Xsolla: Building a US Engineering Team From Scratch

Xsolla is a global video game commerce platform serving clients like Valve, Twitch, Ubisoft, Epic Games, and Roblox. As Director of Software Development, my mandate was to build a US-based engineering team from nothing, in six months, to support North American enterprise clients. Here is how I did it.

The challenge

Xsolla was headquartered in Los Angeles but ran most of its development out of Russia. To serve North American enterprise clients well, it needed local technical talent: a US team focused on quality assurance and technical support for enterprise gaming integrations, including payment processing with VISA and Mastercard. I had to build that team quickly, hire people who could work directly with demanding enterprise clients, stand up QA operations, and do all of it inside a complex global organization.

What I did

Hired for trajectory, not just the immediate need. Rather than filling seats for today, I recruited people with room to grow. I looked for competence at their current level, a demonstrated ability to learn, strong professional communication, and cultural fit with a global company.

Built a balanced four-person team over six months. A junior frontend developer hired for potential and eagerness, who owned UI work on client-facing tools. An experienced QA expert who established our testing standards and caught critical issues. A senior PHP developer with payment-processing experience who anchored the enterprise integrations. And a documentation specialist who made sure processes, standards, and integration guides were properly written down.

Focused the team on enterprise outcomes. We provided technical support and integration help for major gaming clients including Roblox, worked directly against VISA and Mastercard integration requirements, and set QA standards and processes for the US operation.

The results

• Four engineers hired and fully operational within a six-month timeline.
• A 100% career growth rate across the team: the junior developer advanced to a full frontend role, the QA expert moved into QA leadership, and the others went on to continued success.
• US engineering operations established from the ground up, supporting enterprise client needs with professional execution.

The honest epilogue

After about nine months, the geopolitical events of February 2022 led Xsolla to consolidate its global engineering operations, which affected the US team. What lasted was the people: all four went on to continued career success, which to me is the real validation of hiring for growth and leading with intent. You do not always control how long an organization keeps a team together, but you do control the caliber of the people you develop.