Lead Games - Server Programmer

Description & Requirements

Electronic Arts creates next-level entertainment experiences that inspire players and fans around the world. Here, everyone is part of the story. Part of a community that connects across the globe. A place where creativity thrives, new perspectives are invited, and ideas matter. A team where everyone makes play happen.

Just 13 miles south of Manchester and a 15-minute train journey, is the attractive market town of Wilmslow. Here amongst the boutique shops and independent cafes and bars is the stunning Playdemic studio. Acquired by EA in 2021, Playdemic is home to the top 10 grossing, BAFTA‑winning mobile smash – Golf Clash. Having opened at the beginning of 2020, our award‑winning, bespoke studio space offers conventional desk space and indulgent breakout areas, meeting rooms and alternative work spaces.

The office has been ridgeline‑designed to create an environment that encourages and allows our team to do their very best work.

The Golf Clash Team is searching for an experienced Software Engineering Leader with a primary background in Server Programming to provide technical leadership across our online systems while line‑managing a small group of server engineers. Reporting to the Game Technical Director, you’ll architect and deliver scalable backend features for a live mobile title, own and evolve our CI/CD and deployment infrastructure, and partner with design, production, client, QA and CS to ship high‑quality features safely and  will blend hands‑on engineering with elements typical of an Associate TD (technical direction, architecture, cross‑domain planning) and selected aspects of Software Engineering Management (people leadership, stakeholder alignment, process improvement).

This role is located at our Wilmslow‑based office, working in a hybrid capacity, including 3 days in office.

• Architect and improve core online systems (game server, multiplayer engine, session and player‑data services) for reliability, performance and cost at scale.
• Technical Product Ownership for selected initiatives (e.g., server evaluation/prototyping, infrastructure improvements, technical debt reduction).
• Review and break down pre‑production features, shaping architecture and sequencing to de‑risk delivery across client, backend and infra.
• Develop software features end‑to‑end.
• Oversee CI/CD pipelines and deployment infrastructure (e.g., Jenkins, Git Lab, and environment promotion).
• Create and maintain dev/prod/QA environments that mirror live, allowing smooth testing and predictable releases.
• Production deployments and stable Git Lab fork merge request approvals, ensuring high‑quality standards for code, test coverage and observability before integration.
• Out‑of‑hours support / incident response, leading mitigation and post‑mortems to minimise player impact and improve MTTR.
• Manage and maintain our application services, databases and caches (e.g., Dynamo
  
  DB, SQL variants and Redis).
• Build and maintain web‑based tools to empower QA and Customer Support.
• Team leadership & line management for several server programmers: 1:1s, coaching, feedback, growth plans, onboarding and setting clear technical expectations.
• Lead online systems: act as the primary contact for new backend initiatives; coordinate with internal and external partners/vendors.
• Evaluate and improve internal processes and systems (branching strategy, code review quality, testing frameworks, release practices, on‑call health).
• Status reporting to partners; align expectations and communicate risks, dependencies and trade‑offs.
• Procurement/Finance support: PO/Invoice/Billing approvals for relevant services and vendors.

• Server‑side engineering in C#/.NET (e.g., ASP.NET, Web APIs) with production experience in live, large‑scale systems.
• Experienced with databases (SQL and No
  
  SQL) and caching (e.g., Redis): schema design, query optimisation, data migrations, and operational best practices.
• Hands‑on with CI/CD (Jenkins/Git Lab), version control (Git/Git Lab flows), infrastructure and hosting (on‑prem and/or AWS), and observability (logs/metrics/tracing) for live services.
• Track record designing for performance, scalability,…