Staff Software Engineer - Infrastructure

Riot engineers bring deep knowledge of specific technical areas but also value the opportunity to work in many broader domains. As a Staff Software Engineer at Riot, you’ll also dive into projects that focus on team cohesiveness and cross-team goals. You’ll lead without authority and provide other engineers with a clear illustration of extraordinary engineering.

As a part of the Riot Infrastructure Team, you'll be part of the core group of engineers that build our infrastructure that enables our games to operate globally at scale. You will work across all infrastructure and game teams to automate all aspects of our infrastructures to enable teams to be more efficient and productive by building software and tools. As a Staff Software Engineer on the Infrastructure Team, you’ll be part of a team that is focused on enabling Riot engineers to reduce toil and inefficiency via tooling and automation in the age of AI. The tools that you could be building can range from a Slack bot, AI agent, MCP server to games deployment.  You will support the team as it collaborates with other teams across not just infrastructure but also across Riot to solve critical problem areas where tooling and automation are keys to the solution. If you are looking to have an impact across different aspects of Riot infrastructure, join us and pioneer solutions that will help us scale to the next level. 

Responsibilities:

• Design solutions and features based on requirements and agreements with our stakeholders using our standard frameworks and best practices
• Drive improvements to our standards and best practices where necessary
• Continually looking for efficiency and improvement opportunities within our infrastructure, propose solutions and rally support for your proposal.
• Work with senior leadership across organizations to ensure successful implementation
• Lead by example on quality design and coding standards 
• Help grow the team through mentoring and leveling up of less experienced teammates
• Build healthy relationships with other engineering teams at Riot to foster cross-team collaboration.

Required Qualifications: 

• 7+ years experience as a software engineer with focus on infrastructure or tooling in a fast-paced, large-scale environment
• Expertise with full software development life cycle
• Expertise in one or more object oriented languages (i.e. Python, Go, Java, C++)
• Strong experience working with containers and orchestration engines such as Kubernetes or Mesos
• Experience with large-scale Cloud development
• Experience with large-scale Deployment technologies (i.e. Cloudbees, GitHub Actions)
• Experience with AI tools such as Codex, Windsurf, Co-Pilot
• Understand core infrastructure services, distributed systems, microservices, and software at a large scale
• Fluent in Mandarin

Desired Qualifications:

• Experience in fast pasted and matrixed organizations
• Experience operating and supporting agile development, production services, and high availability
• Experience developing using cloud infrastructure (e.g., AWS, GCP) using containers and orchestration (e.g., Docker, Kubernetes), managed using infrastructure as code (e.g., Terraform, Ansible)
• Experience with CI/CD pipelines (e.g., Jenkins)
• Understand networking - down to the network layer (TCP/IP, routing, etc.)
• Experience working with international team members and colleagues

For this role, you'll find success through craft expertise, a collaborative spirit, and decision-making that prioritizes your fellow Rioters, who are the customers of your work. Being a dedicated fan of games is not necessary for this position!

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. 

• (Los Angeles Only) Base salary range between $192,500.00 - $269,400.00 USD + incentive compensation + equity + 401K with company match + medical, dental, vision, and life insurance + short and long-term disability + open PTO.