Roles · Game QA Engineer · Principal
21 core skills, 65 in total. Expectations per skill, and what changes at the next level.
This page lists what a Principal } is expected to know and do, skill by skill. Core skills are the ones a manager and peers assess in a review cycle; the rest count only in self-assessment. Main areas: Cloud & Infrastructure, DevOps & CI/CD, Testing & QA.
Grouped by area. The label on the right is the expected depth: Awareness, Working, Advanced or Expert.
Defines organizational container strategy for game QA: enterprise test infrastructure standards, cross-title test farm governance, containerized testing platform frameworks. Designs enterprise-grade container infrastructure for game testing at scale and establishes FinOps for test compute.
Defines organizational DevOps strategy for game quality: designs internal platform for game build and test automation at scale, shapes quality engineering culture through continuous testing practices, evaluates game QA infrastructure approaches at organizational level.
Shapes the organization's game accessibility strategy, driving industry-leading inclusive gaming experiences. Drives innovation in automated game accessibility testing including AI-assisted accessibility defect detection, controller simulation frameworks for motor disability testing, and cognitive accessibility evaluation tools. Influences gaming industry accessibility standards through contributions to IGDA accessibility SIG and platform accessibility guideline development.
Defines organizational QA strategy. Shapes quality engineering culture. Implements platform solutions for testing.
Defines organizational QA strategy. Shapes quality engineering culture. Implements platform solutions for testing.
Defines organizational QA strategy. Shapes quality engineering culture. Implements platform solutions for testing.
Defines organizational QA strategy. Shapes quality engineering culture. Implements platform solutions for testing.
Defines organizational QA strategy. Shapes quality engineering culture. Implements platform solutions for testing.
Defines organizational QA strategy. Shapes quality engineering culture. Implements platform solutions for testing.
Defines organizational QA strategy. Shapes quality engineering culture. Implements platform solutions for testing.
Defines organizational QA strategy for game development: enterprise game testing standards, cross-title test automation governance, quality engineering frameworks for live service games. Implements platform-wide testing solutions for game build reliability and content validation.
Defines organizational observability strategy. Implements platform solutions. Shapes reliability culture. Defines enterprise SLO framework.
Shapes enterprise-wide LFS strategy for QA infrastructure spanning multiple studios and game titles. Evaluates and selects LFS storage providers, defines cross-project retention policies for test artifacts, and architects unified asset versioning systems that integrate QA recordings with build pipelines. Drives industry-level improvements in large binary test data management.
Defines studio-wide QA methodology for game mechanics and gameplay systems. Shapes quality vision across multiple game projects. Evaluates testing tools, automation frameworks, and AI-assisted QA approaches for mechanics validation.
Shapes enterprise performance standards for gaming platform. Defines performance certification methodology, implements ML-driven anomaly detection in performance data.
Shapes enterprise physics testing methodology across genres. Defines physics model validation standards, integrates physics QA into engine pipeline.
Shapes enterprise QA strategy for publisher with 10+ title portfolio. Defines quality standards, implements shift-left approach and continuous testing in game pipeline.
Shapes enterprise UX QA methodology for game project portfolio. Defines game feel standards by genre, implements data-driven approach to UX validation.
Defines studio technology strategy. Evaluates engine solutions. Shapes technical vision for game projects.
Defines studio technology strategy. Evaluates engine solutions. Shapes technical vision for game projects.
Defines Runbook and Playbook Writing strategy at organizational level. Establishes enterprise approaches. Mentors leads and architects.
Not assessed by the team, but part of the self-assessment and the development plan.
} in the open competency matrix: 65 skills across 5 levels. The matrix is free for individuals and stays free.