Principal Software Engineer (Client)- Hit It Rich!

Who We Are:

Zynga is a global leader in interactive entertainment with a mission to connect the world through games and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. (NASDAQ: TTWO). With massive global reach in more than 175 countries and regions, the combined diverse portfolio of popular game franchises has been downloaded more than 6 billion times on mobile, including Star Wars™: Hunters, CSR Racing™, Dragon City, Empires & Puzzles™, FarmVille™, Golf Rival™, Hair Challenge™, Harry Potter: Puzzles & Spells™, High Heels!™, Merge Dragons!™, Merge Magic!™, Monster Legends, Toon Blast™, Top Eleven, Toy Blast™, Two Dots, Words With Friends™, and Zynga Poker™.Founded in 2007, Zynga is headquartered in California with locations in North America, Europe, and Asia. For more information, visit www.zynga.com or follow Zynga on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, or the Zynga blog

Position Overview:

Zynga is looking for a server-side engineer in the Austin, Chicago, or Toronto areas, and more specifically, someone whose level of experience should be equivalent to a Principal Software Engineer.

We have a well-rounded and tight-knit, distributed team with a healthy mix of engineering skill levels, and are looking to strengthen our team.  We need a self-driven and motivated engineer who is a strong communicator, works well as a team player, and performs well under pressure of tight deadlines.  

The candidate would have an opportunity to work on critical game components that contribute to user-facing features, gameplay functionality, existing functionality & systems, and have a general focus on solving challenging problems for high profile titles. 

What You'll Do:

• Define, architect, & develop features and gameplay functionality in PHP

• Develop & integrate new technologies and tools (working with content teams)

• Dive into the internals of core systems to extend them as-needed

• Proactively optimize code & memory for high performance simulations with tight constraints

• Scope out large tasks and systems with minimal direction, and help with delegation of that work

• Work closely with other engineers to lead multi-week or month-long efforts

• Give team and/or divisional tech talks on architectures that you’ve built

• Work to identify and help to improve team and process inefficiencies

• Help to mentor other engineers 

What You Bring:

• B.Sc. in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent education / work experience

• 6+ Years of backend software development experience

• Expert knowledge in PHP or a similar programming language

• Experience with cloud computing (preferably AWS)

• Solid foundation in data structures, algorithms and software methodologies

• Excellent communication skills and comfort working in a collaborative environment

Bonus Points:

• Prior game development experience (on shipped titles or live games experience)

• Mobile development experience with a focus on iOS and/or Android

• Experience in Javascript, Go, or similar programming languages

• Experience with Source Control like git

What We Offer You: 

Zynga offers a world-class benefits package that helps support and balance the needs of our teams. To find out more about our benefits, visit the Zynga Benefits site

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We are proud to be an equal opportunity employer, which means we are committed to creating and celebrating diverse thoughts, cultures, and backgrounds throughout our organization.  Employment with us is based on substantive ability, objective qualifications, and work ethic – not an individual’s ra