Staff Software Engineer - Backend

ESL FACEIT Group - EFG; Greater London; On-site; GBP 110,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

EFG (ESL FACEIT Group) is seeking a Staff Software Engineer - Backend to join the Central Platform Team. You will own core runtime systems, including an Envoy-based API gateway and high-traffic core services on Kubernetes.

This is an individual-contributor role with ownership of end-to-end projects and influence across teams. You will apply a LEGO bricks mindset to build modular, reusable components, weigh trade-offs, and explain decisions to non-technical stakeholders.

Qualifications

• Expert in Go with production-grade backend systems experience.
• Deep experience architecting and optimizing NoSQL and SQL stores (MongoDB, Postgres, Redis/Valkey).
• Familiarity with authentication/authorisation and secure-by-design principles.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and optimise high-throughput distributed services over HTTP REST and gRPC on Kubernetes.
• Own and operate API gateway and service mesh integrations (Envoy/Istio).
• Maintain reliability with observability, SLOs, performance, and capacity planning.

Skills

Go expert

Distributed systems

SQL/NoSQL

Security by design

Tools

Envoy

Istio

Kubernetes

REST/gRPC

Job description

At EFG (ESL FACEIT Group) we create worlds beyond gameplay where players and fans become community. We pride ourselves in having a corporate social responsibility which is that \"IT'S NOT GG, UNTIL IT'S GG FOR ALL\". We are passionate about the culture we foster that ultimately helps to create and shape the world of esports, gaming tournaments, leagues, events and holistic ecosystems staged for our millions of players, fans and heroes.

Everything we do, from global esports tournaments and community-driven leagues to next-generation platforms and live events, is rooted in our passion, craftsmanship, and culture. With millions of players and fans around the world, we aim to shape the future of esports and gaming by building ecosystems that are inclusive, innovative, and enduring.

About FACEIT

As one of the core pillars of EFG, FACEIT is the beating heart of competitive online gaming. With over 26 million registered users playing 30 million matches each month, we are the industry leader in competitive play. Our platform is where gamers of all levels come together to test their skills, climb the ranks, and forge communities.

At FACEIT, we're relentless in our pursuit of excellence. We push the limits of technology, deliver cutting-edge features, and provide an unparalleled competitive gaming experience. Our vision is simple: to empower every player to reach their full potential, while keeping competition fair, engaging, and thrilling.

The Role

We're looking for a Staff Software Engineer - Backend to join our Central Platform Team, the group responsible for building and maintaining the core runtime systems that form the foundational layer of our stack. This spans everything from our Envoy-based API gateway and authentication services to the high-traffic core services that run on top of our Kubernetes platform and service mesh. This is a Staff-level individual-contributor role, which means your impact reaches well beyond the code you write. You'll own and deliver projects end-to-end across teams and functions, make technical decisions that multiple teams depend on, and help shape the overall technical direction of the platform.

You build with a \"LEGO bricks\" philosophy, favouring modular, reusable, cleanly composed components, while knowing when that approach fits the problem and when it doesn't. Sometimes a quick one-off solution is the right call; other problems call for a longer-term investment. You can weigh those trade-offs and reason about them clearly, often seeing value in a less obvious approach that others miss, and you can explain your thinking to the rest of the business, including non-technical stakeholders. You pair deep technical expertise with relentless curiosity about why complex systems behave the way they do, and you treat modern AI tooling as a way to move faster without ever losing your grounding in solid engineering fundamentals.

What You Will Do

• Build & Scale: design, build, and optimise high-throughput distributed services over HTTP REST and gRPC, owning them end-to-end from concept through to production on our Kubernetes platform;
• Gateway & Mesh: own and operate our API gateway, built on Envoy, including how it integrates with Istio and the wider service mesh to route, secure, and shape traffic at scale;
• Reliability: keep core services healthy at scale, covering observability, SLOs and error budgets, performance, capacity, and designing for graceful degradation and contained blast radius;
• Tooling & Delivery: improve our CI/CD pipelines and build the internal tools that help the broader team ship faster and more safely, and aren't afraid to work in unfamiliar parts of the stack, including the frontend, when the problem calls for it;
• Technical Direction: contribute to the overall technical direction of the platform, making decisions and delivering projects that span multiple teams and functions, and setting the patterns and standards others build on;
• Incident Management: lead incident management with a natural curiosity about why things fail. You understand techniques such as the 5 Whys, drive root cause analysis as part of a blameless post-mortem culture, and turn production anomalies into systemic fixes.

What We Are Looking For

Core Technical Expertise

• You are an Expert in Go, with a proven track record of shipping production-grade backend systems;
• Deep experience architecting, modeling, and optimizing both NoSQL and SQL data stores (specifically MongoDB, Postgres, and Redis/Valkey);
• Familiarity with authentication/authorisation and secure-by-design principles, given the platform's remit.

Reliability & Systems Thinking

• Strong reliability and operational knowledge, spanning observability, SLOs, performance and capacity, and designing systems to fail gracefully under load;
• Deep, hands-on Envoy expertise, having run it in production and understanding how it interacts with Istio and the wider service mesh;
• A strong systems-thinking background, with the judgement to make architectural decisions that affect multiple teams.

Ways of Working

• A fearless attitude toward owning and fixing any part of the system;
• Proficiency with AI-assisted development workflows to maximise efficiency;
• A genuine instinct for end-to-end ownership, deep curiosity, and a desire to thrive in a culture of calculated experimentation and continuous learning.

Bonus Points

• Gaming Passion: a genuine passion for gaming and esports;
• Mentorship: you have actively mentored peers or juniors outside of your direct project scope;
• Professional exposure to Java/Spring frameworks;
• Full-stack versatility, with the ability to spin up internal tools using React and Next.js.

Firmly rooted in our values, EFG is an affirmative action employer that celebrates being an equal opportunity workplace. Our unwavering commitment to fair employment extends to all individuals, regardless of their race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, age, sexual orientation, disability, citizenship, marital status, gender identity, or Veteran status.