Principal Engineer, AI Platform
Epic Games is hiring a Principal Engineer, AI Platform. It pays $223k-$327k a year and Level rates it ; you can apply on Epic Games.
Level's read on this job
- On Level's scale, this role is Builds AI ●●●●: the job is building AI systems.
- Tools and skills the posting cites include Claude, Copilot and Cursor.
- Level classifies it as a lead role.
- Level lists 150 other open roles at Epic Games.
- The role was posted in the last few days.
AI in this role
Provide architectural leadership and build AI-powered developer platforms, code review systems, and agent architectures.
WHAT MAKES US EPIC?
At the core of Epic’s success are talented, passionate people. Epic prides itself on creating a collaborative, welcoming, and creative environment. Whether it’s building award-winning games or crafting engine technology that enables others to make visually stunning interactive experiences, we’re always innovating.
Being Epic means being a part of a team that continually strives to do right by our community and users. We’re constantly innovating to raise the bar of engine and game development.
ONLINE INFRASTRUCTURE
What We Do
We enable Epic’s online services teams to build, deploy, and manage services that are used by more than half a billion players around the world. Our mission is to provide world class tools and platforms to improve the experience of our developers and make it easier, faster, and safer to build, operate, and scale their applications. We operate at massive scale as one of the largest cloud computing users in the world.
What You'll Do
As Technical Lead / Principal Engineer on the Al Engineering team, you'll provide technical leadership and strategic vision for the Al-powered platforms, tools and services that accelerate development velocity and productivity across Epic. You'll guide a team of engineers in building high-impact products like unified Al code review systems, Cloud agent hosting, centralized Al knowledge base and developer experience tools that serve thousands of folks across the company. This role sits at the intersection of Al innovation, practical engineering, and technical leadership. You'll set the technical direction for tools that developers across Epic use every day, establish best practices for Al-powered development tooling, mentor engineers, and shape how thousands of engineers write, review, and ship code. On top of that you'll be hands-on building complex aspects of the systems and working heavily with Al agents to implement, test, release, and operate these critical platforms.
In this role, you will
- Provide technical leadership and architectural vision for production-grade AI developer tools used by thousands of engineers across Epic's major codebases (Unreal Engine, Fortnite, and more)
- Drive architectural decisions for scalable, maintainable developer-facing tools across multiple modalities: CLI and desktop tools, web apps, build process integrations, services, and APIs
- Pioneer and establish patterns for modern AI frameworks and agent architectures, setting standards for the broader team
- Partner with leadership and high-value teams to identify strategic opportunities and design/build/validate new platforms
- Design and implement security, governance, and compliance protocols for AI platforms, including secret management, workload identity, and runtime isolation policies
- Define measurement strategies and success metrics to track impact and continuously improve tool effectiveness
- Mentor and grow a team of software engineers, conducting architecture reviews and raising the bar for technical excellence
What we're looking for
- B.S. in Computer Science or equivalent experience with 10+ years building production software systems
- Track record of providing technical leadership for complex software projects from conception to delivery at scale
- Proven experience in "zero-to-one" platform ownership: leading the technical design, architectural strategy, and initial build-out of new platforms before they are fully staffed and scaled
- Expert-level experience with REST APIs, microservices, and distributed systems
- Experience operating and orchestrating scalable services on Kubernetes, including managing container lifecycle and security configurations
- Experience with and high level of interest in using and building AI-assisted development tools (e.g., Claude Code, Cursor, Copilot)
- Proven ability to turn ambiguous organizational problems into concrete technical strategies and drive them to completion
This role is open to multiple locations across the US (including WA).
Pay Transparency Information
The expected annual base pay range(s) for this position are detailed below. Each base pay range is relevant only for individuals who are residents of or will be expected to work within the specified locale. Compensation varies based on a variety of factors, which include (but aren’t limited to) things such as skills and competencies, qualifications, knowledge, and experience. In addition to base pay, most employees are eligible to participate in Epic’s generous benefit plans and discretionary incentive programs (subject to the terms of those plans or programs).
Washington Base Pay Range$223,199—$327,358 USDABOUT US
Epic Games is a leading interactive entertainment company. For over 30 years we've been making award-winning games and engine technology that empowers others to make visually stunning games and 3D content that bring environments to life like never before. Epic's award-winning Unreal Engine technology not only provides game developers the ability to build high-fidelity, interactive experiences for PC, console, mobile, and VR, it is also a tool being embraced by content creators across a variety of industries such as media and entertainment, automotive, and architectural design. As we continue to build our Engine technology and develop remarkable games, we strive to build teams of world-class talent.
Like what you hear? Come be a part of something Epic!
Epic Games deeply values diverse teams and an inclusive work culture, and we are proud to be an Equal Opportunity employer. Learn more about our Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) Policy here.
Note to Recruitment Agencies: Epic does not accept any unsolicited resumes or approaches from any unauthorized third party (including recruitment or placement agencies) (i.e., a third party with whom we do not have a negotiated and validly executed agreement). We will not pay any fees to any unauthorized third party. Further details on these matters can be found here.
How we rate this
Principal Engineer, AI Platform at Epic Games rates 90 out of 100 for how much of the daily work is AI. That makes it Builds AI (AI Level 4 of 4). The level is about AI in the job, not seniority.
Builds AI. The job is building AI systems.
- ●●●● Builds AI80 to 100
- ●●●○ Works on AI60 to 79
- ●●○○ Uses AI40 to 59
- ●○○○ Little AI0 to 39
Levels come from how often the tools, models and workflows of the role are named in the posting itself. Read the description and count the AI tools, models and workflows it names.
Prepare for this job
Built from this posting and from similar jobs on Level.
Skills and AI tools this role asks for
Questions you could be asked
- Tell me about a project where technical leadership was part of your work. What did you do?
- How do you decide when an AI agent can act on its own versus asking for approval first?
- Tell me about a project where developer tools was part of your work. What did you do?
- Tell me about a project where software architecture was part of your work. What did you do?
- Tell me about a project where code review was part of your work. What did you do?
Adapt your resume
- List these exact terms on your resume: Technical Leadership, AI agents, Developer Tools, Software Architecture, and Code Review. An applicant tracking system matches the wording, not the idea.
- Attach one line of real, concrete experience to at least one of them. A tool named with nothing behind it rarely survives a human read.
- Lead with what you built, trained or shipped. This role is judged on the AI system itself, not the tools around it.
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