Senior Server Engineer - Performance

Scopely
Barcelona, Spain
Hybrid

Who this role is best for

Strong fit for backend engineers with performance and testing expertise who work in distributed cloud systems and thrive in collaborative, agile environments.

Best fit for

  • Candidates with experience in building scalable backend systems for real-time applications and a passion for performance validation
    — “Professional experience building and operating highly available, scalable backend systems”
  • Individuals who have worked with observability tools and can interpret system behavior from logs and tracing data
    — “Experience using observability tools (Datadog, logs, tracing) to analyze and debug system behavior”
  • Professionals who have used AI-assisted development tools to enhance engineering productivity
    — “Hands-on experience working with AI-assisted development tools (e.g. GitHub Copilot, Codex, Claude Code)”

Things to consider

  • The role requires flexibility in location, including potential for visa sponsorship from multiple regions
    — “We can support with visa sponsorship from any location”
  • The position involves working on an unannounced game title, which may mean limited public visibility of the project
    — “We are in the early stages of development on an ambitious, unannounced Strategy/MMO title”

How to stand out

  • Highlight experience with simulating real-world production scenarios and multi-service interactions
    — “Build frameworks and tooling to simulate real-world production scenarios”
  • Emphasize contributions to defining service-level expectations and validating performance under load
    — “Defining service-level expectations (latency, throughput, error rates) and validating them under realistic conditions”
  • Showcase your ability to integrate testing strategies into CI/CD pipelines for early regression detection
    — “Develop and maintain load, stress, and endurance testing systems, integrated into CI/CD pipelines”
  • Demonstrate how you've used AI tools to improve code generation, review, or system design
    — “Leverage AI tools and agentic workflows in your daily work — from tech planning, code generation and review to exploring novel solutions”
  • Quantify your impact in improving system resilience and scalability in past roles
    — “Collaborate with feature teams to improve system design, resilience, and scalability”
Pace · Fast PacedCollaboration · HighAutonomy · MediumDecision Impact · Team

Derived from job-description analysis by Serendipath's career intelligence engine.

What success looks like

  • designing and implementing performance and reliability strategies
  • building frameworks and tooling
  • analyzing system behavior
  • defining and driving adoption of testing strategy
  • enabling shift-left quality culture
Typical background
backend systemsdistributed systemsperformance testing

Skills & requirements

Required

Performance TestingLoad TestingStress TestingEndurance TestingDistributed SystemsAWSPythonAsynchronous ProgrammingConcurrencyRedisDynamodbService-to-service CommunicationEvent-driven ArchitecturesResilience PatternsStateful Vs Stateless Architectures

Preferred

AI ToolsAgentic Workflows

Stack & domain

Backend SystemsAWSPythonRedisDynamodbAsynchronous ProgrammingConcurrencyPerformance ConsiderationsDistributed SystemsEvent Driven ArchitecturesFailure ModesResilience PatternsStateful Vs Stateless ArchitecturesLeadershipCommunicationProblem-solvingTeamworkDecision-makingGamingCloud Computing

About the role

Original posting from Scopely via Greenhouse

Scopely is looking for a Senior Server Engineer (Performance) to join a new truly unique multiplayer strategy game in Barcelona on a hybrid basis or remotely in the UK, Ireland, Portugal, and the rest of Spain. If you're open to working in any of these locations, there's no need to apply more than once. We'll discuss location preferences during the hiring process. We can support with visa sponsorship from any location.  

At Scopely, we care deeply about what we do and want to inspire play every day - whether in our work environments alongside our talented colleagues or through our deep connections with our communities of players. We are a global team of game lovers who are developing, publishing and innovating the mobile games industry, connecting millions of people around the world daily.   

We embrace AI-forward development practices and expect our engineers to be curious and pragmatic about how these tools can raise the bar.

We are in the early stages of development on an ambitious, unannounced Strategy/MMO title, creating a team of talented and passionate game makers to join us on this exciting journey!  

What You Will Do  

Work in a cross-functional agile team and be responsible for designing, developing, and evolving systems that validate and improve the performance, scalability, and reliability of backend services running on AWS

Design and implement performance and reliability strategies for our core backend systems, including defining service-level expectations (latency, throughput, error rates) and validating them under realistic conditions

Build frameworks and tooling to simulate real-world production scenarios, including multi-service interactions, high concurrency, and network variability

Develop and maintain load, stress, and endurance testing systems, integrated into CI/CD pipelines to detect regressions before production

Analyze system behavior using metrics, logs, and distributed tracing, identifying bottlenecks and driving improvements across services

Define and drive the adoption of a comprehensive testing strategy across backend services, including unit tests, integration tests (leveraging test containers), and clear guidelines for when and how each layer should be applied  

Enable a shift-left quality culture by building tooling, patterns, and best practices that allow teams to detect regressions early

Collaborate with feature teams to improve system design, resilience, and scalability, acting as a force multiplier across backend engineering

Leverage AI tools and agentic workflows in your daily work — from tech planning, code generation and review to exploring novel solutions.

