This job listing expired on Jun 9, 2021
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The Distinguished Engineer for the Technology Department is a role that spans across all of Riot Games (Games, Esports, Riot Player Platform, Entertainment, etc). The Distinguished Engineer is responsible for understanding not only the current needs of our game and product organizations, but to be able to strongly envision the future needs of Riot Games from a Technology perspective.

Given that, you will be expected to balance responsibilities across three areas:

Deep Technology Expertise

  • Games are our focus. You will be responsible for helping to realize the successful vision and implementation of technology products and solutions across Riot. To accomplish this, you must have a proven track record of successful development and implementation of global-scale online games and services.

Leadership & Communication

  • As our senior-most technologists at Riot, you have a proven track record of delivering game technology solutions via your influence, technical leadership and mentorship of other principal-level technologists.

Thought Leadership & Technical Vision

  • Given the dynamic nature of our business, you will be responsible for ensuring that our technical vision (and resulting 3-5 year roadmap) is sufficiently flexible to not only meet the needs of game and platform teams today, but is agile enough to respond to the changing needs of players in the future.

Key Responsibilities:

  • Define core strategic technologies for Riot Games.
  • Help to develop and maintain our 3-5 yr technology roadmap, aligned with Riot’s overall vision and goals. This roadmap will not only serve as a guide for game teams to align with, but this roadmap will strongly inform Central Technology’s product roadmap.
  • Ensure our technology roadmap is actionable via strong technology governance and stewardship (via chairing the Architecture Working Group).
  • Work across our Product Tech Leads community to align on company standards, share knowledge and best practices.
  • Be a key contributor to the Game Studios product lifecycle management process. This will include ensuring that technical requirements (i.e. guardrails) are clearly defined and known by R&D teams as they prepare to move through the various stages of game exploration and development.
  • Be a key partner with Central Technology product leadership to ensure that Central Tech is “building the right things, right”. Central Tech will live or die by its ability to accelerate and provide agility to game teams and the Distinguished Engineer will be invaluable in helping to craft the Central Tech product roadmap to meet the needs of game (and product) teams across Riot.
  • Act as an oversight and feedback venue to game team EPs/Game Directors/Ops Dirs/PELs on key product-level technical decisions and their impacts on product quality, maintainability, operability, and potential timelines.
  • Participate in technical due diligence for acquisitions and 3rd-party studio evaluations.
  • Develop and nurture strong relationships with key partners including:
    • Vendors: Epic, Unity, AWS, Google, etc
    • Partner Studios: Quantum, Iron Galaxy, Heavy Iron, etc.
    • 1st-Party Partners: Apple, Google, Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo
    • Riot Forge Studios
    • Tencent
  • Partner with the VP of Engineering to inform what great engineering looks like at Riot. This should include defining/refining the key technical competencies of engineers at Riot, in addition to informing “soft skill” expectations for how engineers partner with other development disciplines (design, art, production).
  • Lead our technology research and development efforts, ensuring Riot has a shared point-of-view on emerging technologies and platforms across the gaming industry.
  • Ensure close partnership across the leadership for game and services architecture

Requirements:

  • 15+ years of game development and software architecture experience in large scale global environments.
  • You are a recognized technology/engineering thought-leader in the games industry that has shipped platform-agnostic AAA titles, whether it is PC, Console or Mobile.
  • You have a broad technical background with game engines, graphics, gameplay, multiplayer networking, AI, and tools.
  • You champion the player experience and build innovative technical solutions to solve player pain.
  • You have the ability to work and collaborate across multiple disciplines which include Art, Creative, Audio, Design, and Engineering to create the best experiences for players possible.
  • Excellent communication and interpersonal skills along with the strong ability to collaborate effectively at all levels and departments of the organization.
  • Graduate degree in Computer Science or related engineering/games development field.

For this role, you'll find success through craft expertise, soft power skills, and execution that prioritizes the delight of players. We will look at your past studies, experience, and your personal relationship with games. If you embody player empathy and care about the experiences of players, this could be the role for you!

Our Perks:

We offer medical, dental, and vision plans that cover you, your spouse/domestic partner, and children. Life insurance, parental leave, plus short-term and long-term disability coverage are also available. Riot will support your retirement benefits with a company match, and double down on your donations of time and money to non-profit charitable organizations. Balance between work and personal life is encouraged with open paid time off, and a play fund so you can broaden and deepen your personal relationship with games.

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, including the City of Los Angeles’ Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance relating to an applicant's criminal history (LAMC 189.00).