Staff Software Engineer, Metagame - Unpublished R&D Product

Riot engineers bring deep knowledge of specific technical areas but also value the opportunity to work in a variety of broader domains. 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, you’ll drive important features and provide other engineers with a clear illustration of extraordinary engineering.

As a Staff Software Engineer on an unpublished R&D product , you will drive product-defining features, influence technical strategy, and multiply the effectiveness of your team. You will help build a comprehensive ecosystem by building core metagame systems, tooling, and pipelines to rapidly iterate and deliver exciting playable experiences. You will play a foundational role in validating and building the metagame layer: everything around the core gameplay loop that enables progression, collection, personalization, and long-term engagement. You will work in a small, high-performing strike team to bring the vision to life quickly and sustainably, establishing the service and client architecture, pipelines, and content creation workflows. This role will report to the project’s Engineering Lead.

Responsibilities:

• Collaborate with other disciplines such as game design, product, and tech leads to define and implement early metagame systems.
• Drive technical design, architecture, and implementation for new features across the client and backend microservices that support metagame functionality.
• Establish sustainable workflows and tools to accelerate content creation and iteration for metagame-facing systems.
• Build and refine metagame UI screens and data models in engine, ensuring high clarity, responsiveness, and scalability across cross-platform
• Identify and surface technical risks early, guiding the team toward low-risk architectural decisions.

Required Qualifications:

• 6+ years of professional software development experience.
• 2+ years of experience implementing systems in a game engine (Unity, Unreal, or equivalent).
• 2+ years of experience in C#, Java, Go, C++, Python, or other Object Oriented programming languages
• Experience building game clients and backend services.
• Strong technical design and architecture skills; able to reason holistically about client-service boundaries.
• Experience building metagame features: progression, collections, or similar systems in games.
• Demonstrated ability to identify inefficiencies in tools, workflows, and pipelines and create solutions that remove friction for cross-discipline teams.
• Experience mentoring engineers and elevating team-wide technical capability.

Desired Qualifications:

• Experience with containerized microservices powering live service game features (C#, Go, Java, or similar).
• Familiarity with SQL, relational schemas, caching systems, and pub/sub infrastructure.
• Experience shipping features on a cross-platform product.
• Strong product sense, able to understand what makes a metagame system feel intuitive, rewarding, and polished.

For this role, you'll find success through craft expertise and a collaborative spirit that prioritizes the delight of players. We will look at your past studies and experience, but for this role, we also look for dedicated people with a personal relationship with games. If you embody player empathy and care about players' experiences, this is the role for you!

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.