering live or shipped products at scale
• Experience supporting AI/ML platforms, inference services, model-serving systems, data pipelines, or GPU-backed workloads
• 3+ years working on game development tools
• Experience in Unreal Engine and awareness of upcoming tools from Epic
• B.S. in computer science or equivalent experience
• Proven ability to navigate ambiguity and influence cross-functional stakeholders
• Strong communication skills across technical and non-technical audiences
• Knowledge within a diverse set of public cloud technologies: AWS RDS, S3, EC2, etc.
• Proficiency in GoLang, C++ and C#, and familiarity with Java / Typescript.
• Experience working with large game teams and large code bases
• Experience collaborating with teammates across multiple disciplines

Desired Qualifications:

• Experience working in Digital Asset Management (DAM) systems
• Experience of working with desktop applications
• Professional experience creating tools in Unreal 5
• Experience collaborating with teammates across multiple disciplines
• Product sense, pragmatism, and player empathy in making tech decisions

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!

Our Perks:

Riot focuses on work/life balance, shown by our open paid time off policy and 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.

At Riot Games, we  put players first. That mission drives every decision in our quest to create games and experiences that make it better to be a player. Whether you’re working directly on a new player-facing experience or you’re supporting the company as a whole, everyone at Riot is part of our mission. And just like in our games, we’re better when we work together. Our goal is to create collaborative teams where you are empowered to bring your unique perspective everyday. If that sounds like the kind of place you want to work, we’re looking forward to your application.

It’s our policy to provide equal employment opportunity for all applicants and members of Riot Games, Inc. Riot Games makes reasonable accommodations for handicapped and disabled Rioters and does not unlawfully discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, handicap, veteran status, marital status, criminal history, or any other category protected by applicable federal and state law. We consider for employment all qualified applicants, including those with criminal histories, in a manner consistent with applicable federal, state and local law, including the California Fair Chance Act, the City of Los Angeles Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance, the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers, the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, and the Washington Fair Chance Act.

Per the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance, the following core duties may create a basis for disqualifying candidates with relevant criminal histories:

• Safeguarding confidential and sensitive Company data
• Communication with others, including Rioters and third parties such as vendors, and/or players, including minors
• Accessing Company assets, secure digital systems, and networks
• Ensuring a safe interactive environment for players and other Rioters

These duties are directly related to essential operations, safety, trust, and compliance obligations within our organization. Please note that job duties may evolve based on business needs and additional responsibilities may be assigned as necessary to maintain operational efficiency and security.