Junior Software Development Engineer - Live Ops

Join our Live Ops Software Development Engineering team to keep our live games stable, fair, and running smoothly for millions of players worldwide. You’ll help investigate and resolve player-impacting issues, support designers and community teams during live events, and learn how our live systems work end-to-end (client, backend, and data). This is a hands-on, communication-heavy role where you’ll learn by doing, with strong mentorship and clear growth pathways.

The Team

The live ops team is responsible for swiftly resolving urgent player-facing issues, crafting thorough incident summaries, and improving core game systems. The team works across the full breadth of our systems, from debugging Unity and native Android (Java) and iOS (Objective-C) clients, to backend server updates, and database optimization. 

We’re a collaborative, curious, and highly supportive group that believes in mentorship, knowledge sharing, and continuous learning. Our team partners closely with Product, Design, and QA to ensure that our games are not only fun but also technically solid. We pride ourselves on a culture of experimentation, player empathy, and delivering polished results.

What you’ll work on

• Triage and resolve player-impacting issues (rewards, events, store access, stability bugs).
• Support designers in setting up and troubleshooting live events and config/panel tools.
• Run investigations using logs, dashboards, queries, and scripts; document findings and next steps.
• Contribute small full-stack improvements that reduce incidents and improve reliability.
• Participate in release/QA workflows (builds, patches, rollout support).
• Investigate crashes and performance issues using tools like Firebase, Google Play Console, and Xcode.
• Implement new full-stack features for our portfolio of games. 

Responsibilities

• Participate in liveops incidents, gaining exposure to debugging, investigation, and resolution skills.
• Monitor and respond to engineering support requests from Design/Community; route issues to the right owners when needed.
• Write clear incident summaries and follow-up tasks to prevent repeat issues.
• Implement scoped fixes and reliability improvements under senior guidance.
• Collaborate with product managers and designers to understand requirements and iterate through playtests and demos.
• Implement assigned technical tickets under the guidance of senior engineers, ensuring alignment with team coding standards and game performance expectations.
• Gradually build basic fluency in Android, iOS, and Unity client architectures, contributing to codebases under the guidance of domain experts.
• Gradually build basic fluency in distributed systems, contributing to the codebase under the guidance of domain experts.
• Actively participate in code reviews, coding workshops, and process discussions to grow engineering understanding and best practices.
• Contribute to team processes such as incident summaries, book clubs, and retrospectives to build technical insight and technical culture alignment.

Who You Are

You’re an early-career developer who’s passionate about games, eager to learn, and ready to roll up your sleeves. You excel in a fast-paced live operations environment, possess exceptional troubleshooting and communication abilities, and are dedicated to delivering exceptional support.

Must-have skills and qualities

• Formal education in computer science or a related field.
• Basic programming experience, preferably in mobile or game development environments.
• Interest in quickly and efficiently troubleshooting player-facing issues in the spirit of providing outstanding support.
• Strong written and verbal communication; comfortable asking questions and giving clear updates during incidents.
• Demonstrated growth mindset and ownership (examples of learning fast / taking responsibility).
• Interest in live operations work: troubleshooting, triage, and supporting cross-functional teams.
• Willingness to engage with full-stack architecture from mobile clients to a distributed backend.

Other things that help are

• Some experience with entry-level software development through internships, co-ops, or personal projects.
• Experience in customer-facing roles or any work requiring calm communication under pressure.
• Experience collaborating with non-engineers (clubs, capstones, cross-functional projects).
• Familiarity with basic SQL or scripting (even if beginner).

Location: 

Remote within British Columbia, Canada.

We’re building a distributed team across the province, work from anywhere in BC! We’ll provide the equipment you need, and support setting up your home workspace. We have a flexible work schedule, three weeks of vacation, flexible sick days, and a generous health benefits package. For candidates located in British Columbia: At A Thinking Ape, we believe in fairness and pay transparency. That’s why we offer a set salary for each level, ensuring that all employees in the same role are compensated equitably, regardless of negotiation skills or background. This means you’ll know exactly what to expect from the start, without the stress of back-and-forth negotiations. For candidates located in British Columbia, the salary is CAD $103,750, reflecting our commitment to competitive and fair pay.

What’s in it for you 

At ATA, you’re offered a flexible, safe, inclusive environment in which you have the autonomy to do your best work, surrounded by a strong team and with the encouragement of supportive leadership that doesn’t just care what you’re doing, but how you’re doing. You’re trusted, respected, listened to, cared for and valued. You take on thought-provoking projects and tackle fun problems alongside people who are equally invested in making meaningful contributions and seeing new ideas come to life. You know how your work aligns with the company’s goals. Your career is given the space and resources to progress. You accomplish things that make you proud. You are compensated competitively, your health and well-being are top priorities and you enjoy plenty of perks. At A Thinking Ape, we believe curiosity is a superpower, we make things people truly want, and we pursue gritty ambition with kindness, care, and radical alignment to growth—by thinking, acting, measuring, repeating, over-communicating, and never forgetting to play. You don’t just work for ATA, you are an integral part of ATA.

Our commitment to inclusion

We build communities. To do this to the best of our abilities, we need a workforce that reflects the diverse player communities we serve. We believe a variety of perspectives and experiences allows us to make better decisions and understand the needs of our players. We work hard to create an environment where everyone, from any background, can do their best work and feel like they belong at ATA. 

Please consider applying even if you don't meet every qualification and let us know if you require any accommodations or support during the recruitment process. 

See our careers page or our short video to learn more about who we are and why you should join our team.