# Principal Server Engineer (PK)

**Company:** [UserWise Services](https://jobs.workable.com/companies/xnudHQAhPLna8DYoiomsgP.md)
**Location:** Lahore, Pakistan
**Workplace:** on site
**Employment type:** Full-time
**Department:** Engineering

[Apply for this job](https://jobs.workable.com/view/c9440b8f-4be3-49bc-a96f-3fef4361adad)

## Description

### About the Role

We're looking for a Principal Server Engineer to own the backend systems powering our live games - services currently supporting 1M+ DAU. You'll be responsible for performance, scalability, and reliability at the core of our infrastructure, working closely with the engineering team on everything from schema design to incident response.  
  
Experience: 8+ years

**Nice to Have**

-   CI/CD and DevOps experience (GitHub Actions, GitLab CI) plus monitoring/alerting (Prometheus, Datadog)
-   Strong grasp of networking protocols — WebSockets, gRPC/HTTP2, UDP/TCP tuning for low-latency real-time systems

## Requirements

### Responsibilities

-   Design, build, and maintain Go/Python backend services for live, high-traffic game titles, including server-authoritative logic and runtime modules on Nakama
-   Extend and operate Nakama (Heroic Labs) for core game services: authentication, matchmaking, leaderboards, storage, RPCs, and realtime multiplayer
-   Own database schema design and query performance across PostgreSQL systems, including Nakama's storage layer
-   Drive horizontal scaling strategy (Nakama clustering, stateless services), optimizing CPU/memory footprint and reducing lock contention over vertical scaling
-   Profile and resolve memory leaks, CPU spikes, and deadlocks in production
-   Lead root-cause investigations for performance issues and outages, from detection through resolution
-   Architect and maintain in-memory caching/state layers (Redis/KeyDB/Memcached)
-   Design and run load tests against Nakama and supporting services to surface breaking points ahead of release

### Requirements

**Crucial**

-   Deep Go & Python expertise: language internals, execution models, and performance tuning (goroutine management, GC tuning, zero-allocation techniques)
-   Strong PostgreSQL fluency: scalable schema design, query plan analysis, index strategy optimization, with real examples of resolving bottlenecks via data layout or query architecture changes (experience with Nakama's storage layer or CockroachDB a plus)
-   Proven experience scaling systems supporting 350k+ DAU, with a horizontal-scaling-first philosophy (efficient serialization/deserialization via Protobuf/MsgPack, reduced lock contention)
-   Hands-on profiling experience: identifying and resolving memory leaks, CPU spikes, and deadlocks
-   At least 2 concrete examples of complex production performance issues or outages, including root cause analysis and resolution methodology
-   At least 2 released production projects as a core backend engineer handling live traffic

**Important**

Practical experience with Nakama (Heroic Labs): custom Go runtime modules (Lua/TypeScript a plus), matchmaker, storage engine, realtime sockets, and running Nakama clusters in production

Hands-on experience with Redis, KeyDB, or Memcached: caching, rate-limiting, state management, including cache stampede mitigation, serialization overhead, and eviction policy design

Solid TDD/BDD judgment and practical load-testing experience (e.g., Artillery), including realtime/socket workloads

Practical GCP/Google App Engine experience: deploying, monitoring, and scaling serverless/container servicesme multiplayer sockets

-   Practical GCP/Google App Engine experience — deploying, monitoring, and scaling serverless/container services

## Benefits

-   Market competitive, tax-free USD salaries
-   Private Health Insurance
-   Paid Time Off
-   Performance Bonus
-   Annual Performance Reviews