Principal Site Reliability Engineer

DraftKings; Boston (MA); On-site; USD 200,000 - 250,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Bonus

Equity

Benefits

Job summary

DraftKings is seeking a Principal Site Reliability Engineer to shape long‑term infrastructure strategy for cloud and on‑prem environments in a high‑scale sports betting platform. You will guide engineering teams in building reliable systems and driving platform excellence.

You will lead cross‑functional initiatives, set standards, and mentor senior engineers while championing AI‑powered tooling and operational best practices in a regulated fintech context.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field.
• 8+ years designing, operating, and scaling distributed cloud/on‑prem infra.
• 3+ years at Staff/Principal level or equivalent leadership.
• Proven experience leading large-scale infra initiatives with cross‑functional teams.
• Deep Kubernetes expertise across clusters, networking, storage, security.
• