Principal Software Engineer, Automation - Diablo | Irvine, CA or Albany, NY

Activision Blizzard • Irvine, CA

8d • Hybrid

About The Position

The minions of hell are growing stronger… Join us as we continue to shape the Diablo universe! Diablo games are action RPG experiences with endless evil to slaughter, countless abilities to master, nightmarish Dungeons, and legendary loot. Come work with us, and together we’ll create something amazing. Our team of passionate developers is growing. We are seeking an experienced Principal Software Engineer, Automation to help build the next generation of ARPG experiences within one of Blizzard’s most iconic franchises, Diablo. In this role, you will operate as a technical leader, driving the evolution of our automated build and testing pipelines and shaping automation practices across the project. Your work will directly influence the quality, stability, and long-term health of the Diablo franchise. The Build & Automation team owns the systems that enable Diablo to ship and operate at scale. We are responsible for continuous integration, performance, and development stability across multiple live and in-development game branches, maintaining build clusters, validating game data integrity, executing stress and performance testing, and producing platform-ready builds for all supported platforms. This role offers a flexible hybrid work week, with a mix of remote and on-site days. While hybrid is the standard arrangement, you're also welcome to work on-site full-time if you prefer. Our primary studio locations are in Albany, NY, and Irvine, CA.

Requirements

• 12+ years of professional software engineering experience, including shipped products.
• Demonstrated impact as a senior technical leader, influencing architecture and strategy beyond your immediate team.
• Deep expertise in C# and C++, plus strong proficiency in at least one scripting or interpreted language (e.g., Python, Groovy, Perl).
• Proven experience designing and operating large‑scale automation, CI/CD, or build systems.
• Experience with cloud platforms (Azure, GCP, or equivalent) and hybrid infrastructure models.
• Strong system‑level thinking, with the ability to reason about complex, distributed environments.
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to align technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• A passion for automation, validation, and building durable engineering systems with a service-oriented mindset.

Nice To Haves

• Ownership or stewardship of production build systems (e.g., Jenkins) supporting live operations.
• Strong working knowledge of Windows and Linux environments.
• Experience with SQL databases, telemetry, or data visualization tools (e.g., Tableau).
• Version control system integration and large‑repo workflows.
• Experience automating workflows for video game consoles.

Responsibilities

• Define and evolve the long-term technical direction for automation, CI/CD, and build infrastructure across multiple Diablo projects.
• Serve as a principal-level technical advisor to engineering, production, and partner teams, guiding decisions around scalability, risk, and sustainability.
• Make architectural trade-offs that balance reliability, performance, cost, and developer experience.
• Architect and evolve a comprehensive automation ecosystem covering builds, verification, performance, stress testing, and platform-ready delivery.
• Modernize and operate large‑scale hybrid cloud infrastructure, ensuring high availability, scalability, and predictable outcomes for live services.
• Improve signal quality, test coverage, and observability through data-driven automation and operational best practices.
• Act as a force multiplier by enabling teams to ship faster and safer through strong platforms, tooling, and standards.
• Mentor engineers across levels and teams, raising the bar for system design, code quality, and technical rigor.
• Lead cross-team alignment through design reviews, technical guidance, and clear ownership models.

Benefits

• Medical, dental, vision, health savings account or health reimbursement account, healthcare spending accounts, dependent care spending accounts, life and AD&D insurance, disability insurance
• 401(k) with Company match, tuition reimbursement, charitable donation matching
• Paid holidays and vacation, paid sick time, floating holidays, compassion and bereavement leaves, parental leave
• Mental health & wellbeing programs, fitness programs, free and discounted games, and a variety of other voluntary benefit programs like supplemental life & disability, legal service, ID protection, rental insurance, and others
• If the Company requires that you move geographic locations for the job, then you may also be eligible for relocation assistance.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Principal
• Education Level: No Education Listed