Staff Systems Software Engineer

Staff Systems Software EngineerRemote US & CanadaAbout this roleMost engineering roles at Thatgamecompany ship features to players. This one ships velocity and quality to engineers. Cloud, Gameplay Backend, and Cross-Platform Backend build the services and features the game runs on; you build the systems that prove that work is correct, fast, and ready — before it reaches players. You will build the systems that prove the gameplay feature works — at scale, on every device, on every commit — and the infrastructure that lets a hundred engineers find that out in minutes instead of days. If it runs in production, another team owns it. If it exists to test, measure, or accelerate what those teams build — test harnesses, load/chaos infrastructure, device labs, build/GPU clusters — you own it. Your output is the studio's velocity and the game's quality floor.On any given day, you might:Prove correctness and quality before players find the bugsBuild and own the studio's functional test automation framework — runner, fixtures, game-state harness, reporting — plus coverage instrumentation that makes untested systems visibleBuild regression analysis tooling that separates real regressions from noise and attributes them to a commit automaticallyImprove test suite speed/trust via flake detection, quarantine, parallel sharding, deterministic replayFind the breaking point on purposeDesign load/stress testing systems modeling realistic player behavior, capable of driving launch-scale synthetic traffic against pre-productionBuild chaos testing capability — fault injection, latency/partition simulation, dependency failure — run safely against real infrastructureRun disaster recovery exercises, measure actual RTO/RPO vs. stated targets, and turn findings into permanent regression testsProve quality on real devicesBuild app quality testing automation — frame time, memory, thermal, battery, cold-start captured automatically and gated in CIOwn the device compatibility lab, orchestration, and certification matrix so device support is verified every commit, not the week before shipOwn the infrastructure engineers build onBuild/operate on-prem build clusters (distributed compilation, caching, artifacts) and on-prem GPU clusters (scheduling, multi-tenancy, utilization), backing buy-vs-build with real dataDesign cross-platform developer tools — including AI-assisted tooling (agents, skills, MCP servers) — that reduce toil across Cloud, Backend, and Client EngineeringMake it landDefine, instrument, and publish developer velocity/quality metrics (build time, test cycle time, flake rate, escaped defect rate, MTTR) and use them to prioritize your roadmapDrive adoption across teams that don't report to youMentor engineers in testing strategy, performance analysis, systems thinkingRaise the bar through code review, documentation, reducing bus factorWe expect you toBe a passionate gamer who puts players firstTreat developer experience as a product — users, adoption curves, a quality bar — not internal plumbingOperate at Staff level: set technical direction studio-wide, influence without authorityBe relentless about systems that prevent problems, not just report themEmbrace experimentation for ambiguous, complex problemsCommunicate trade-offs clearly across distributed teamsRequired SkillsLanguages: Python, Golang, C/C++, Jenkins Groovy; Linux shell scripting; fluent EnglishTesting & Quality Systems: Test framework design; load/stress tooling (k6, Locust, Gatling, JMeter); fault injection/chaos engineering; coverage instrumentation; flake detectionPerformance & Analysis: CPU/GPU/memory/I/O profiling; statistical analysis of noisy benchmarks; regression detection and commit attribution; observabilityBuild & CI at Scale: Jenkins/GitLab CI/CD; Make/CMake; GCC/Clang; distributed build systems/caching; Git/GitLab and Perforce (large-binary workflows)Infrastructure: Linux/macOS administration; bare-metal/on-prem cluster ops; Docker/Podman; Kubernetes; Terraform/OpenTofu; hardware capacity planningSystems Fundamentals: Distributed systems failure modes; TCP/IP and UDP; resilience patterns; disaster recovery planning and executionPreferred SkillsMobile device farm operation, Android/iOS build and profiling toolchains, GPU cluster scheduling (Slurm, K8s device plugins, MIG), game engine internals/engine-level test automation, deterministic simulation/replay testing, live service game experience (or SaaS/PaaS/XaaS equivalent), Windows administration, Ansible, TypeScript/Java/Kotlin/Swift, hybrid/multi-cloud managementPerks:Paid Time Off, Holidays and Two Weeks Winter Break Employees and their dependents get medical, dental, and vision coverage, regardless of their level, tenure, or position within the company. Moreover, these benefits start on the first day of the job—there’s no waiting period before they kick in. Pet Insurance for those who need it too.Compassionate leave for employees who needs to take care of their family membersPre-tax wellness stipendPre-tax work from home stipendAccess our savings plan (401K program) with company match Mental health resources including Headspace membership and Employee Assistance Program (EAP) Discount portal for everyday goods and servicesEmployee inclusive and diversity initiatives such as Grow TogetherSupport for personal professional development We look forward to meeting you! Applicants must be authorized to work for any employer in the U.S. We are unable to sponsor or take over sponsorship of an employment Visa at this time. The salary range for this position is $162,500 USD to $219,000 USD annually, with the opportunity to earn an annual discretionary bonus. This salary range is an estimate, and the actual salary may vary based on the Company’s compensation practices. Employees in this position are eligible to participate in the Company’s standard employee benefit programs, which currently include the following: medical, dental, vision, 401k, and paid time off.Our base pay is benchmarked against regional market and industry data and is adjusted to reflect the cost of living in your specific geographic area. #LI-Remote