Software Engineering Manager, AI​/ML - VALORANT

Software Engineering Manager, AI/ML - VALORANT

Join to apply for the Software Engineering Manager, AI/ML - VALORANT role at Riot Games

Riot engineers bring deep knowledge of specific technical areas but also value the chance to work in many broader domains. As an Engineering Manager, you’ll predominantly offer creative solutions to organizational design. You’ll also serve as a mentor for a team of engineers, overseeing performance management, growth opportunities, and accountability.

Want to lead AI development for the world’s largest competitive tactical shooter? As Engineering Manager of the VALORANT AI team, you will guide a group of engineers building the systems, behaviors, and machine‑learning–driven capabilities that define how agents act, learn, and interact. You will lead a passionate team of engineers in supporting the ongoing needs of a large and geographically diverse development team.

You will bring management and AI development experience, strong technical judgment, and a passion for advocating for both players and developers.

• Manage a group of 4-8 engineers across experience levels, providing regular feedback and performance management. Coach and develop your engineering team to grow in their roles, develop technical skills, and improve their effectiveness.
• Develop and communicate the technical vision for your team, working with design, production, and game leadership partners to ensure consistency with overall product goals. Communicate and evangelize this vision to your team clearly.
• Advocate for players, your team, and internal development customers when deciding what to build and why. Coordinate and work effectively with other teams across Riot working on AI and ML technology.
• Serve as a technical backstop by contributing to code as appropriate, reviewing technical designs, and ensuring strong engineering practices and architectural rigor. Ensure high technical quality of what your team produces.
• Foster a collaborative, challenging, and satisfying environment for your development team. Find and surface issues, opportunities, and address them head‑on. Celebrate wins.
• Be a standard-bearer and role model of Riot values for your team and others.
• Resolve conflict and respond to emergent issues.
• Other reasonable activities required by management.

• 5+ years of experience as a hands‑on Software Engineer
• 2+ years experience directly leading an engineering team of at least 4 as an Engineering Manager and/or Engineering Lead
• 2+ years experience developing in Unreal, Unity, or another game engine
• 2+ years experience with game AI technologies (behavior trees, perception systems, etc.) and/or ML technologies (data science, machine learning, model training and inference, etc.)
• Experience writing, reading, and reviewing C++
• Experience working in complex, large-scale game or engine codebases
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills across disciplines

• Experience developing games for Xbox and Play Station console platforms
• Experience in Agile processes and continuous delivery

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 401(k) 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…