Senior Software Engineer, Infra Server - Valorant, Performance

Job Description

Riot Engineers bring deep knowledge of specific technical areas but also value the chance to work in many broader domains. As a Senior Software Engineer, you'll also dive into projects that focus on team cohesiveness and cross-team objectives. You'll lead without authority and provide other engineers with a clear illustration of extraordinary engineering.
VALORANT is Riot's take on a character-based tactical shooter (for more info on VALORANT click here!). As a Senior Software Engineer on the VALORANT team you are responsible for helping Riot build and continue to deliver great player experiences. You will work to help optimize the experience of VALORANT to ensure smooth server performance and to push the limits of new and future hardware. You will report to the Engineering Manager of the Performance and Compatibility Team.

Responsibilities:
• Collaborate with Engineering and Infrastructure to realize VALORANT's performance goals
• Lead performance analysis and optimization efforts across server-side systems and services.
• Profile applications, analyze system resource usage, and identify performance bottlenecks.
• Develop and maintain automated performance benchmarks, tooling, and monitoring systems.
• Define performance metrics, KPIs, and best practices for server optimization.
• Optimize VALORANT servers and services for compute, memory usage, and latency
• Mentor and coach junior members to build talent over the long term
Required Qualifications:
• 5+ years of professional experience as a Software Engineer, Systems Engineer, or Solutions Architect
• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science or a related field, or relevant professional experience
• Strong expertise with C++, C, or Rust
• Strong background in systems performance, including CPU, memory, I/O, and networking
• Expertise with profiling tools, benchmarking frameworks, and performance analysis.
Desired Qualifications:
• Direct experience as a performance engineer
• Experience in profiling and optimizing large-scale, real-time or multiplayer server systems.
• Experience running, scaling, and debugging live production systems at global scale.
• Experience with Linux, AWS, and Tencent Cloud
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.

• (Los Angeles Only) Base salary range between $161,500.00 - $227,000.00 USD + incentive compensation + equity + 401K with company match + medical, dental, vision, and life insurance + short and long-term disability + open PTO.

Jobcode: Reference SBJ-bxqe2e-216-73-216-110-42 in your application.