Principal Game Server Engineer, Wordscapes

April 4, 2025

Job Description

PeopleFun is an award-winning creator of mobile games for players across the globe. We are part of AppLovin, a publicly traded company, with world-class projects, resources, and infrastructure. PeopleFun is a Dallas-based game studio founded and led by game industry veterans, where game developers thrive on collaboration, creativity, teamwork, and fun. Our games are played by over 25 million players each month, and we have a number of exciting mobile games in development to fuel the future growth of PeopleFun.

We believe in bringing People together through Fun by creating the best in class social features and communities in our games that enables our players to engage deeply with other players. Secondly we endeavor to bring our studio teammates together by creating the very best game teams that foster healthy collaboration, incredible productivity, and life-long professional relationships.

Candidates who reside or will reside in the following locations are eligible for this role: California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, Texas, and Washington State.

PeopleFun is seeking an experienced Principal Game Server Engineer to join the team behind our flagship title, Wordscapes! In this role, you will be responsible for and have complete ownership of the Wordscapes server tech stack. You will be the subject matter expert, architecting new, complex game services, making sure each solution will scale to millions of users around the world. You will drive technical architecture, process, technology, and execution both in code and infrastructure. You’ll collaborate with  a cross-functional team of world class designers, artists, producers, QA, product, production, and engineers to connect and bring fun to the very passionate Wordscapes player base.

Responsibilities

  • Architect and implement core gameplay systems for Wordscapes that scale to millions of players worldwide leveraging engineering best practices.
  • Own and maintain the Wordscapes server infrastructure with a DevOps mindset.
  • Write clean, efficient, and scalable server code.
  • Write clear technical and process documentation.
  • Architect and implement internal tools and services used for customer support, moderation and liveops .
  • Work effectively as part of a multi-disciplinary team of engineers, designers, artists, producers, product managers, and QA.
  • Identify gaps in our systems/processes and effectively prioritize work to address those gaps.

Requirements

  • 8+ years of professional experience in server development, having delivered on backend services that have scaled to millions of users.
  • Extensive knowledge of cloud technologies (GCP, Azure, and/or AWS).
  • Extensive knowledge of distributed systems, databases, and caching.
  • Extensive working experience in DevOps practices and philosophies.
  • Basic working knowledge of Unity, Unreal or other game engines.
  • An embodiment of PeopleFun’s Values, working collaboratively and checking your ego at the door
  • Experience working on cross-functional teams with ability to communicate effectively through verbal and written communications.

PeopleFun provides a competitive total compensation package with a pay for performance rewards approach. The expected base pay range for this [CA based or North America based] position is $140,000 – $237,500. Base compensation at PeopleFun is based on a number of factors including market location and may vary depending on job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. Depending on the position offered, equity, sign-on payments, and other forms of compensation may be provided as part of a total compensation package, in addition to a full range of medical and other benefits.

Benefits

  • Medical/Dental/Vision Insurance
  • Performance Bonuses
  • 401K Match Policy
  • Flexible PTO Policy
  • Wellness Stipend
  • Free Lunch each Friday
  • Generous Parental Leave & Family-Friendly Culture
  • Annual Credits for Professional Development & In-App Purchases 

PeopleFun is proud to be an equal opportunity employer that is committed to inclusion and diversity. All applicants will be considered for employment without attention to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran or disability status, or other legally protected characteristics. Learn more about EEO rights as an applicant here.

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