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Video Games, Entertainment, Esports

Principal Software Engineering, Rendering - Unpublished R&D Product

California, United StatesHybridFull TimePrincipalPosted 2 months agoVisa sponsorship available

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Role summary

Riot Games is seeking a Principal Software Engineer, Rendering for their unpublished R&D MMO product. This role focuses on building and delivering a brand new AAA game, specifically developing rendering systems and engine features. The engineer will act as the team's rendering expert, collaborating with artists, designers, and producers to create genre-defining visual experiences. Key responsibilities include optimizing game client performance, building and improving artist tools across platforms, and resolving pipeline issues. The position requires 8+ years of programming experience as a rendering engineer, 2+ years as a technical lead, and experience with various game engines and multithreaded programming. Familiarity with MMO development is also essential.

Riot engineers bring deep knowledge of specific technical areas but also value the opportunity to work in a variety of broader domains. 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.
As a
Principal Software Engineer
focused on graphics on the unpublished MMO team, you are responsible for helping Riot build and deliver a brand new game! You will keep the players' experience in mind as you build rendering systems and engine features to support one of our new games. You will also work collaboratively with artists, designers, and producers to deliver genre-defining visual experiences to our players. You will also report to the Engineering Manager of the project.
Responsibilities

  • Be the rendering expert of the team
  • Help build the engine technology that powers one of our new AAA games
  • Deeply understand how rendering systems are interlinked and proactively work across departments to shepherd best practices and advise on all things render related
  • Work collaboratively with the Art team to help realize the overall vision of the game
  • Work to monitor and increase the performance of the game client
  • Build, implement, and improve tools for artists across multiple platforms
  • Work to resolve pipeline issues and to identify areas for improvement

Required Qualifications

  • 8+ years of professional programming experience as a rendering engineer
  • 2+ years experience as a technical lead
  • Experience working with various game engines (i.e. Unreal, Unity, etc.)
  • BS or equivalent experience
  • Familiarity working in an agile environment
  • Experience with multithreaded programming
  • Experience working on an MMO or seamless environment streaming

Desired Qualifications

  • Familiarity with working with and extending tools like Maya
  • Expert in low-level optimization of C++
  • Experience with asset pipelines, version control, and data-driven rendering architectures
  • Experience with Nanite
  • Experience with procedural content generation tools (i.e. Houdini, UE5 PCG, etc.)

*For this role, you'll find success through craft expertise and a collaborative spirit that prioritizes the delight of players. We will look at your past studies and experience, but for this role, we also look for dedicated people with a personal relationship with games. If you embody player empathy and care about players' experiences, this is the role for you!*
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.*
Duties
*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.*

Sample Riot Games interview questions

  • 1

    Create a real-time data feed for stock prices.

    system designmedium
  • 2

    Buildings with an Ocean View Find all buildings that have an ocean view. Input: heights = [1,2,3,4] Output: [3] Explanation: Since the ocean is to the right, only the rightmost tallest building (index 3) is not blocked by any others.

    codingmedium
  • 3

    Valid Word Abbreviation Determine if a string matches a valid word abbreviation. Input: word = "apple", abbr = "a2e" Output: FALSE Explanation: The abbreviation claims exactly 2 characters are skipped between 'a' and 'e', but "ppl" is actually 3 characters long.

    codingmedium
  • 4

    Find the majority element in an array. Given an array of size n, find the majority element. The majority element is the element that appears more than ⌊n / 2⌋ times. You may assume that the majority element always exists in the array. Input: nums = [3, 2, 3] Output: 3 Explanation: The number 3 appears 2 times, which is strictly greater than n/2 (1.5).

    codingmedium
  • 5

    Dot Product of Two Sparse Vectors Calculate the dot product of two sparse vectors. Input: nums1 = [0,1,0,0,2], nums2 = [0,0,0,0,5] Output: 10 Explanation: Multiplies the aligned non-zero values (2 * 5) and ignores all the zeros, yielding a dot product of 10.

    codingmedium

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