What We’re Looking For  

Highly experienced as a software engineer working on backend systems, distributed systems (operating in the Public Cloud) , or other relevant areas with a strong passion for testing and performance testing

Professional experience building and operating highly available, scalable backend systems, such as MMO game servers, high-traffic services, or real-time applications

Experience with Python and its ecosystem, including familiarity with asynchronous programming, concurrency, and performance considerations

Solid understanding of distributed systems, including:

service-to-service communication, including event driven architectures

failure modes and resilience patterns

stateful vs stateless architectures

Experience designing and implementing highly scalable and low-latency systems, including use of Redis, DynamoDB, or similar technologies

Strong understanding of API design (REST/gRPC) and ability to write efficient, low-latency code

Experience working in cloud environments (AWS) and familiarity with containerized deployments (Docker)

Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines, automated testing, and infrastructure automation

Experience using observability tools (Datadog, logs, tracing) to analyze and debug system behavior

Hands-on experience working with AI-assisted development tools (e.g. GitHub Copilot, Codex, Claude Code) and an understanding of how agentic workflows can augment engineering productivity.

Bonus Points  

Experience with load testing frameworks like K6, Locust 

Understanding of SRE concepts like: SLA, SLO, error budgets

Experience with load testing messaging systems such as NATS; 

Experience with relational databases likeMySQL.

Familiarity with Infrastructure-as-Code (preferred Terraform) for managing infrastructure deployment

Understanding of network infrastructure and cloud networking concepts, such as VPC, Subnet, Security Groups, and Load Balancing

Understanding modern observability stacks like  Kibana / Datadog to perform log querying and dashboards 

About Scopely

Scopely is a leading video game and global interactive entertainment company, home to many of the world’s most beloved and enduring experiences, including two of the most successful mobile games of all-time “MONOPOLY GO!” and “Pokémon GO,” along with “Stumble Guys,” “Star Trek™ Fleet Command,” “MARVEL Strike Force,” “WWE Champions,” the Scrabble® franchise, “Yahtzee® With Buddies,” and many others. Across mobile, web, PC, and console, Scopely creates, develops, publishes, and live-operates one of the most diversified and award-winning portfolios in the games industry — bringing hundreds of millions of players together through a shared love of play.

Founded in 2011, Scopely is powered by its exceptional team — including thousands of world-class gamemakers around the globe, a distinctive tenet-driven culture, and its proprietary technology platform, Playgami. Together, these strengths have fueled Scopely’s position as the #1 mobile games company in the U.S. and #2 globally, generating more than $10 billion in lifetime revenue. Whether building global sensations like “MONOPOLY GO!” from the ground up, or expanding through strategic acquisitions, including the FoxNext, GSN, and Scopely Explore games businesses — Scopely consistently delivers experiences players love today and return to for years to come.

Recognized multiple times as one of the "100 Most Influential Companies in the World" by TIME magazine and one of Fast Company's "World's Most Innovative Companies" and “Best Workplaces for Innovators,” Scopely believes that video games can be a force for good — creating meaningful connections, vibrant communities, and making life better through play.

Scopely has global operations and partners across four continents in more than a dozen countries worldwide. For more information, visit: https://www.scopely.com/. 

Notice to Candidates: Scopely will never request payment or financial information during the application or hiring process. Please apply only through our official website and verify that all Talent Partner communications come from an email address ending in @scopely.com.

Should you have any questions or encounter any fraudulent requests/emails/websites, please immediately contact recruiting@scopely.com. Our job applicant privacy policies are available here: California Privacy Notice and EEA/UK Privacy Notice.

Employment at Scopely is based solely on a person's merit and qualifications. Scopely does not discriminate against any employee or applicant because of race, creed, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, national origin, disability, age, genetic information, veteran status, marital status, pregnancy or related condition (including breastfeeding), or any other basis protected by law. We also consider qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records, consistent with applicable federal, state and local law.

Source: Scopely careers (Greenhouse)

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