Principal Software Engineer - Developer Connections, Game Release

Riot engineers bring deep knowledge of specific technical areas but also value the opportunity to work in a variety of broader domains. As a Principal Software Engineer, you’ll work alongside other engineers to implement technical solutions at a company-wide scale. You’ll collaborate with teams to ensure high quality and stack applicability, and provide other engineers with a clear illustration of extraordinary engineering.

Developer Connections (DevCon) connects Riot's developers across Game Studios, R&D, and Central Tech to help teams reliably and efficiently ship and operate games. Our mission is to provide the core systems and capabilities that enable Riot teams to deliver games to any audience on any platform with confidence and ease, keeping developers focused on building exceptional player experiences. As a Principal Software Engineer, you'll serve as a senior technical leader for Riot’s game release ecosystem. In this highly collaborative, game-facing role, you will partner closely with Release Team leadership and game teams across Riot to shape technical direction, bring clarity to complex release challenges, and build trust across partner teams. The ideal candidate possesses deep, firsthand experience with game shipping mechanics—including clients, servers, services, content, publishing constraints, and first-party requirements (console or mobile experience is a major plus)—and will leverage this expertise to drive sound technical decisions and improve how Riot delivers games globally.

Responsibilities:

• Define Technical Direction: Shape and execute the strategy for Riot’s centralized game release capabilities, balancing speed, safety, and scale.
• Partner with Game Teams: Work directly with game teams to understand real-world release constraints and ensure centralized solutions directly address production needs.
• Build Cross-Team Alignment: Communicate technical vision clearly, establish trust, and help partners evaluate the value and tradeoffs of centralized release systems.
• Guide End-to-End Architecture: Lead architectural strategy across complex surfaces, including clients, game servers, backend services, content, configuration, and publishing workflows.
• Drive Reliable Release Decisions: Champion cross-team technical decisions that maximize release predictability and safety without sacrificing game team velocity.
• Apply Strong Technical & Product Judgment: Navigate ambiguous release challenges by balancing player impact, workflow efficiency, platform constraints, and time-to-market.
• Advise Leadership: Serve as a trusted technical sounding board, linking engineering strategy and technical investments directly to partner adoption.
• Raise Engineering Standards: Elevate technical design, system architecture, operational rigor, and cross-functional collaboration across the domain.
• Resolve High-Impact Issues: Hands-on diagnose complex technical blockers, build context quickly, and partner directly with engineers to drive solutions through to production.

Required Qualifications:

• 8+ years of professional software engineering experience, with a track record of developing and shipping at least one live-operated game.
• Deep domain expertise in the end-to-end game shipping lifecycle, including production workflows, platform constraints, and live operations challenges.
• Broad release surface experience across game clients, game servers, backend services, configuration, content pipelines, or release orchestration.
• Holistic technical perspective, with a proven ability to connect architectural decisions directly to player experience and operational stability.
• Strong hands-on engineering skills, with recent experience designing, building, debugging, and maintaining large-scale production systems.
• Proven crisis response & problem-solving ability, adept at stepping into unfamiliar, high-pressure technical situations to diagnose root causes and unblock delivery.

Desired Qualifications:

• Experience in release engineering, deployment systems, publishing systems, or live game operations
• Experience shipping games across multiple platforms or regions
• Experience designing or evolving shared technical capabilities used by multiple game teams
• Experience serving as a senior technical partner in product or platform strategy discussions
• Experience helping organizations move from bespoke workflows toward scalable common patterns
• Experience in a central platform or developer infrastructure team supporting game teams
• Strong technical leadership experience in ambiguous, cross-team problem spaces, with a track record of successfully delivering impactful results
• Proven ability to define technical direction and influence adoption beyond their immediate team
• Strong communication and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to build trust and alignment with game teams and senior technical partners

For this role, you'll find success through craft expertise, a collaborative spirit, and decision-making that prioritizes your fellow Rioters, who are the customers of your work. Being a dedicated fan of games is not necessary for this position!

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 $229,200.00 - $319,500.00 USD + incentive compensation + equity + 401K with company match + medical, dental, vision, and life insurance + short and long-term disability + open PTO.