Staff Software Engineer, Platform Services - Central Technology, Anti-Cheat

Riot Engineers on Anti-Cheat are builders, trailblazers, and stewards of competitive integrity. We protect the legitimacy of Riot’s multiplayer games by designing resilient platforms, developing robust internal tools, and staying ahead of adversarial threats without losing sight of the player experience.

As a Staff Software Engineer on Vanguard’s Platform Services team, you will operate at the intersection of platform services, internal developer tooling, and ecosystem design. You’ll be responsible for supporting a platform that serves millions of players, supporting internal tools that serve hundreds of Player Support agents and developing cutting edge technology to help prevent, detect and deter cheaters from getting into our games. This is a hands-on staff role for an engineer who thrives on rolling up their sleeves and building services in a fast-paced and innovative environment. You will help lead through technical expertise and soft skills, influencing the direction of the team both through code and a deep drive to understand and improve the product. You will partner closely with engineers, stakeholders, and anti-cheat experts across the entire Vanguard stack to build performant and impactful tools and services in support of our Players. You will report to the Engineering Manager of Platform Services within Anti-Cheat

Responsibilities:

• Design, build, and evolve shared backend platform services that power Vanguard systems across client, services, and internal tooling
• Own APIs and service contracts used by multiple teams, ensuring reliability, clarity, and long-term maintainability
• Lead the development of internal tools and web applications used for operations, investigations, configuration, and visibility
• Identify and reduce systemic risks across the platform (scalability, operability, security, maintainability)
• Design and operate distributed backend systems with high availability and strong security guarantees
• Partner in incident response, root cause analysis, and long-term reliability improvements
• Improve CI/CD pipelines, observability, and operational workflows for platform services
• Collaborate across Anti-Cheat, Security, and Game teams as a trusted technical partner

Required Qualifications:

• Staff-level experience building and owning backend platforms and internal tools used by multiple teams
• Strong experience with backend service development and distributed systems
  (e.g., AWS, Docker, Kubernetes)
• Significant experience building internal tools or web applications using modern web stacks (e.g.,Golang, React, Node.js, TypeScript)
• Experience designing and maintaining APIs and shared services in a large or growing ecosystem
• Comfort operating and debugging live, production systems
• Strong architectural judgment and experience influencing key technical decisions
• Excellent communication skills and a collaborative mindset

Desired Qualifications:

• Experience working on platform teams or internal developer tooling
• Experience designing systems with security and adversarial thinking in mind
• Background supporting high-availability services or operational tooling
• Experience mentoring engineers at all levels
• Experience building developer platforms or sandbox environments for rapid experimentation
• A strong understanding of LLMs, Agentic AI based development, and their respective strengths and weaknesses

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.