Riot Games

Software Engineering Manager, AI/ML - VALORANT

Riot Games$192K — $269K *
Consumer Technology
5 - 7 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 5+ years as a hands-on Software Engineer
  • 2+ years leading an engineering team of at least 4
  • 2+ years developing in Unreal, Unity, or similar
  • 2+ years with game AI/ML technologies
  • Proficient in C++
  • Experience with large-scale game or engine codebases
  • Strong communication and collaboration skills

Responsibilities

  • Manage 4-8 engineers, providing feedback and coaching
  • Develop and communicate your team's technical vision
  • Advocate for players and internal development customers
  • Contribute to code and review designs for quality
  • Foster a collaborative and engaging team environment
  • Model Riot values for the team and others
  • Address conflicts and emergent issues

Benefits

  • Open paid time off policy
  • Flexible work schedules
  • Medical, dental, and life insurance
  • Parental leave for employees and partners
  • 401k with company match
Full Job Description
Riot engineers bring deep knowledge of specific technical areas but also value the chance to work in many broader domains. As an Engineering Manager, you'll predominantly offer creative solutions to organizational design. You'll also serve as a mentor for a team of engineers, overseeing performance management, growth opportunities, and accountability.

Want to lead AI development for the world's largest competitive tactical shooter? As Engineering Manager of the VALORANT AI team, you will guide a group of engineers building the systems, behaviors, and machine-learning-driven capabilities. You will lead a passionate team of engineers in supporting the ongoing needs of a large and geographically diverse development team. You will bring management and AI development experience, strong technical judgment, and a passion for advocating for both players and developers.

Responsibilities:
  • Manage a group of 4-8 engineers across experience levels, providing regular feedback and performance management. Coach and develop your engineering team to grow in their roles, develop technical skills, and improve their effectiveness.
  • Develop and communicate the technical vision for your team, working with design, production, and game leadership partners to ensure consistency with overall product goals. Communicate and evangelize this vision to your team clearly.
  • Advocate for players, your team, and internal development customers when deciding what to build and why. Coordinate and work effectively with other teams across Riot working on AI and ML technology.
  • Serve as a technical backstop by contributing to code as appropriate, reviewing technical designs, and ensuring strong engineering practices and architectural rigor. Ensure high technical quality of what your team produces.
  • Foster a collaborative, challenging, and satisfying environment for your development team. Find and surface issues, opportunities, and address them head-on. Celebrate wins.
  • Be a standard-bearer and role model of Riot values for your team and others.
  • Resolve conflict and respond to emergent issues.
  • Other reasonable activities required by management

Required Qualifications:
  • 5+ years of experience as a hands-on Software Engineer
  • 2+ years experience directly leading an engineering team of at least 4 as an Engineering Manager and/or Engineering Lead
  • 2+ years experience developing in Unreal, Unity, or another game engine
  • 2+ years experience with game AI technologies (behavior trees, perception systems, etc.) and/or ML technologies (data science, machine learning, model training and inference, etc.)
  • Experience writing, reading, and reviewing C++
  • Experience working in complex, large-scale game or engine codebases
  • Excellent communication and collaboration skills across disciplines

Desired Qualifications:
  • Experience developing games for Xbox and PlayStation console platforms
  • Experience in Agile processes and continuous delivery

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.

  • (Los Angeles Only) Base salary range between $192,500.00 - $269,400.00 USD + incentive compensation + equity + 401K with company match + medical, dental, vision, and life insurance + short and long-term disability + open PTO.
  • (Mercer Island only) Base salary range between $192,500.00 - $269,400.00 USD + incentive compensation + equity + 401K with company match + medical, dental, vision, and life insurance + short and long-term disability + open PTO.

About Riot Games

Riot Games is a video game developer and publisher based in Los Angeles, California. The company was founded in 2006 by Brandon Beck and Marc Merrill, and is best known for its flagship game, League of Legends. The game has become one of the most popular esports titles in the world, with millions of players and fans around the globe. Riot Games is committed to creating high-quality, immersive gaming experiences that bring people together and foster a sense of community. The company is also dedicated to promoting diversity and inclusion in the gaming industry, and has launched several initiatives to support underrepresented groups.
Learn more about Riot Games
Size
2,500 employees
Industry
Founded
2006

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