Senior Manager, Software Engineering (Graphics)

About the role

You will serve as the vision holder for the rendering technology that powers League of Legends, defining how the game looks, feels, and performs for millions of players worldwide. You will lead one of Riot's most tenured and accomplished teams, guiding highly skilled engineers who build the core rendering engine and tools that bring the game to life. You will own the strategic direction for rendering, balancing performance, visual fidelity, and developer workflows in partnership with artists, designers, engineers, and leaders across League Studios Engineering. Your work will ensure our technology scales globally while unlocking new creative possibilities for players in every mode they enjoy. This is a high-impact leadership role where you will set strategy, grow world-class engineers, and stay close to the work to guarantee exceptional execution on critical player-facing features.

Key facts

What you'll do

You will define and drive the long-term rendering vision for League of Legends and its associated modes, ensuring the technology remains competitive and inspiring. You will staff, manage, mentor, lead, and cultivate a team of 5-10 software engineers, focusing on their growth and career development within a demanding graphics environment. You will partner closely with product, delivery, technical, and quality leads to support your team and align on ambitious outcomes that move the business forward. You will ensure the technology you build serves the long-term needs of a wide range of content developers, from core gameplay to experimental modes. You will coordinate with individuals and external partners across multiple time zones around the world to maintain alignment and momentum on shared goals. You will design the composition of your team and hire to ensure it has the specific skills and experience required to achieve ambitious technical and creative objectives. You will work closely with artists and designers to translate creative ambitions into performant and maintainable rendering solutions. You will collaborate with cross-functional stakeholders to identify and resolve complex technical risks before they impact players.

Requirements

You must hold a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or a related field, or possess equivalent practical experience that demonstrates the required competence. You must have 8+ years of professional software engineering experience, including at least 3 years in engineering management roles with increasing responsibility. You must have direct experience leading teams that ship large-scale, modular client, engine, or tools software in a production environment. You must bring extensive hands-on experience with C/C++ development, including a deep understanding of memory management and performance optimization. You must have 4+ years of experience in the game development industry, with a proven track record of delivering shipped titles. You must have hands-on experience with rendering or graphics systems, including modern rendering pipelines, GPU and CPU performance characteristics, and associated graphics tooling. You must be comfortable making technical decisions that prioritize player delight through craft expertise and collaborative problem-solving. You must demonstrate a history of learning from your past studies, professional experience, and your personal relationship with games to inform your leadership and decision-making.

Nice to have

Experience with game engine architecture and real-time rendering at scale would further strengthen your ability to lead this team effectively. Familiarity with tools development for artists and designers can help streamline creative workflows and improve collaboration. Background in optimizing graphics performance across a wide range of hardware configurations would support our global player base. Understanding of competitive integrity and how rendering decisions impact fair play would align with our product philosophy. Experience working with Qt for tooling and Python for automation is preferred to integrate smoothly with our existing stack.

Practical notes

This role is based out of our Los Angeles area headquarters. The position requires full-time onsite engagement during standard business hours. Travel may be required for team meetings, company events, or industry conferences as determined by Riot Games. Employment eligibility to work in the United States is required for this position. No sponsorship is indicated for this role at this time. Applicants must meet the requirements outlined in the job description without exception.