Jobs / United States / Riot Games INC
Manager, Software Engineering, Core Services - VALORANT
Riot Games INC · 🇺🇸 Mercer Island, USA
Sponsorship verdict
Sponsorship possible
One solid signal, not two — worth applying, and worth asking about sponsorship early.
- Employer is on a government sponsor recordThe US Department of Labor certified 64 H-1B/E-3 labor condition applications for this employer between Oct 2025 and Jun 2026 (latest Jun 2026) — the step every H-1B hire needs first. USCIS also records 33 H-1B approvals in FY2023. Source: LCA disclosure data (US Department of Labor (OFLC)).
- The posting doesn’t mention sponsorshipSilence isn’t a refusal — ask the recruiter before investing much time.
- No salary bar for this routeH-1B has no fixed salary bar: the employer must pay at least the prevailing wage for the role and area. Cap-subject employers enter a lottery weighted by wage level. Source: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/12/29/2025-23853/weighted-selection-process-for-registrants-and-petitioners-seeking-to-file-cap-subject-h-1b, rules effective 2026-02-27.
- What Riot Games INC paid sponsored hires in similar roles1 certified filing for “Manager, Security Engineering” (Information Security Analysts) in CA: $173k–$173k, median $173k. Most were filed at wage level IV (100%) — 4 lottery entries, ≈61% projected selection odds for cap-subject employers. Source: US Department of Labor LCA disclosure data (Oct 2025 – Jun 2026).
- Confirmed live todayWhen a source last listed this job as open.
US H-1B: cap-subject employers enter a lottery weighted by wage level — Level I gets 1 entry, Level IV gets 4 (DHS projected selection odds ≈15% at Level I to ≈61% at Level IV). Universities and non-profit research employers are cap-exempt. The $100,000 fee for new petitions from abroad is currently blocked by a court order (appeal pending).
A verdict summarises public evidence; it is not legal advice and never a guarantee — the employer and the immigration authority decide. Sign in to factor in where you can already work.
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Sponsor Radar — Riot Games INC
The US Department of Labor certified 64 H-1B/E-3 labor condition applications for this employer between Oct 2025 and Jun 2026 (latest Jun 2026) — the step every H-1B hire needs first. USCIS also records 33 H-1B approvals in FY2023. Source: LCA disclosure data (US Department of Labor (OFLC)).
Past sponsorship or register membership never guarantees sponsorship for this vacancy or for you. Full Sponsor Radar for Riot Games INC →
About the role
Riot engineers bring deep knowledge of specific technical areas but also value the opportunity to work in many broader domains. As an Engineering Manager, you will gain organizational alignment by building a strong engineering vision and offering creative solutions to organizational design. You’ll also serve as a mentor for a team of engineers, overseeing performance management, growth opportunities, and accountability. VALORANT is Riot's take on a character-based tactical shooter (for more info on VALORANT click here !). As a Manager, Software Engineering (Services) in VALORANT’s Core Services team, you will lead a team of engineers responsible for the core game services that power VALORANT, a global live-service game with millions of daily active Players. You will lead development of new services, drive evergreen improvements to existing services, improve standards and frameworks to improve services development across VALORANT, and improve the tools and pipelines used to load test, ship, and operate those services. You will work closely with technical teams in Tencent to improve services delivery and operations in China, closing divergences in developer experience and platform behavior between Tencent and Riot regions. You will report to the Senior Manager, Software Engineering (Platform Engineering) for the VALORANT Foundations area. Responsibilities: • Manage a team of 5-10 Software Engineers across experience levels. • Ensure VALORANT Players receive a consistently great services experience in Riot and Tencent regions. • Serve as a hands-on engineering leader, comfortable contributing across all phases of the product lifecycle, including implementation. • Develop a technical vision for your team, working with production and product partners to ensure consistency with overall product goals. Communicate this vision to your team clearly. • Advocate for Players, your team, and internal development customers when deciding what to build and why. Coordinate with other teams across Riot and Tencent working on Services technology. • Ensure high technical quality of what your team produces. Establish mechanisms to ensure your engineers have room to invent while maintaining a technical backstop for them. • Foster a collaborative, challenging, and satisfying environment for your development team. Find and surface issues, opportunities, and address them head-on. Celebrate wins. • Coach and develop your engineering team to grow in their roles, develop technical skills, and improve their effectiveness. • Champion and model Riot’s values, setting the tone for your team and peers. • Participate in your team’s on-call rotation. Required Qualifications: • 5+ years professional experience as a software engineer working in services development roles. • 2+ years experience directly leading an engineering team as an Engineering Manager. • Professional experience driving technical direction and influencing architecture within a team. • Expertise with C#, Java, Golang, or similar language(s). • Professional experience with Lean or Agile development processes (Scrum, Kanban, etc). • Professional experience working with cloud computing and cloud technologies. • Professional experience building large-scale external customer-facing backend systems, game services, or cloud platforms. Desired Qualifications: • Fluent in written and spoken Mandarin Chinese and English; comfortable communicating technically in both languages. • Professional or academic experience working with C++. 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 pla