Principal Data Engineer (Teamfight Tactics)

Join Riot Games as a Principal Data Engineer for Teamfight Tactics. In this role, you will own the technical direction and long-term health of TFT's data ecosystem, partnering closely with various teams from feature conception through launch and live operations. You will lead multi-team initiatives, mentor engineers, and influence data-engineering standards across TFT and Riot. This is a hands-on role where you will design, build, and evolve scalable data systems, establish data contracts, and own the reliability and operational health of critical data products.

About Riot Games

Genuine player empathy, product sense, and pragmatic judgment in balancing player value, engineering quality, delivery, and operational risk

Responsibilities

• Assumer la direction technique et la santé à long terme de l'écosystème de données de Teamfight Tactics, y compris la télémétrie, les schémas, les produits de données, les métriques, les pipelines et les opérations de production.
• Collaborer étroitement avec les équipes de développement de jeux, de conception, de produit, d'analyse et de science des données pour traduire les besoins des joueurs et des produits en solutions de données évolutives, fiables et rentables.
• Diriger des initiatives ambiguës et multi-équipes, faire des compromis sur l'architecture et les priorités, encadrer les ingénieurs et les praticiens des données, et influencer les normes d'ingénierie des données à travers Teamfight Tactics et Riot.
• Experience establishing data-quality checks, observability, SLIs/SLOs, incident-management practices, and operational documentation
• Demonstrated expertise in data modeling, schema design, data contracts, lineage, governance, and the development of durable sources of truth

Requirements

• Experience mentoring and developing engineers, including senior-level practitioners
• Proficiency in cloud infrastructure (AWS or GCP) and Databricks
• Hands-on expertise in big-data technologies, including Python, GoLang, Spark, Scala, SQL, and tools like Airflow and DBT
• Experience designing, building, and operating production data systems at significant scale
• Demonstrated ability to set technical direction, lead complex initiatives across multiple teams, and make sound architecture and prioritization tradeoffs
• Strong cross-functional communication skills and experience partnering with engineering, product, analytics, insights, and other technical stakeholders
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience
• 8+ years of professional experience in data engineering, software engineering, analytics engineering, or a related discipline, with demonstrated principal-level scope
• 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!
• Experience building and operating data systems for a live-service game or another high-scale consumer product
• Experience partnering with game engineering on instrumentation, telemetry, schemas, and launch readiness
• Familiarity with Teamfight Tactics or strong curiosity about games, player behavior, and live-service operations
• Experience using data and analytics to influence gameplay, product, feature, or live-operations decisions from development through launch

Pay

USD 209,900 - 293,400