Principal Software Engineer - Content Access Platform

Company: Riot Games
Location: Mercer Island
Posted on: January 7, 2026

Job Description:

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 on the Content Access Platform (CAP) team, you will be responsible for the design and operation of numerous back end services that are the foundation of all of Riot’s games worldwide. The Content Access Platform team owns and operates large-scale, globally distributed systems that support millions of players and fans. Our systems and services power a wide variety of in-game experiences ranging from missions and battle passes, to virtual currencies and player inventories. Through collaboration with internal platform teams and Riot’s game development teams, you’ll identify opportunities to centralize functionality and accelerate development by creating systems that are easy to use, scalable, reliable, and deployed around the globe. Your role will also extend beyond coding – youll be a visionary leader, defining domain architecture and aligning technology strategies with enterprise goals. Youll mentor teams, drive innovation, and champion solutions that showcase the immense value of our work to Riot’s game development teams and players. You will report to the Engineering Manager of the Content Access Platform team within Player Platform. Responsibilities : • Lead and drive the design and construction of critical, large scale services that fuel Riot’s thriving ecosystem for virtual goods. • Lead the development and execution of a long-term service architecture strategy that delivers scalable, high-performance, and reliable solutions that support Riot’s strategic goals. • Be a center of innovation, helping the team identify new technologies and new approaches to solving hard engineering problems. • Collaborate and communicate with teams and technical leaders across Riot to resolve cross organizational engineering challenges. • Implement and operate essential services used by Riot engineers and millions of Riot gamers world-wide. • Work with the team to level-up systems design, infrastructure, quality, and operational capabilities. • Be part of a rotational on-call schedule for live product and internal customer support. • Contribute to the growth of the team and its members through technical leadership and mentoring. • Work closely with non-technical partners and customers to understand their vision, clarify requirements, and drive delivery of features. Required Qualifications: • Bachelors or Master’s degree in Computer Science or a related field, or equivalent experience • 10 years of hands-on software development experience, with a focus on back end services • Prior experience as a technical leader setting technical vision and building alignment with senior level engineering leaders across multiple teams • Experience developing large-scale, performant, distributed solutions on cloud infrastructure Desired Qualifications: • Extensive experience with Cloud Platform providers like AWS, GCP, or Azure (AWS preferred) • Experience with building services using Java, Kotlin, or Go (Java/Kotlin preferred) • Experience with performance analysis and optimization • Experience with event driven architectures and technologies (Kafka, Event Hubs, Kinesis, etc.) • Experience leading and mentoring small engineering teams For this role, youll find success through craft expertise, a collaborative spirit, and decision-making that prioritizes your fellow Rioters, who are the customers of your work. Being a dedicated fan of games is not necessary for this position!

Keywords: Riot Games, Bellevue , Principal Software Engineer - Content Access Platform, IT / Software / Systems , Mercer Island, Washington