Principal Backend Engineer - Core

Hard Rock Digital; United States; Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 260,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive pay and benefits

Flexible vacation

Remote or hybrid work options

Job summary

Hard Rock Digital is seeking a Principal Backend Engineer to lead complex systems, shape architecture, and drive technical strategy for our online sportsbook and gaming platform.

You will mentor senior engineers, collaborate with product and engineering leadership, and champion AI-assisted development practices to raise velocity and quality across the team.

Qualifications

• Staff or principal level experience
• Experience designing and building distributed systems at scale
• Ability to explain complex technical decisions to non-technical stakeholders
• Hands-on experience with AI-assisted development tools in daily workflow

Responsibilities

• Be a technical point of contact for stakeholders
• Hands-on in coding and architecture, leading from the front
• Partner with Engineering and Product leadership to shape roadmaps and trade-offs
• Mobilise the team around high-impact problems with clarity and momentum
• Lead architectural direction for the most complex systems
• Set and uphold a high bar for technical excellence and foster a quality culture
• Mentor senior engineers and multiply impact
• Lead through code reviews and technical mentorship
• Spot cross-team dependencies and resolve blockers
• Champion AI-assisted development practices across the team

Skills

Backend engineering

Distributed systems

Java

AI-assisted tooling

Code reviews

Education

Degree in computer science or equivalent

Tools

GitHub Copilot

Claude Code

Cursor

Job description

What are we building?

Hard Rock Digital is focused on becoming the best online sportsbook, casino, and social gaming company in the world. We’re building a place that resonates passion for learning, operating and building new products and technologies for millions of consumers. We care about each customer's interaction, experience, behavior, and insight and strive to ensure we’re always acting authentically.

Rooted in the kindred spirits of Hard Rock and the Seminole Tribe of Florida, the new Hard Rock Digital taps a brand known the world over as the leader in gaming, entertainment, and hospitality. We’re taking that foundation of success and bringing it to the digital space - ready to join us?

What’s the position?

A Principal Backend Engineer at Hard Rock Digital is a hands-on engineering leadership (IC) position.

As a Principal Backend Engineer you will:

• 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

What are we looking for?

• Demonstrable experience operating at staff or principal level
• Deep backend engineering expertise with a track record of designing and building distributed systems at scale
• The kind of judgment that earns trust fast - engineers follow your technical lead because you’re right, not because of your title
• Experience with Java is a strong advantage; we’re less concerned about specific languages that we are about depth of backend systems thinking
• Solid understanding of Core account infrastructure and geolocation flows
• Strong written and verbal communication; you can make complex technical decisions legible to non-technical stakeholders
• Hands-on experience using AI-assisted development tools (e.g. GitHub Copilot, Claude Code, Cursor) in your day-to-day workflow, with a genuine enthusiasm for how AI is changing software engineering, and a track record of championing AI-assisted practices — in software development, system design, testing, operations, or troubleshooting — while understanding their limitations and trade-offs.
• Degree in computer science, a related field, or equivalent work experience (10+ years)

What’s in it for you?

• Competitive pay and benefits
• Flexible vacation allowance
• Flexible work from home or office hours
• Startup culture backed by a secure, global brand
• Opportunity to build products enjoyed by millions as part of a passionate team

Roster of Uniques

We care deeply about every interaction our customers have with us, and trust and empower our principal to own and drive their experience. Our vision for our business and customers is built on fostering a diverse and inclusive work environment where regardless of background or beliefs you feel able to be authentic and bring all your talent into play. We want to celebrate you being you (we are an equal opportunities employer).