Senior Software Engineer (Venue-Scale Multiplayer)

Description

Who are we hiring?

The MSG Sphere is like nothing else on earth. Here, 15,000 people at a time can gather for multi-sensory interactive experiences that are equal parts video game, amusement park ride, ephemeral community, and spectacle. The feel – it’s unforgettable, like sitting inside an eyeball the size of three football fields with sight, sound, scent, wind, heat, and rumble coordinating under computer control to forge an extended reality. You create that reality at MSG Entertainment in Burbank, California. As a Senior Software Engineer you’re part of a veteran multidisciplinary team designing and coding bleeding edge entertainment. You architect and implement client and server systems for tens of thousands of concurrent, co-located players. You build iteratively; your creations range from rapid prototypes to large-scale interactive experiences; your skillset ranges from backend multiplayer development to AI simulations, game logic, and control systems integration. Join us.

What will you do?

• Collaborate closely with the Interactive Lead to design and create large-scale multiplayer technologies for our venues
• Collaborate across teams to share gameplay and multiplayer code, best practice, and design language elements, and to improve the production pipeline
• Iterate on the integration of large-scale multiplayer components into cohesive tech demos and a unified gaming platform that can scale for live events
• Create solutions for scaling networked games through scripted and AI simulations
• Explore new platform services such as matchmaking and social features that can power our game platform and implement cross-platform abstractions for third-party online services
• Work alongside our Venue Tech, Systems, and DevOps teams to investigate, prototype, and inform server infrastructure and networking changes to support new gameplay features
• Write technical documentation and clearly communicate complex solutions and challenges, even to non-technical staff
• Stay current on relevant technology and conduct necessary research, due diligence, prototyping, and testing to assess emerging technology options, both internally and with various partners and vendors
• Identify areas that require attention and work with the production team to ensure time and resources are properly allocated
• Attend and update in daily scrums, bi-weekly sprint planning sessions, reviews, and retrospectives in accordance with the team’s Agile practices

• Computer Science BS/MS or equivalent experience
• 6+ years professional game engineering experience, including 2+ years developing multiplayer networking code
• Excellent communications and team relations skills
• Experience creating and architecting massively multiplayer video game software systems
• Expertise in C# and the Unity game engine
• Familiarity with socket I/O and lower level protocols, IPv4/6, TCP, UDP, etc.
• Strong understanding of how to mitigate issues of latency, bandwidth, and state sync
• Strong understanding of different networking models, and methods and situations for prediction and interpolation
• Excellent communication and team interaction skills
• Experience working in an Agile team and familiarity with Agile methodology

Additional Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience working with containerized environments (Docker, K8S)
• Experience working with backend cloud providers (AWS, Azure, Google Cloud)
• Working knowledge of secure networking and of API security
• Working knowledge of load balancing and backend clustering methods
• Experience creating Software Development Kits
• Experience developing for iOS/Android mobile devices
• Experience developing using the Unreal game engine
• Experience with common games industry production software (MS Office, JIRA, Miro)
• Experience across all phases (concept to end-of-life) of at least one shipped AAA console or PC video game
• Interest and/or secondary skills in another key game development discipline (Game Design, Product Management, Art, Audio)

The Company requires that all individuals, subject to certain limited exceptions, be fully vaccinated against COVID-19.  The Company will consider requests for reasonable accommodations regarding this requirement.