About the role
Why Sony Interactive Entertainment?
Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) is the company behind the PlayStation brand. As a subsidiary of Sony Group Corporation, the company is part of a legacy of innovation and excellence. SIE is a dynamic technology company, delivering cutting-edge hardware and network services to more than 100 million people and an entertainment leader, home to some of the most beloved and recognizable intellectual properties (IP) in the world. The role at SIE is to create and nurture the experiences under the PlayStation brand, a name synonymous with entertainment excellence and creativity.
Why PlayStation? Why San Diego Studio?
San Diego Studio is the team behind MLB The Show, a critically acclaimed AAA sports franchise developed for PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo platforms. The focus is on delivering innovative, high-quality gaming experiences. The team is looking for a Sr Programmer to help build, package, and ship the game on every platform supported.
The ideal candidate possesses strong problem-solving abilities, sharp attention to detail, and thrives both independently and in collaborative, cross-functional teams. They are a versatile generalist comfortable owning a build and data-packaging pipeline, bringing the engine up on new hardware, and diving into low-level systems to track down a crash or reclaim memory. They enjoy the planning side of the work: scoping infrastructure changes, sequencing a platform or SDK migration, and modernizing tools and systems.
Key Responsibilities
- Develop, optimize, and maintain the cross-platform build and data-packaging pipeline that turns the game into shippable products across all supported platforms, current and future.
- Bring the engine up on new platforms and drive platform SDK upgrades, resolving the low-level and system-level issues that come with them (toolchains, file systems, memory and address-space behavior, boot and packaging requirements).
- Identify and resolve crashes, out-of-memory conditions, and stability issues across a broad range of hardware, from high-end consoles to memory-constrained mobile devices.
- Build, package, harden, and release mobile (Android and iOS) products, and keep the associated build automation healthy.
- Own and evolve the studio’s internal tools – data packaging, memory tracking, metrics and profiling – that the wider team relies on every day.
- Plan and lead the modernization of long-lived build systems, toolchains, and infrastructure.
- Manage branch integration and keep builds flowing across mainline, staging, production, and patch branches in collaboration with engineering, QA, and production teams.
Required Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in computer science, mathematics, or a related technical field or equivalent.
- 5+ years of experience programming in C++ with a focus on performance-critical and system level application.
- Strong experience with development and release of one or more AAA titles.
- Demonstrated ability to work effectively across many unfamiliar systems rather than within a single specialty.
- Strong debugging and problem-solving skills on hard, intermittent, and low-level issues (memory management, crashes, toolchain and SDK behavior).
- Experience with build systems, packaging and deployment pipelines, and build automation (e.g. Jenkins, MSBuild, gradle, and shell/batch scripting).
- Comfort at a low level: memory management, pointers and address spaces, compiler and linker flags, and optimization behavior.
- Hands-on experience with Visual Studio, Perforce, and other standard development tools.
- Working proficiency in C# for tools and pipeline development.
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience developing and shipping on console platforms (PlayStation, Xbox, and/or Nintendo Switch), including platform SDKs and certification/packaging requirements.
- Experience shipping mobile titles (Android/iOS): NDK, app-bundle and store submission, code obfuscation and app hardening, and crash reporting.
- Experience developing internal developer tools with graphical front-ends (e.g. C#/WinForms).
- Familiarity with scripting languages like Python is a plus.
- Exposure to graphics/rendering concepts, in particular how rendering features fit within platform memory and performance budgets.
Compensation and Benefits
- Estimated Base Pay Range: $138,700 - $208,100 USD.
- Benefits Package: Includes medical, dental, vision, matching 401(k), paid time off, wellness program, and employee discounts for Sony products.
- Additional: Role may be eligible for a bonus package.
- Note: Base pay is determined based on job-related factors including knowledge, skills, experience, and location in line with a hybrid working policy.