Lead Game Services Engineer

. Lead the team building and running studio-hosted services .

Posted 11/9/2026full-timeRemote • California • United StatesSenior💰 $169,100 - $250,280 per yearWebsite

Core Competencies

Role fit

Core Competencies

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Demonstrates extensive experience in server-side development, leading backend engineering teams, and managing service architecture for live-service games. Proficient in optimizing distributed systems and ensuring operational excellence in production environments.

Highest-signal resume keywords

Server-Side DevelopmentBackend Engineering ManagementC# ProgrammingAWS DeploymentDistributed Systems Design

ATS Keywords

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Hard Skills

C#PythonGoNoSQL DatabasesMongoDBDocumentDBRedisKubernetesHelmC++

Soft Skills

Team LeadershipCommunicationProblem-Solving

Tools & Technologies

AWSMicroservicesContinuous IntegrationDeployment AutomationReal-Time Messaging

Industry Keywords

Live-Service GamesAAA TitleIncident ResponseCapacity PlanningGame Systems

Tech Stack

Tools & technologies

AWSDistributed SystemsKubernetesMongoDBNoSQLPythonRedisUnreal EngineC++Go

About the role

Key responsibilities & impact

Lead the team building and running studio-hosted services
Manage backend engineers in US and EU studios
Own service and infrastructure architecture, including service boundaries, data models, APIs and deployment topology
Write code alongside the team and review technical designs and implementations
Lead team planning, backlog maintenance, estimation and sprint prioritization
Set engineering standards for code review, testing, documentation and on-call readiness
Align backend roadmap with studio release schedules
Diagnose, fix and deploy backend hotfixes
Maintain continuous integration pipelines and deployment automation
Own monitoring, alerting, dashboards, runbooks and incident reporting
Run the backend on-call rotation and respond to or escalate incidents
Load-test services, fix performance bottlenecks and optimize service costs
Implement and test failover and disaster recovery
Integrate proprietary services with 2K and external platform services
Debug cross-service issues with external engineering partners
Report to the Director - Online Services

Requirements

What you’ll need

10+ years of server-side development experience, complemented by a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or a related field, or equivalent experience
Has led or managed backend engineers on a shipped AAA title, preferably a live-service or competitive multiplayer game
Fluent in C# and proficient in Python or Go
Strong grasp of distributed systems, concurrency and scalable service design
Hands-on experience with NoSQL databases such as MongoDB or DocumentDB, and Redis
Has deployed and operated production services on AWS
Kubernetes, Helm and microservice architectures
Profiling and optimizing distributed systems, including database queries and service calls
Real-time messaging such as MQTT and API gateways
C++ and Unreal Engine
Online game systems such as matchmaking, social, progression, commerce and telemetry
Experience running a live title, including incident response, capacity planning and cost management
Must be legally authorized to work in the United States without requiring current or future employer sponsorship

Benefits

Comp & perks

Bonus and/or equity awards
Medical benefits
Financial benefits
Other benefits as applicable
Reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities