Principal Engineer - Core

Fanatics Collectibles; United States; Remote; USD 240,000 - 299,000; Full time

Job summary

Fanatics is seeking a Principal Engineer for the Strategic Engineering Group. You set the standard, make hard calls, and shape how we scale for the next several years.

This isn’t a heads-down IC role; it’s a seat at the table for major technical decisions across Fanatics Core, from sub-millisecond latency on Kafka/Redis to distributed systems design. You will work with Product Engineering, Security, and Infrastructure IT, lead initiatives across teams, mentor staff, and help instill a culture of

Qualifications

• 15+ years of software engineering experience with senior-level leadership.
• 10+ years in Senior Staff or equivalent, owning cross-team technical design.
• Proven ability to define and drive large-scale architectural decisions.

Responsibilities

• Set long-term architecture strategy for event-driven platform.
• Drive cross-vertical initiatives and establish standard patterns.
• Mentor senior engineers and raise the technical bar.
• Provide guidance during high-stakes incidents and outages.
• Collaborate with product and business leaders to align technical strategy.
• Represent the organization through technical writing and external forums.
• Champion testing, observability, and platform resilience.

Skills

Technical leadership

Distributed systems design

Mentoring staff engineers

Incident response & resilience

Cross-functional collaboration

Architectural decision making

Tools

Kafka

Redis

AWS

Golang/Java

Job description

About Us

Fanatics is building a leading global digital sports platform. We ignite the passions of global sports fans and maximize the presence and reach for our hundreds of sports partners globally by offering products and services across Fanatics Commerce, Fanatics Collectibles, and Fanatics Betting & Gaming, allowing sports fans to Buy, Collect, and Bet. Through the Fanatics platform, sports fans can buy licensed fan gear, jerseys, lifestyle and streetwear products, headwear, and hardgoods; collect physical and digital trading cards, sports memorabilia, and other digital assets; and bet as the company builds its Sportsbook and iGaming platform. Fanatics has an established database of over 100 million global sports fans; a global partner network with approximately 900 sports properties, including major national and international professional sports leagues, players associations, teams, colleges, college conferences and retail partners, 2,500 athletes and celebrities, and 200 exclusive athletes; and over 2,000 retail locations, including its Lids retail stores. Our more than 22,000 employees are committed to relentlessly enhancing the fan experience and delighting sports fans globally.

About the Team

Every time a fan places a bet, earns a reward, or checks out on Fanatics - Fanatics Core made that possible. We build the shared foundations - identity, payments, loyalty, wallet, data, and platform - that power sports betting, ecommerce, collectibles, and beyond. We supercharge the business by providing products and capabilities so that teams can focus on what matters most: building delightful experiences for the fans.

Role Overview

We’re looking for a Principal Engineer, for our Strategic Engineering Group, who serve as the technical North Star.You set the standard, make the hard calls, and shape how we scale for the next several years.This isn’t a heads-down IC role. It’s a seat at the table for every major technical decision we make - from how we handle sub-millisecond latency on Kafka/Redis at peak volume, to how the entire engineering org thinks about distributed systems design. You will work closely with Product Engineering, Security, Infrastructure IT, and other platform teams to build, enhance, and support our platform.

Days are varied - you will sometimes lead the engineering charge on a major initiative, other times be working across all teams in fCore to shape our direction, or consulting to drive change across Fanatics, or disrupting our technical status quo with a quick proof of concept to grow and challenge a domain.

Responsibilities

• Set the long-term architecture strategy for our event-driven platform, proactively eliminating risks and simplifying the codebase to prevent systemic technical debt.
• Drive strategically critical, cross-vertical initiatives. Establish the patterns and trade-off frameworks that become the standard for building, operating, and scaling systems.
• Serve as an ultimate escalation point for complex distributed systems problems, providing technical guidance to resolve high-stakes issues and unblock teams.
• Mentor and elevate senior engineers and technical leaders, fostering a culture of accountability and raising the technical ceiling of the entire organization.
• Partner with product and business leaders to define technical strategy, navigating ambiguity to build consensus on high-impact initiatives.
• Champion organizational excellence by setting standards for testing, observability, incident response, and platform resilience.
• Represent the organization externally through technical writing, conference talks, and open-source contributions, bringing external innovation in and sharing our progress with the broader community.

Qualifications

• 15+ years of overall software engineering experience, including 10+ years operating at Senior Staff or above - owning technical design for large, cross-team projects.
• Experience leading programs that span multiple teams or verticals over a multi-quarter timeline, with minimal oversight.
• Proven ability to identify business-critical problems and build the case for new investment, independent of being assigned the work.
• Track record of setting technical patterns or standards that other teams have adopted without your direct involvement.
• Experience mentoring Staff/Senior Staff engineers and contributing to their growth toward technical leadership.
• Strong track record leading through incidents or operational risk, with a focus on systemic hardening rather than one-off fixes.
• Excellent communication skills, with experience building consensus across both engineering and business/executive stakeholders.

Preferred

• Experience in payments, identity, or loyalty platforms specifically, ideally in a regulated (gaming, fintech) environment.
• Experience with org convergence, platform consolidation, or large-scale architectural migration.
• Familiarity with SOX, PCI, or similar control frameworks as they intersect with engineering systems.

Depending on the role, your interview and onboarding experience may include in-person components, such as onsite interviews or Launching into Better: LIVE-a multi-day cultural immersion in New York City for full-time, non-seasonal hires. These sessions are designed to build connection and bring our culture to life, though specific travel and participation requirements will be confirmed based on your role and location. Your recruiter will provide clear guidance at each stage of the process.

For information about our benefits, please visit https://benefitsatfanatics.com/

Ranges will change based on country and state of residence, which are reflected in Geographical Zones defined by Fanatics Betting and Gaming. The range incorporates all of our Geographical Compensation Zones and is subject to change as the Zone associated with the actual offer is confirmed. In addition to the base and bonus, full-time employment, and more. For information about our benefits, please visit https://benefitsatfanatics.com/

Salary Range

$239,560-$299,450 USD

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