Staff Backend Engineer - Sports

LeoVegas Group; Málaga; Híbrido; EUR 90.000 - 120.000; Jornada completa

Ventajas ofrecidas por este puesto de trabajo

Hybrid work policy

Wellness contribution

Health insurance

Life insurance

Employee Assistance Program

Short Fridays

Snacks and drinks

Social events

Descripción de la vacante

LeoVegas Group is building a world-class Sportsbook platform in a high-volume, real-time environment where speed, correctness and scalability matter. You will lead architecture discussions, drive engineering practices and mentor teams to raise standards and balance business needs with long-term platform health.

We seek a Staff Backend Engineer to guide design evolution of distributed systems, partner with product managers, and shape practical, robust solutions that enable reliable, scalable

Formación

• Designing, building and operating distributed systems at scale.
• Backend experience in Java (21+), with JVM internals and multithreading.
• Hands-on with Reactive Programming and non-blocking systems (Spring Boot/Vert.x).
• Experience with Kafka and event-driven architectures; Redis familiarity.
• SQL and NoSQL databases (PostgreSQL, MariaDB, MongoDB).
• Observability and monitoring platforms (Datadog, Grafana, Kibana); debugging incidents.
• Strong system design and architectural decision-making.
• Ability to influence technical decisions and communicate with stakeholders.

Responsabilidades

• Lead architecture and design discussions for scalable, resilient distributed systems.
• Drive simplification of complex systems while maintaining performance and reliability.
• Identify risks before production and lead root cause analysis when incidents occur.
• Improve observability, monitoring and operational readiness; reduce technical debt.
• Promote best practices around event-driven architectures, performance, testing, CI/CD.
• Mentor engineers through design reviews, code reviews and guidance.
• Partner with Product, Eng Managers and Architects to translate business problems into practical solutions.
• Contribute to a culture of ownership, collaboration and engineering excellence.

Conocimientos

Java (21+)

JVM & concurrency

Reactive programming

Spring Boot

Vert.x

Kafka

Event-driven

Redis caching

SQL/NoSQL databases

Observability tools

System design

Stakeholder communication

Descripción del empleo

About The Role

LeoVegas Group is building a world-class Sportsbook platform. Within the Sports domain, we work in a high-volume, real-time environment where speed, correctness, scalability and reliability are critical, building the services that transform incoming sports, trading and pricing data into experiences used by millions of customers.

We are looking for a highly experienced Staff Backend Engineer to help lead the design, development and evolution of these distributed systems. You will provide technical leadership across architecture, engineering practices and platform evolution while remaining hands‑on, helping teams make better technical decisions, raise engineering standards, simplify complex systems and balance business needs with long‑term platform health.

This role suits someone who enjoys understanding the technical and business context behind problems rather than implementing solutions mechanically. We value engineers who are curious and proactive, comfortable with ambiguity, and who lead through collaboration and ownership rather than authority.

What You’ll Do

• Lead architecture and design discussions for scalable, resilient and maintainable distributed systems, evaluating options through spikes, experiments and proofs of concept.
• Drive simplification of complex systems while holding a high bar for performance, reliability and code quality.
• Identify scalability, resiliency and operational risks before they reach production, and lead root cause analysis when incidents occur.
• Improve observability, monitoring and operational readiness, and drive down technical debt across the platform.
• Promote best practices around event‑driven and reactive architectures, performance optimisation, testing, automation and CI/CD.
• Mentor engineers through design reviews, code reviews, pair programming and technical guidance.
• Partner with Product, Engineering Managers and Architects to translate business problems into practical solutions, and help shape and break down technical initiatives.
• Contribute to a culture of ownership, collaboration, continuous improvement and engineering excellence.

What We’re Looking For

• Proven experience designing, building and operating distributed systems at scale, owning complex backend systems end‑to‑end in production.
• Strong backend expertise in Java (preferably 21+), with a solid understanding of JVM internals, concurrency and multithreading.
• Hands‑on experience with Reactive Programming and non‑blocking systems using Spring Boot and/or Vert.x.
• Hands‑on experience with Apache Kafka and event‑driven architectures; familiarity with streaming and messaging technologies such as Redis or NATS.
• Experience with Redis for caching and low‑latency data access, and with SQL and NoSQL databases (e.g. PostgreSQL, MariaDB, MongoDB).
• Experience with observability and monitoring platforms such as Datadog, Grafana or Kibana, and with debugging complex production incidents.
• Strong system design and architectural decision‑making, balancing latency, throughput, consistency, operational complexity and maintainability.
• Ability to influence technical decisions and communicate effectively with engineers, architects, product managers and other stakeholders.

Nice To Have

• Experience with Kubernetes, AWS and/or GCP, and cloud‑native architecture patterns.
• Experience with OpenSearch and/or Elasticsearch for search, analytics and operational troubleshooting.
• Experience building internal platforms, shared frameworks or developer productivity tooling, with a strong SRE mindset.
• Experience within sports betting, gaming or other real‑time, data‑intensive domains.

What Success Looks Like

• Teams rely on you for technical direction and practical problem‑solving, and move faster thanks to the foundations, tooling, standards and guidance you help establish.
• The platform becomes more reliable, scalable and easier to operate over time, with fewer production incidents.
• Technical decisions are made with greater clarity, consistency and long‑term sustainability.
• Cross‑team dependencies are better coordinated, reducing friction and improving delivery.
• Engineers grow technically through your mentorship, feedback and leadership.

Who We Are

At the core of LeoVegas Group is Team Leo. Our culture is our foundation and is what enables us to innovate, build, and lead as we trailblaze our way through the iGaming industry. We’re a team of over 2,000 innovators, initiators, and groundbreakers working in a fast‑paced and agile environment across 21 offices worldwide.

Benefits

• Hybrid work policy (2 days a week of working from home)
• 4 weeks of Workation (T&C apply)
• 300 EUR wellness contribution annually
• Cobee – benefits app with flexible compensation and discounts
• Health insurance (we use Alan)
• Life insurance
• Employee Assistance Program (free emotional, legal, and financial support)
• Short Fridays – we work until 16:00
• Complimentary snacks and drinks in our offices, Monday breakfast and Wednesday fika
• Team and office social events throughout the year