Principal Software Engineer, Engine & Tools - League of Legends

Riot’s mission is to put players at the center of everything we do. We do this by continuing to evolve and deliver new experiences to players with games like Teamfight Tactics, Legends of Runeterra, VALORANT, and League of Legends: Wild Rift. Riot is also expanding into the world of music/multimedia with the release of our animated series Arcane and music from KDA and True Damage. In short - it’s an exciting time to be a Rioter.

As a Principal Software Engineer in League of Legends, you’ll report to your team’s Engineering Manager in our office in Los Angeles. You will drive the architecture and evolution of League’s core game engine, improving the foundational systems and tools used to develop League. You’ll solve complex technical challenges across these systems, improving their reliability, scalability, and performance while reducing iteration time and workflow friction for developers across League.

Responsibilities:

• Design, build, and maintain software systems with a focus on quality, reliability, and maintainability.

• Accelerate the development of the core engine architecture and developer experience.

• Uphold a high standard of engineering excellence. Participate in code reviews, write unit/integration tests, and contribute to continuous improvement of team practices.

• Collaborate with designers, product managers, producers, and other engineers to understand their workflows, scope, implement, and test features.

• Write clear documentation and communicate technical details across disciplines.

• Provide mentorship to junior and senior engineers across the League team.

• Participate in the on-call rotation to resolve live incidents.

Required Qualifications:

• 8+ years of game, game engine and tools development experience

• 5+ years of professional experience in C++

• Deep subject matter expertise in building and architecting tools and engine features

• Experience shipping software at scale that deploys on a range of different platforms

• Experience collaborating across disciplines (e.g. Design, Art, QA, Production) to create solutions

• Experience implementing software engineering best practices within your team, including design reviews, coding standards, code reviews, tools improvements, source control management, build processes, and testing

• Experience applying AI to software development workflows, including using or integrating AI-powered tools to improve engineering productivity and code quality

• Product sense, pragmatism, and player empathy in making tech decisions