Principal Data Engineer - Unpublished R&D Product

At Riot, Data Engineers play a critical role in transforming data into actionable insights that drive decisions across the company. Our engineers are deeply player-focused and collaborate across diverse teams to enhance the experiences of millions of players worldwide.

As a Principal Data Engineer within Riot Discovery Studio, you’ll work directly with game teams at the ground floor, building and shaping data systems from day one. This role is designed for an engineer who thrives in ambiguous environments, takes initiative to solve real problems quickly, and enjoys wearing multiple hats. You’ll play a pivotal role in laying the technical foundation for how we collect, manage, and leverage data across the Riot Discovery Studio game portfolio. You’ll also lead and mentor junior data engineers, providing technical guidance and context. With visibility across all early lifecycle games, this role offers a unique opportunity to drive impact across multiple projects while setting up systems that will scale as games move into production and live operations.

Responsibilities:

• Design and optimize scalable ETL pipelines for structured and semi-structured data to support Insights use cases, including independently coding and providing optimizations where applicable.
• Architect and implement robust, maintainable, and high-performance data solutions.
• Collaborate directly with multiple game teams from the early stages of game development to instrument games and ensure proper data collection.
• Own and manage data pipelines and infrastructure throughout the game development lifecycle for assigned game teams.
• Standardize best practices for instrumentation, telemetry, and metrics collection across early lifecycle games.
• Ensure data quality, governance, and compliance with regulatory standards (e.g., GDPR, CCPA).
• Mentor data engineers across all levels, setting best practices and fostering technical growth.
• Automate workflows to reduce manual intervention and enhance data processing efficiency.
• Optimize query performance and resolve pipeline bottlenecks to improve data accessibility.
• Evaluate and adopt new tools, frameworks, and methodologies to advance data engineering capabilities.
• Support cost optimization by ensuring scalable and efficient data solutions.
• Be a leader within Riot’s Data Engineering discipline shaping infrastructure, craft standards, tooling, and organizational best practices.

Required Qualifications: 

• Bachelor's or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, or a related field.
• 8+ years experience in data engineering or a related field.
• Hands-on expertise in big-data technologies, including Python, GoLang, Spark, Scala, SQL, and tools like Airflow and DBT.
• Proficiency in cloud infrastructure (AWS or GCP) and Databricks.
• Expertise in designing efficient and scalable data models with large data sets across multiple teams and in collaboration with insights or data stakeholders.
• Demonstrated ability to work cross-functionally with engineering, analytics, and product teams.
• Experience mentoring and guiding other engineers.

Desired Qualifications:

• 2+ years of experience in data engineering for major video game titles.
• Experience using analytics to drive gameplay and feature changes (ideally from game dev through launch)
• Experience working in close partnership with data analysts or product managers.
• Close personal relationship with games - enjoys gaming as a hobby, plays a variety of genres, and goes deep in several

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.

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.

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.