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Roblox

Senior Software Engineer, Client Systems (C++)

Roblox is hiring a Senior Software Engineer, Client Systems (C++) in San Mateo, United States. It pays $196k-$242k a year and Level rates it ; you can apply on Roblox.

Level's read on this job

  • On Level's scale, this software engineer role is Little AI ●○○○: aI is not part of the work.
  • The listed pay starts 17% above the typical software engineer posting on Level.
  • Roblox mentions visa sponsorship in this posting.
  • Tools and skills the posting cites include C, Luau and game engine.
  • Level lists 268 other open roles at Roblox.

AI in this role

Build core C++ infrastructure and client systems powering mission-critical surfaces within the Roblox game engine.

CLuau
game-engineclient-architectureperformance-optimization

Every day, tens of millions of people come to Roblox to explore, create, play, learn, and connect with friends in 3D immersive digital experiences– all created by our global community of developers and creators.

At Roblox, we’re building the tools and platform that empower our community to bring any experience that they can imagine to life. Our vision is to reimagine the way people come together, from anywhere in the world, and on any device. We’re on a mission to connect a billion people with optimism and civility, and looking for amazing talent to help us get there.

A career at Roblox means you’ll be working to shape the future of human interaction, solving unique technical challenges at scale, and helping to create safer, more civil shared experiences for everyone.

The Luau App Foundations team is responsible for the core infrastructure of the Roblox application. They bridge the gap between app and the performance-heavy Roblox game engine. This team is building the unified stack that powers mission-critical surfaces like Home, Avatar, and Social for millions of concurrent users. They are the ones who make it possible for "Web-style" development efficiency to exist within a high-performance C++ game engine.

Why is this role exciting:

  • Technical Pioneer: You will be writing libraries and modules using C++ inside a world class Roblox proprietary Game Engine.
  • Systematic Impact: This is a "Force Multiplier" role. The frameworks and components you build will be used by dozens of other engineering teams to ship their features.
  • Complex Problem Solving: You aren’t just building an app; you’re managing smooth data flow through a client that has to perform perfectly on a $100 Android phone and a $3,000 Gaming PC simultaneously.
  • 0 to 1 Transitions: You will lead the charge in shaping some of the most crucial components of the App written in C++ inside the Game Engine.

Key Challenges:

  • Bridging Tech Stacks: The libraries you write sit between a modern UI (written in Luau) and Core Game engine layer as well as Platform layer (Android, iOS abstractions)
  • Large-Scale Performance: Diagnosing memory usage and framerate issues that only appear when you have millions of daily active users.
  • Standardizing Chaos: Creating a "joyful development experience" for other engineers by enforcing clean, modular, and testable code standards across a massive organization.
  • Platform Universality: Ensuring that a single foundation works across iOS, Android, Windows, Mac, and Consoles without compromise.

You will:

  • Be the primary C++ expert in the team and drive frontend C++ strategy for extending our interface layer.
  • Work with stakeholders across Engineering, Product, and Design to expand frontend ecosystems and drive technical enhancements in engineering space.
  • Implement innovative solutions to feature requests and collaborate with the Roblox Surface owners on new initiatives.
  • Have fun working with our internal team members and community developers to improve the overall state of Lua App on Roblox

You have:

  • 4+ years of experience with significant knowledge of system or mobile programming.
  • Proficiency in C++: Strong C++ programming skills with an ability to write high quality, performant code; experience with Lua is a plus
  • Passion about building frameworks and libraries: You are driven to build a strong platform with world class design patterns and cutting edge system architecture.
  • Performance focus: You embrace software performance considerations, with an ability to implement performant solutions for platforms including mobile.
  • Personally Motivated: Self-sufficient, self-organized and able to take ownership of a project throughout its full lifecycle
  • A Team player mentality: Ability to work closely with and inspire the rest of your team while displaying excellent interpersonal and communication skills

For roles that are based at our headquarters in San Mateo, CA: The starting base pay for this position is as shown below. The actual base pay is dependent upon a variety of job-related factors such as professional background, training, work experience, location, business needs and market demand. Therefore, in some circumstances, the actual salary could fall outside of this expected range. This pay range is subject to change and may be modified in the future. All full-time employees are also eligible for equity compensation and for benefits as described on this page.

Annual Salary Range$195,780—$242,100 USD

Roles that are based in an office are onsite Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, with optional presence on Monday and Friday (unless otherwise noted).

Roblox provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws. Roblox also provides reasonable accommodations to candidates with qualifying disabilities or religious beliefs during the recruiting process.

For US based roles only, please note the Company may not be able to employ candidates for this role who have United States work authorization related to certain U.S. visa categories, or support future H-1B sponsorship at this time.

How we rate this

Senior Software Engineer, Client Systems (C++) at Roblox rates 0 out of 100 for how much of the daily work is AI. That makes it Little AI (AI Level 1 of 4). The level is about AI in the job, not seniority.

Classification

Little AI. AI is not part of the work.

  1. ●●●● Builds AI80 to 100
  2. ●●●○ Works on AI60 to 79
  3. ●●○○ Uses AI40 to 59
  4. ●○○○ 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

Game EngineClient ArchitecturePerformance OptimizationCLuau

Also common in software engineer jobs at this level

Pay

This job starts at
$196k
Typical software engineer job
$167k

This posting starts 17% above the typical software engineer job. See software engineer jobs

Questions you could be asked

  1. Tell me about a project where game engine was part of your work. What did you do?
  2. Tell me about a project where client architecture was part of your work. What did you do?
  3. Tell me about a project where performance optimization was part of your work. What did you do?
  4. What's a project where you used C hands-on?
  5. Walk me through how you've used Luau in your day-to-day work.

Adapt your resume

  • List these exact terms on your resume: Game Engine, Client Architecture, Performance Optimization, C, and Luau. 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.

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