Staff Software Engineer, Core Services

About the role

You will lead the architecture and delivery of VALORANT's global services platform from the Sydney hub, guiding technical direction in collaboration with teams in the US and Tencent. Your work will focus on team cohesiveness and cross-team goals, where you lead without authority by demonstrating extraordinary engineering standards. You will drive the development of new services, perform evergreen improvements to existing services, and create standards and frameworks that uplift the entire VALORANT development experience. You will partner closely with technical teams in Tencent to align developer experience and platform behavior across regions, ensuring consistency and reliability for players worldwide.

Key facts

What you'll do

Lead the development of VALORANT's services platform as part of a distributed team across Sydney and the US, ensuring scalability and reliability.

Guide the technical design, development, and operation of services, emphasizing long-term maintainability and robust system architecture.

Champion the technical vision for your team, aligning production teams and other engineering groups around shared goals and standards.

Advocate for players, your team, and internal development customers, coordinating with Riot and Tencent stakeholders to resolve divergences in service delivery.

Serve as the technical lead on complex projects, designing solutions, reviewing implementations, and proactively identifying potential disruptions.

Plan and sequence the parallel rollout of major system changes using detailed technical designs and clear operational instructions.

Be a standard-bearer and role model of Riot values, reinforcing ethical practices and player-first decision-making across the organization.

Act as a force multiplier for your team by mentoring engineers, breaking down complex tasks, and reviewing deliverables to ensure success.

Implement and champion rigorous engineering standards to ensure high quality, secure, and performant code across the service landscape.

Coach junior engineers through constructive code reviews and one-on-one feedback, fostering a culture of continuous learning and improvement.

Troubleshoot live service issues as part of an on-call rotation, maintaining system stability and rapid incident response.

Seek diverse perspectives to solve intricate problems, encouraging collaboration and basing decisions on sound analysis rather than bias.

Contribute to the definition and evolution of platform tools and workflows, reducing friction in development and deployment pipelines.

Participate in community and cross-functional discussions that shape the future of VALORANT's services and infrastructure.

Requirements

You must possess a minimum of 6 years of hands-on experience in software engineering focused on service development, demonstrating deep technical competence.

You must be fluent in both written and spoken Mandarin Chinese and English, communicating effectively and in technical detail across both languages.

You must have expertise in one or more of the following languages: C#, Java, or Golang, applying this knowledge to build resilient systems.

You must have professional experience building large-scale, high-performance backend systems or game services that operate under demanding conditions.

You must understand the fundamentals of distributed systems, including networking, concurrency, and data consistency patterns.

You must be comfortable working within a fast-paced, agile environment that demands adaptability and quick learning.

You must have a strong track record of diagnosing and resolving complex production issues under pressure.

You must be able to collaborate effectively with engineering teams located in different time zones and cultural contexts.

Nice to have

You bring experience working in an agile environment with iterative delivery cycles and continuous improvement practices.

You have hands-on expertise with C++ and understand its nuances in performance-critical systems.

You have professional or hobby experience working with Unreal Engine, particularly around game services integration.

You have professional experience with cloud computing, containerization, and orchestration platforms that support global deployments.

You have a history of delivering complex features in a live game environment, managing both technical and player-facing requirements.

You have worked in distributed environments across multiple time zones and cultures, navigating asynchronous communication challenges.

You understand monitoring, logging, and observability practices for high-availability services.

You have experience with infrastructure as code and automated deployment pipelines to streamline operations.

You have contributed to open source projects or internal tools that improved developer productivity and code quality.

You have mentored peers or junior engineers, helping them grow their technical and communication skills.

Practical notes

This is a full-time role based in Sydney, Australia.

Applicants must be eligible to work in Australia without sponsorship for this position.

Relocation support is not available for this role.

Travel may be required between Sydney and US locations as part of project coordination.

Candidates must pass standard Riot background checks and qualification reviews.

The successful candidate must align with Riot's core values and demonstrate player empathy in all decisions.