DevOps & Automation Engineer

About Sandsoft

Headquartered in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Sandsoft is a global video game developer, publisher and investor with a focus on engaging and entertaining players worldwide.

Our vision is to be the leading mobile-first games publisher & developer out of the MENA region.

Our international team is composed of passionate and brave game makers with vast experience in developing, publishing and leading highly successful AAA mobile, console and desktop games including FIFA, Candy Crush, Need for Speed, Angry Birds, World of Tanks and more!

Through a passion for games, Sandsoft Games aims at bringing closer continents, cultures, and people.

About the role

As a DevOps & Automation Engineer at Sandsoft, you will play a critical role in supporting our game development teams by architecting, automating, and managing the infrastructure and performing essential system administration tasks that power our heavy-load, real-time gaming applications. You will design and implement robust, secure, and scalable CI/CD pipelines, oversee day-to-day operational administration, and ensure that our systems operate at peak performance even under extreme loads. Your work will directly contribute to the smooth delivery of engaging gaming experiences for millions of players worldwide.

Key Responsibilities

1. Design, implement, and maintain infrastructure-as-code (IaC) using tools like Terraform, Ansible, or similar modern alternatives.
2. Develop automation scripts and tools to streamline configuration management and deployment processes.
3. Create and manage GitHub pipelines to support continuous integration, testing, and deployment.
4. Implement automated testing, security scans, and vulnerability assessments within the CI/CD framework.
5. Manage containerized applications using Kubernetes and Docker, with a focus on multi-cloud deployments (AWS, GCP, and Azure).
6. Optimize resource allocation and scalability for heavy-load gaming applications, ensuring high availability with auto-scaling, load balancing, and failover mechanisms.
7. Set up and maintain observability stacks using modern tools (e.g., ELK/EFK, Prometheus, Grafana, OpenTelemetry, Sentry).
8. Integrate security best practices across the deployment lifecycle, including secret management, secure coding standards, and container security.
9. Collaborate with cross-functional teams to ensure compliance with industry standards and evolving best practices.
10. Work closely with development teams to support and enhance their workflows.
11. Maintain comprehensive documentation of automation processes, infrastructure designs, and operational procedures.

Requirements

1. 3+ years in DevOps, automation, or cloud engineering.
2. Strong analytical-thinking and problem-solving capabilities with a passion for innovating, optimizing, and debugging processes.
3. Proficiency in high-level programming languages (e.g., Python) and scripting languages (e.g., PowerShell, Bash).
4. Experience with Docker and Kubernetes, including managing multi-cloud container orchestration environments.
5. Experience with Terraform for designing, deploying, and managing cloud infrastructure.
6. Experience in creating, managing, and securing CI/CD pipelines using platforms like GitHub or GitLab.
7. Hands-on experience with major public cloud providers (AWS, GCP, Azure), including designing architectures for high-load and latency-sensitive applications.

Preferred Qualifications

1. Familiarity with relational databases (PostgreSQL, MySQL) and caching mechanisms like Redis, including replication and clustering.
2. Knowledge of message brokers (Kafka, RabbitMQ) for distributed systems.
3. Understanding of secret management tools (HashiCorp Vault) and service mesh technologies (Consul, Istio).

At Sandsoft, we do things differently.

We Value Independence. We create the best possible, small teams and give them the freedom and independence to work together in pursuit of creating and publishing the highest quality games with high reliability and competition at the heart of the experience. Each team has the freedom to pursue this goal as they see fit. It’s up to them to decide what is best for Sandsoft and for our players.

We Defer to Trust. We trust each other, even when we disagree. In this environment, you will work with your colleagues who will trust you to do what makes sense and give you the autonomy to do what is right for Sandsoft as only our game teams can make the decision to launch or shut down their project.

Everyone is a Game Maker. Everybody in our team is first and foremost, a Game Maker and you will be no different. We encourage our people to use their talents where they have the most impact. We ask and give feedback proactively to inform our decisions. So while you are a master of your own discipline, you are also a key stakeholder and your role and voice is critical when it comes to concepting, designing and promoting games.

We Live Our Company Values. We pride ourselves in hiring growth-minded people who show a motivated, collaborative, and entrepreneurial attitude, and who embrace our Core Values as the right way to develop something great together.

Sandsoft core values are: Boldness + Togetherness + Growth

To know more about Sandsoft, visit our website or LinkedIn profile.

If you feel like you would like to be part of this journey, please apply!