Staff Software Engineer, Engine & Tools - Unpublished R&D Product

As a Staff Software Engineer, Engine & Tools on an unpublished R&D product, you will be responsible for designing and implementing AI/ML driven tools and features. You will work closely with designers, producers, and other engineers to understand their needs, and will be hands-on in conceptualizing, planning, implementing, and maintaining AI-powered solutions to increase developer efficiency. We’re looking for someone who is passionate about empowering their team to deliver great player experiences, works well in cross-disciplinary teams, is aware of the latest trends, and finds practical applications of AI/ML technologies to current and future development challenges.

Riot engineers bring deep knowledge of specific technical areas but also value the opportunity to work in a variety of broader domains. As a Staff Software Engineer, you’ll drive important features and provide other engineers with a clear illustration of extraordinary engineering. We work with both new and current technology, creating innovative solutions to overcome high-volume obstacles and to deliver player value. You will report to an Engineering Manager supporting the Tech Foundations team within an unpublished R&D product.

This is a full-time role, based in Sydney, Australia. Internal Job Title: Software Engineer III.

Responsibilities:

Work closely with designers, artists, and other engineers to discover and conceptualize opportunities for AI-powered workflow enhancements

Partner with engineering leaders to help define the team’s future vision for AI-based developer tooling and workflows

Lead the application of AI/ML systems to solve developer and player facing problems

Architect and help implement the foundational elements of the game’s tools ecosystem

Collaborate with artists, designers, QA, and fellow engineers to scope, architect, implement, and test AI/ML-based solutions

Keep up with technical developments in the industry relating to AI/ML and find practical applications that help solve the team challenges

Partner with central teams to share AI-based solutions across Riot’s portfolio

Model the team’s best practices for tools architecture and implementation

Mentor engineers across multiple levels as the team scales, and provide feedback that supports their technical growth

Support and advance the team’s adoption of AI/ML tools for game development through mentorship, documentation, and advocacy

Provide documentation and trainings on new tools and workflows to internal customers

Required Qualifications:

8+ years (or equivalent depth) of professional experience in software engineering, including experience delivering live or shipped products at scale

3+ years (or equivalent depth) working on game development tools & C++

Experience in Unreal Engine and awareness of upcoming tools in game development

Experience working with AI/ML systems in a production-ready environment

B.S. in computer science or equivalent experience

Proven ability to navigate ambiguity and influence cross-functional stakeholders using strong communication skills across technical and non-technical audiences

Desired Qualifications:

Applied knowledge in one or more of the following: reinforcement learning, imitation learning, decision-making under uncertainty, LLM, AI planning, or multi-agent systems

Experience working with modern ML/data science libraries and frameworks such as PyTorch/TensorFlow, pandas, etc.

Deep knowledge tooling utilized in AAA games & how they integrate with both client and backend systems.

Experience developing AI- or ML-driven content tools that integrate with art pipelines (e.g. Maya, Blender, etc.)

Experience mentoring technical leaders and contributing to engineering culture, across distributed teams

Our Perks:

At Riot we strongly believe in work / life balance, and we encourage that with our open paid time off policy, paid parental leave (for both primary and secondary carers) and flexible work schedules