Principal Backend Engineer - AI-Driven Systems Leader

hardrockdigital

United States

Hybrid

USD 180,000 - 240,000

Full time

14 days+

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Benefits offered by this job

Competitive pay and benefits

Flexible vacation allowance

Flexible work from home or officeHours

Startup culture backed by a global,名

Job summary

Hard Rock Digital is building a premier online sportsbook, casino and social gaming platform. We are seeking a Principal Backend Engineer to lead from the code and architecture, collaborating with product and engineering leadership to shape scalable systems.

You will mentor engineers, own complex backend designs, and champion AI-assisted development practices. If you have 10+ years in distributed systems and a CS degree or equivalent, join us to influence how millions of customers interact with

Qualifications

Proven experience operating at staff or principal level.
Deep backend engineering expertise with distributed systems at scale.
Experience with Java is a strong advantage; focus on backend systems thinking.
Strong communication skills to explain complex decisions to non-technical stakeholders.
Hands-on experience with AI-assisted development tools.

Responsibilities

Be a technical point of contact for various stakeholders.
Be hands-on in both coding and architecture, leading from the front.
Partner closely with Engineering and Product leadership to shape roadmaps and make high-quality trade-offs that maximise business and customer impact.
Mobilise the team around high-impact problems, creating clarity, alignment and momentum, injecting urgency when needed, or slowing things down to ensure safety and long-term sustainability.
Lead and influence architectural direction for the most complex systems, ensuring cohesive and scalable designs
Set and uphold a high bar for technical excellence across the team, driving improvements in quality, readability and scalability, and fostering a culture where engineers hold each other to that standard.
Proactively mentor, sponsor and develop senior engineers, multiplying your impact by enabling others to operate at a higher level.
Leading and influencing engineers in the team without direct authority - through code, design reviews and technical mentorship
Spotting and resolving cross-team technical dependencies before they become blockers
Champion the adoption of AI-assisted development practices and tools across the team, helping raise the bar on engineering velocity and code qual