Matthew Sparks Résumé

Matthew Sparks

Senior software engineer, games and cloud infrastructure

I’ve worked on every layer of how a game ships: performance testing in Blizzard’s device lab, crash tooling used by every Call of Duty studio, cloud infrastructure for Amazon Games’ live services, and the Xbox experience on Windows handhelds. On my own time, I build and release games.

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Open to full-time engineering roles. Based in Irvine, California.

Selected outcomes

  • $1.25M a year saved by a crash-reporting tool I built at Sledgehammer, used by 1,500+ developers across every Call of Duty studio.
  • Four AAA live-service titles running on cloud infrastructure I owned at Amazon Games.
  • 18% lower monthly AWS spend and 40% more efficient CI/CD pipelines for global game teams.
  • 70% less mobile test time at Blizzard through automated build deployment and performance scripts.

Previously at

Games I’ve worked on

AAA titles and live services across four studios, plus my own releases.

Blizzard EntertainmentCompatibility and performance
Hearthstone
Overwatch
World of Warcraft: Shadowlands
Diablo Immortal
Sledgehammer GamesTools engineering
Call of Duty: Vanguard
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III
Amazon GamesLive-service infrastructure
Throne and Liberty
New World: Aeternum
Lost Ark
MicrosoftXbox Experiences
Xbox experience on ROG Xbox Ally
Sparky GamesMy independent studio
Sorted!
Egyptian Cat Slap

Full credit listings are on MobyGames.

What I bring to a team

Most of my work sits between the people making a game and the systems it runs on. I build the things that let other engineers ship faster, and I stay on call for them once they’re live.

Developer tools and pipelines

Desktop and web tools that hundreds of developers use every day, and the CI/CD, crash reporting and telemetry behind them.

C#, .NET, WPF, WinUI, PyQt, MVVM, Python, PowerShell, Jenkins, Sentry, Perforce, Git

Cloud and live-service infrastructure

Infrastructure as code, deployments and on-call for AAA live-service games and production SaaS, with a close eye on what it all costs.

AWS (Lambda, SQS, ECS Fargate, Aurora, OpenSearch, WAF, VPC endpoints), IaC, Docker, Go, MySQL, NoSQL, Linux

Game and client engineering

Gameplay, multiplayer and mobile releases in Unity, and native C++ brought into modern C# apps on Windows and Xbox.

Unity, C#, C++, Windows SDK, WinUI 3, Netcode for GameObjects, React Native

AI-assisted engineering

Development workflows built on MCP servers and multi-agent tooling, adopted on a large shared codebase at Microsoft.

Claude, Kiro, GitHub Copilot, MCP servers, multi-agent workflows, TypeScript, Python

Experience

  1. Jul 2026 – Present

    Sparks Infrastructure

    Software and cloud consultant, independent

    • Own production AWS infrastructure for an event-driven SaaS messaging platform: webhook ingestion through SQS into Lambda, with Aurora for persistence.
    • Rebuilt its SMS webhook processor as a Go Lambda and SQS FIFO pipeline, fixing a critical CPU bottleneck; the wider overhaul cut infrastructure cost by an estimated 50% and supplied the evidence for a SOC 2 audit.
    • Containerizing a 40-year-old desktop financial product and standing up its development environments.

  2. Jan 2026 – Jul 2026

    Microsoft, Xbox Experiences

    Systems Design Engineer II, contract, remote

    • Integrated native Windows SDK and legacy C++ platform components into C# WinUI 3 applications for the Xbox experience on the ROG Ally.
    • Shipped features in one of the largest shared codebases at Microsoft, coordinating with Windows platform teams.
    • Debugged low-level OS and native/managed interop issues to bring legacy components into WinUI 3.
    • Pioneered AI-assisted development workflows built on MCP servers and multi-agent tooling, using GitHub Copilot and Claude in VS Code and Visual Studio.

  3. Jul 2024 – Jan 2026

    Amazon Games

    Systems Development Engineer II, Irvine

    • Owned infrastructure-as-code cloud architecture for four AAA live-service titles across global AWS environments.
    • Owned end-to-end AWS infrastructure for the CleanSpeak chat moderation service, from architecture through peer review, application security review and penetration testing.
    • Designed a cost-efficient hub-and-spoke regional architecture on ECS Fargate, with VPC endpoints, WAF, load balancers, Aurora and OpenSearch.
    • Built a browser-based server management tool that made deployments 25% more efficient during a major title launch.
    • Cut monthly cloud spend 18% and deployment downtime 15% through large-scale resource optimization, and raised CI/CD pipeline efficiency 40% with Jenkins automation for global engineering teams.
    • Held on-call for live game services, resolving production issues against uptime and performance SLAs.
    • Used Claude and Kiro for AI-assisted development across infrastructure and service code.

  4. Mar 2021 – Apr 2024

    Sledgehammer Games

    Tools Engineer, Foster City

    • Engineered a multi-threaded C# and WPF crash tool with 500+ daily users, serving 1,500+ developers across every Call of Duty studio and saving an estimated $1.25M a year.
    • Built crash analytics and event-driven telemetry on AWS that reduced tool downtime 40%.
    • Led telemetry infrastructure and technical support for 300+ engineers, and integrated the Sentry SDK behind custom abstraction layers for crash ingestion.
    • Supported seven live-ops seasons on call, troubleshooting and shipping hotfixes.

