Senior Anti-Cheat Engineer - Central Technology, Anti-Cheat

Riot Anti-Cheat Engineers are versatile and passionate about their craft. We understand the player impact of cheating in games and are focused on setting the highest bar for the integrity of multiplayer games. We relish the opportunity to work with low-level systems and take pride in developing creative, rigorous defenses against adversaries. At the most fundamental level, our goal is to promote the best player experience by protecting the legitimacy of their favorite games.

As a Senior Anti-Cheat Engineer, you will be responsible for the ongoing development and evolution of Vanguard Anti-Cheat’s client services. With versatility across user-mode, kernel-mode, and obfuscation tooling services, you’ll work primarily in C/C++ and x86/x64 assembly to build new anti-cheat features, improve the security and reliability of existing systems, and debug complex behavior across the Windows stack. You’ll also reverse engineer emerging cheats, including packed and obfuscated binaries, and rapidly translate those findings into practical detections, mitigations, and preventative controls. You'll be based in our Santa Monica, CA office and work in a hybrid (work-from-home and in-office) environment. You'll report to the Sr. Manager of Anti-Cheat Engineering.

Responsibilities:

• Identify and drive high impact anti-cheat features from ambiguity to production across user-mode, kernel-mode, and obfuscation tooling surfaces
• Move fast to turn emerging threats into resilient detections or preventative countermeasures that can be safely deployed with agility at scale.
• Think ahead to design and develop capabilities that anticipate the cheaters next move or eliminate common abuse vectors entirely
• Reverse engineer highly evasive cheats and operating system manipulation techniques
• Investigate and resolve complex compatibility issues in highly opaque environments
• Support game teams directly in understanding cheating ecosystems and integrating Anti-Cheat

Required Qualifications:

• Proficient in C/C++ and x86/x64 assembly
• Experience building and debugging low-level, security-sensitive systems
• Strong understanding of Windows process internals, including process and thread lifecycles, virtual memory, handles and objects, security contexts, executable image formats, DLL loading, and the Windows loader
• Hands-on reverse engineering experience, including analyzing packed, protected, or obfuscated binaries and identifying techniques used to conceal or manipulate runtime behavior
• Practical understanding of the Windows kernel and driver model, with demonstrated experience developing, debugging, and maintaining production grade kernel-mode drivers.

Desired Qualifications:

• Hands-on experience within cheat-development or game-security research communities, with practical knowledge of modern cheat techniques and anti-cheat evasions 
• Familiarity with advanced evasion techniques involving hypervisors, DKOM, EPT manipulation, vulnerable drivers, or hardware-assisted cheats
• Knowledge of runtime integrity verification, behavioral detection, client attestation, and other signature-less anti-cheat techniques

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 player empathy and care about players' experiences, this could be your role!

Our Perks:

Riot focuses on work/life balance, shown by our open paid time off policy and other perks such as flexible work schedules. We offer medical, dental, and life insurance, parental leave for you, your spouse/domestic partner, and children, and a 401k with company match. Check out our benefits pages for more information.

At Riot Games, we put players first. That mission drives every decision in our quest to create games and experiences that make it better to be a player. Whether you’re working directly on a new player-facing experience or you’re supporting the company as a whole, everyone at Riot is part of our mission. And just like in our games, we’re better when we work together. Our goal is to create collaborative teams where you are empowered to bring your unique perspective everyday. If that sounds like the kind of place you want to work, we’re looking forward to your application.

It’s our policy to provide equal employment opportunity for all applicants and members of Riot Games, Inc. Riot Games makes reasonable accommodations for handicapped and disabled Rioters and does not unlawfully discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, handicap, veteran status, marital status, criminal history, or any other category protected by applicable federal and state law. We consider for employment all qualified applicants, including those with criminal histories, in a manner consistent with applicable federal, state and local law, including the California Fair Chance Act, the City of Los Angeles Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance, the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers, the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, and the Washington Fair Chance Act.

Per the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance, the following core duties may create a basis for disqualifying candidates with relevant criminal histories:

• Safeguarding confidential and sensitive Company data
• Communication with others, including Rioters and third parties such as vendors, and/or players, including minors
• Accessing Company assets, secure digital systems, and networks
• Ensuring a safe interactive environment for players and other Rioters

These duties are directly related to essential operations, safety, trust, and compliance obligations within our organization. Please note that job duties may evolve based on business needs and additional responsibilities may be assigned as necessary to maintain operational efficiency and security.