Software Engineer 5 - Games Systems

At Netflix, our mission is to entertain the world. Together, we are writing the next episode - pushing the boundaries of storytelling, global fandom and making the unimaginable a reality. We are a dream team obsessed with the uncomfortable excitement of discovering what happens when you merge creativity, intuition and cutting-edge technology. Come be a part of what’s next.

Bring your passion for games and distributed systems to help us reinvent video games at global scale. Netflix transformed how people watch television; now join us to build the next-generation gaming platform for 300+ million members worldwide and the industry’s best-in-class distribution platform for game developers.

The Opportunity: Building the Backbone of Netflix Gaming

Games Systems is the backend team building and operating the foundational services that power the Games Developer Platform and the infrastructure supporting Cloud Games. Our mission is to enhance player discovery, gameplay, and engagement across Netflix's entire game portfolio — equipping developers both internal and external, with the platform capabilities they need to ship, iterate, and grow their product experiences.

As an L5 Software Engineer, you will play a pivotal role in designing, implementing, and scaling services that empower game developers and elevate the global member experience. You’ll work on high-throughput, low-latency infrastructure for running games, while also building features that drive player engagement both within individual games and across the broader Netflix platform—reaching millions of members worldwide.

What You'll Do

Own Critical Infrastructure: Design and operate the foundational systems underpinning Games: identity/authentication/authorization abstractions, and control plane services.

Build the Developer Platform: Architect and evolve core services that form the table stakes of the Netflix Game Developer Platform — cloud saves, leaderboards, achievements, and the APIs and SDK surfaces through which game developers build and iterate.

Mentor and Grow the Team: Be a day-to-day technical resource for junior engineers through design pairing, code review, and hands-on guidance.

Operate What You Build: Own the full lifecycle from design through production, with a high bar for reliability, observability, and operational excellence.

What You'll Bring

• 10+ years of professional experience designing, building, and operating highly available distributed backend systems at scale.

• Deep expertise in distributed systems — low-latency architecture, and fault-tolerant design, operating large-scale distributed datastores.

• Strong experience building developer-facing platform services and APIs (REST, gRPC, SDK surfaces).

• Proficiency in one or more modern backend languages (e.g., Java, C++).

• Hands-on experience with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure), microservices, and both SQL and NoSQL data stores.

• A track record of technical leadership — driving complex projects end-to-end, influencing across team boundaries, and raising the quality bar around you.

• Comfort with high ambiguity — ability to define structure and clarity from first principles in a fast-moving environment.

• Prior experience in the gaming industry or working on game platform infrastructure is a plus.

We seek to grow inclusive and diverse teams that will enhance our perspectives, skill sets, and behaviors. We highly encourage you to apply if your background will complement us, even if your experience doesn't precisely match the job description. Your skills and passion will stand out — and set you apart — especially if your career has taken some extraordinary twists and turns.

Generally, our compensation structure consists solely of an annual salary; we do not have bonuses. You choose each year how much of your compensation you want in salary versus stock options. To determine your personal top of market compensation, we rely on market indicators and consider your specific job family, background, skills, and experience to determine your compensation in the market range. The range for this role is $388,000.00 - $619,000.00. This compensation range will vary based on location.

Netflix provides comprehensive benefits including Health Plans, Mental Health support, a 401(k) Retirement Plan with employer match, Stock Option Program, Disability Programs, Health Savings and Flexible Spending Accounts, Family-forming benefits, and Life and Serious Injury Benefits. We also offer paid leave of absence programs. Full-time hourly employees accrue 35 days annually for paid time off to be used for vacation, holidays, and sick paid time off. Full-time salaried employees are immediately entitled to flexible time off. See more details about our Benefits here .

Netflix is a unique culture and environment. Learn more here .

Inclusion is a Netflix value and we strive to host a meaningful interview experience for all candidates. If you want an accommodation/adjustment for a disability or any other reason during the hiring process, please send a request to your recruiting partner.

We are an equal-opportunity employer and celebrate diversity, recognizing that diversity builds stronger teams. We approach diversity and inclusion seriously and thoughtfully. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, ancestry, national origin, caste, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or expression, age, disability, medical condition, pregnancy, genetic makeup, marital status, or military service.

Job is open for no less than 7 days and will be removed when the position is filled.