  5. Aug 2019 – Mar 2021

    Blizzard Entertainment

    Compatibility Analyst, Irvine

    • Technical lead for the performance metrics suite across three mobile titles, working with the Android team at Google.
    • Profiled and analyzed performance for Hearthstone and several unannounced titles.
    • Cut testing time 70% with automated build deployment and Python performance scripts for mobile.
    • Built a C# and WPF Jira tool that raised productivity 15% for 50+ people and saved about $100K a year across the Hearthstone, Classic Games QA and Compatibility teams.
    • Ran the mobile device farm as its technical admin, supporting thousands of users.

Independent projects

Games and apps I design, build and release myself, from the first line of gameplay code to App Store submission.

Sorted! app icon: a raccoon peeking out of a green recycling bin

Sorted!

Out now on the App Store, from Sparky Games

A one-thumb arcade puzzle game about sorting trash. Swipe each falling item left to recycling or right to trash, scrub hazardous items like batteries before they go anywhere, and work through a campaign of cities around the world or an endless survival mode.

Download Sorted! on the App Store Download Sorted! on the App Store

What I built

  • Every part of the game, solo: gameplay systems, UI, level progression, audio and the App Store release.
  • A modular Unity 6 codebase split into core, data, gameplay, services, UI and infrastructure assemblies, with edit-mode tests.
  • Lives that regenerate hourly, with an optional rewarded ad for an extra one through AdMob and Google’s consent and tracking flow. Ads are never required to progress.
  • Mobile performance profiling and optimization across iPhone and iPad.

Built with Unity 6, C#, AdMob, DOTween

Egyptian Cat Slap app icon: an orange tabby paw slapping a pile of playing cards

Egyptian Cat Slap

Out now on the App Store, from Sparky Games

The card game Egyptian Rat Screw, rebuilt as an online party game with cats. Cards go down one at a time, and when the pile makes a pair, a sandwich or a run, the fastest paw takes it.

Download Egyptian Cat Slap on the App Store Download Egyptian Cat Slap on the App Store

What I built

  • A deterministic rules simulation in plain C# with no Unity or networking dependencies, so tests can play thousands of full matches headless.
  • Host-authoritative multiplayer on Netcode for GameObjects with Unity Relay and Lobby: private tables for up to four players online, or six on one phone.
  • Desync detection with state hashing, binary snapshots for resync and late join, and slap timing measured on device so the faster hand wins, not the faster connection.
  • A ranked ladder from Bronze to Pharaoh on Cloud Code, computer opponents at four difficulties, twelve house-rule toggles and a shop where everything can be earned.

Built with Unity 6, C#, Netcode for GameObjects, Unity Gaming Services, Sign in with Apple, in-app purchases

Sendiversary app icon: a white speech bubble with a coral heart

Sendiversary

In App Store review

An iPhone app for remembering birthdays and holidays. Write your messages ahead of time, and on the day it opens Messages with your note ready to send from your own number.

Visit sendiversary.com

What I built

  • An Expo and React Native app in TypeScript that keeps everything on the phone: no account, no server, nothing uploaded.
  • A reminder scheduler that works within iOS’s 64-notification limit by scheduling the next 60 and topping up on each launch.
  • A one-time Plus unlock through RevenueCat, with trial dates kept in the Keychain so reinstalling doesn’t reset them.
  • A native module for Apple Intelligence Image Playground, plus GIF search, voice notes and 14 built-in occasions.

Built with Expo, React Native, TypeScript, Zustand, RevenueCat, Cloudflare

Crumbs app icon

Crumbs

Out now on the App Store

A cozy recipe box and meal planner for iPhone and iPad. Save recipes from any website, a Pinterest pin or a photo of a handwritten card, plan the week, and get one shopping list sorted by aisle. No ads, no account, and everything stays on the device.

Download Crumbs on the App Store Download Crumbs on the App Store Visit crumbsrecipes.com

What I built

  • A recipe importer that reads JSON-LD, microdata or plain page text, follows Pinterest pins to the source site, and opens sites that block apps in an in-app browser.
  • File import from Paprika, Recipe Keeper, saved web pages and backups, with a preview and progress bar.
  • A native module that scans recipe cards and cookbook pages with on-device Apple Vision text recognition.
  • Cook mode with step timers that keep running across the app and ring through a notification when the phone is locked.
  • A one-time Pro unlock through RevenueCat, where nobody is ever locked out of recipes they already saved.

Built with Expo, React Native, TypeScript, Zustand, Apple Vision, RevenueCat, Cloudflare

Education

University of California, Irvine
B.S. Computer Science and Software Engineering, 2019

Certifications

ISTQB certified in DevOps testing and test automation (ATTA)

Let’s build something

I’m looking for my next full-time role in tools, infrastructure or gameplay engineering. If your team ships games or the systems behind them, I’d like to hear about it. Email is the fastest way to reach me.

mattasparks27@gmail.com

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