Principal Software Engineer, ML Platform - Game Tech Group

Riot Games is building our next-generation Machine Learning Platform to make deploying and operating ML models at scale fast, safe, and cost efficient. This platform will serve multiple games and player-facing products globally, enabling teams to move from prototype to production without rebuilding core infrastructure.

As a founding technical leader, you will design and build the platform capabilities that power modern ML at Riot. This includes multi-region inference infrastructure, observability, versioning, and deployment workflows. You will contribute to technical direction, design system architectures, and implement fundamental components. You will also mentor incoming engineers in the skills needed to build a robust and sustainable model ecosystem. You and your team will ensure Riot can deploy and operate ML models globally with minimal overhead, including compliant delivery in China and other key regions. Your investments in the developer experience and operational excellence will shorten model iteration cycles from weeks to hours through streamlined workflows and self-service deployments. The platform will be built to deliver at Riot scale, including mechanisms for optimizing CPU and GPU utilization with cost-aware strategies. The team’s platform and tools will provide a trusted, extensible foundation for future ML-powered player experiences.

• Architect implement, and drive implementation of core ML inference infrastructure for both live and batch serving, with CPU and GPU-aware orchestration, automated deployment pipelines, and multi-region capability.
• Partner with researchers, game teams, and platform engineers to deliver generalizable, reusable ML platform solutions that serve multiple games and products.
• Define and build CI/CD workflows for ML artifacts, supporting rapid iteration and safe promotion from development to production.
• Develop tooling for environment and dependency management, secure image builds, and runtime packaging for ML workloads.
• Implement observability for platform health, model performance, drift detection, utilization, and latency SLAs.
• Establish patterns and tooling for multi-version model support, controlled deployments (blue/green, shadow), and rollback.
• Optimize infrastructure for cost efficiency, scalability, and latency targets across regions, including constraints and requirements in China.
• Drive developer experience improvements, ensuring the platform is intuitive and efficient for ML practitioners.
• Mentor engineers, contribute to hiring, and shape the long-term architecture and technical strategy for the ML Platform.

• 10+ years of software engineering experience, including significant time in platform or infrastructure roles.
• Proven technical leadership in large-scale distributed systems and production ML infrastructure.
• Deep experience with cloud-native systems such as Kubernetes, containerization, autoscaling, and observability stacks.
• Expertise with ML model serving frameworks such as NVIDIA Triton, KServe, TorchServe, BentoML, or Seldon Core.
• Experience with GPU orchestration, performance tuning, and cost-aware scheduling.
• Strong background in CI/CD automation, Infrastructure as Code (for example, Terraform), and artifact management.
• Hands-on experience with Python ML ecosystems and package management tools such as uv, Poetry, or Conda.
• Knowledge of ML observability, drift detection, and monitoring strategies.
• Experience designing for global deployment, including operational constraints, compliance, and infrastructure delivery in China.
• Ability to mentor engineers, document systems clearly, and collaborate effectively with cross-functional teams.

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!

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.