Gaming & Esports Visa Sponsorship Jobs in Illinois

Level Up Your Career with Zynga!

At Zynga, we bring people together through the power of play. As a global leader in interactive entertainment and a proud label of Take-Two Interactive, our games have been downloaded over 6 billion times—connecting players in 175+ countries through fun, strategy, and a little friendly competition. From thrilling casino spins to epic strategy battles, mind-bending puzzles, and social word challenges, our diverse game portfolio has something for everyone. Fan-favorites and latest hits include FarmVille™, Words With Friends™, Zynga Poker™, Game of Thrones Slots Casino™, Wizard of Oz Slots™, Hit it Rich! Slots™, Wonka Slots™, Top Eleven™, Toon Blast™, Empires & Puzzles™, Merge Dragons!™, CSR Racing™, Harry Potter: Puzzles & Spells™, Match Factory™, and Color Block Jam™—plus many more! Founded in 2007 and headquartered in California, our teams span North America, Europe, and Asia, working together to craft unforgettable gaming experiences. Whether you're spinning, strategizing, matching, or competing, Zynga is where fun meets innovation—and where you can take your career to the next level. Join us and be part of the play.

Position Overview

Zynga is looking for a client-side engineer in the Austin, Eugene, Chicago, or Toronto areas, and more specifically, someone whose level of experience should be equivalent to a Principal Software Engineer. We have a well-rounded and tight-knit, distributed team with a healthy mix of engineering skill levels, and are looking to strengthen our team. We need a self-driven and motivated engineer who is a strong communicator, works well as a team player, and performs well under pressure of tight deadlines. The candidate would have an opportunity to work on user-facing features (including UI / UX), core gameplay functionality, various systems, and generally solve challenging problems for high profile mobile games. Our mission is to “Connect the World through Games” by building a truly social experience that makes the world a better place. To be successful in this role you will have a passion for games, a high level of integrity, great technical depth and skills, and a strong desire to build successful software.

- Define, architect, & develop features and gameplay functionality in Unity and C#
- Develop & integrate new technologies and tools (working with content teams)
- Dive into the internals of core systems to extend them as-needed
- Iterate on new or existing functionality and UI / UX
- Proactively optimize code & memory for high performance simulations with tight constraints
- Scope out large tasks and system with minimal direction, and help with delegation of that work
- Work closely with other engineers to lead multi-week or month-long efforts
- Give team and/or divisional tech talks on architectures that you’ve built
- Work to identify and help to improve team and process inefficiencies
- Help to mentor other engineers

What You Bring

- B.Sc. in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent education / work experience
- 6+ Years game industry / mobile app experience as a software developer
- Shipped titles and/or live games experience
- Expert knowledge in C#, C/C++, or a similar programming language
- 3+ Years Unity experience
- Solid foundation in data structures, algorithms and software methodologies
- Excellent communication skills and comfort working in a collaborative environment

Bonus Points

- Experience with git
- Experience with performance profiling and optimization
- Mobile development with a focus on iOS & Android

What We Offer You

Zynga offers a world-class benefits package that helps support and balance the needs of our teams. To find out more about our benefits, visit the Zynga Benefits site.

The pay range for this position in Illinois at the start of employment is expected to be between $120,600 and $178,500 per Year. However, base pay offered is based on market location, and may vary further depending on individualized factors for job candidates, such as job-related knowledge, skills, experience, and other objective business considerations. Subject to those same considerations, the total compensation package for this position may also include other elements, including a bonus and/or equity awards and eligibility to participate in our 401(K) plan and Employee Stock Purchase Program. Regular, full-time employees are also eligible for a range of benefits at the Company, including: medical, dental, vision, and basic life insurance coverage; 14 paid holidays per calendar year; paid vacation time per calendar year (ranging from 15 to 25 days) or eligibility to participate in the Company’s discretionary time off program; up to 10 paid sick days per calendar year; paid parental and compassionate leave; wellbeing programs for mental health and other wellness support; family planning support through Maven; commuter benefits; and reimbursements for fitness-related expenses.

The pay range for this position in Toronto at the start of employment is expected to be between $114,300 and $169,140 per Year. However, base pay offered is based on market location, and may vary further depending on individualized factors for job candidates, such as job-related knowledge, skills, experience, and other objective business considerations. Subject to those same considerations, the total compensation package for this position may also include other elements, including a bonus and/or equity awards and eligibility to participate in our 401(K) plan and Employee Stock Purchase Program. Regular, full-time employees are also eligible for a range of benefits at the Company, including: medical, dental, vision, and basic life insurance coverage; 14 paid holidays per calendar year; paid vacation time per calendar year (ranging from 15 to 25 days) or eligibility to participate in the Company’s discretionary time off program; up to 10 paid sick days per calendar year; paid parental and compassionate leave; wellbeing programs for mental health and other wellness support; family planning support through Maven; commuter benefits; and reimbursements for fitness-related expenses.

The use of Artificial Intelligence is not being used to screen candidates. The position is for an existing vacancy.

We are proud to be an equal opportunity employer, which means we are committed to creating and celebrating diverse thoughts, cultures, and backgrounds throughout our organization. Employment with us is based on substantive ability, objective qualifications, and work ethic – not an individual’s race, creed, color, religion, sex or gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin or ancestry, alienage or citizenship status, physical or mental disability, pregnancy, age, genetic information, veteran status, marital status, status as a victim of domestic violence or sex offenses, reproductive health decision, or any other characteristics protected by applicable law.

As an equal opportunity employer, we are committed to providing the necessary support and accommodation to qualified individuals with disabilities, health conditions, or impairments (subject to any local qualifying requirements) to ensure their full participation in the job application or interview process. Please contact us at accommodationrequest@zynga.com to request any accommodations or for support related to your application for an open position.

Please be aware that Zynga does not conduct job interviews or make job offers over third-party messaging apps such as Telegram, WhatsApp, or others. Zynga also does not engage in any financial exchanges during the recruitment or onboarding process, and will never ask a candidate for their personal or financial information over an app or other unofficial chat channel. Any attempt to do so may be the result of a scam or phishing attack, and you should not engage. Zynga’s in-house recruitment team will only contact individuals through their official Company email addresses (i.e., via a zynga.com, naturalmotion.com, smallgiantgames.com, themavens.com, gram.gs email domain).