Technical Director - Backend Engineering

Job description

We are hiring for our client, a well-funded gaming startup led by an experienced leadership team and working on an ambitious mobile AAA title. As the Technical Director – Backend Engineering, you will take ownership of server-side infrastructure strategy, design scalable systems for live multiplayer experiences, and lead a high-performing backend engineering team.

Responsibility

• Define and lead the overall backend architecture and cloud infrastructure strategy for mobile-first AAA games.
• Architect scalable and secure systems for multiplayer gameplay, leaderboards, matchmaking, account management, social features, and LiveOps.
• Recruit, mentor, and manage a team of backend engineers, fostering a high-quality engineering culture.
• Collaborate with gameplay, design, product, and analytics teams to ensure smooth backend integration and feature delivery.
• Build systems that can support millions of concurrent players, real-time data, and global reach.
• Oversee deployment, monitoring, performance optimization, and incident response processes.
• Enforce best practices in architecture, code quality, testing, CI/CD, security, and cloud operations.
• Ensure compliance with data regulations (e.g., GDPR, COPPA) and third-party service integrations (e.g., identity providers, payment gateways).
• Stay up to date with backend technologies, cloud-native services, and gaming backend stacks to drive innovation.

Requirement

• 10+ years of professional experience in backend development, with at least 5 years in a technical leadership or architect role.
• Proven experience architecting scalable systems in mobile gaming or real-time online games, especially at AAA or large-scale studios.
• Deep expertise in backend languages such as Node.js, Go, Java, or Python, and database technologies like MongoDB, Redis, PostgreSQL, or DynamoDB.
• Strong knowledge of cloud infrastructure (AWS, GCP, or Azure) and cloud-native architectures (Kubernetes, Docker, microservices).
• Experience with multiplayer backend solutions such as Photon, PlayFab, Nakama, GameSparks, or custom stacks.
• Familiarity with monitoring tools, alerting systems, logging pipelines, and incident response processes.
• Expertise in RESTful APIs, WebSockets, gRPC, and real-time data synchronization.
• Strong understanding of security best practices including authentication, rate limiting, encryption, and fraud prevention.
• Excellent communication, cross-functional collaboration, and project management skills.
• Desirable: Experience with LiveOps, A/B testing, player segmentation, analytics pipelines, serverless/event-driven systems, and platform SDK integrations (e.g., Google Play, Apple Game Center).