Principal Software Engineer (Economy ML)

TL;DR

Principal Software Engineer (Economy ML/Data Systems): Building high-scale real-time and batch data systems for personalization, search and recommendation in the Roblox economy with an accent on event taxonomies, logging interfaces, and real-time feature serving. Focus on architecting streaming pipelines, optimizing data processing, and reducing tech debt in existing datasets.

Location: Hybrid in San Mateo, CA (Onsite Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday)

Company

Roblox is a global platform empowering a community of creators to build 3D immersive digital experiences to connect people with optimism and civility.

What you will do

• Act as the data engineering lead for Economy ML, establishing standards for batch/streaming pipelines and table design.
• Build and deploy high-scale data systems to power content recommendation, search and personalization.
• Collaborate with Product, Data Science, and ML engineering teams to prioritize high-impact data initiatives.
• Mentor other DE/ML engineers on best practices for schema design, logging, and feature pipelines.
• Partner with platform teams across the organization to implement a community-first approach.

Requirements

• 8+ years of experience as a product-focused data systems engineer.
• Experience with search, recommendation, advertising, or personalization systems.
• Proficiency in real-time stream and batch processing using Flink, Spark, Kafka, or Druid.
• Expertise in designing efficient logging schemas and optimizing data processing pipelines.
• Familiarity with feature stores and general machine learning infrastructure.
• Must be based in or authorized to work in the US (San Mateo, CA).

Culture & Benefits

• Hybrid work model with mandatory office presence Tue-Thu.
• High-impact work influencing virtual item recommendations and Robux pricing.
• Ability to leverage Roblox’s internal ML Platform and Data Infrastructure.
• Fluid pod model allowing for allocation to the most strategic initiatives.
• Comprehensive benefits and equity compensation for full-time employees.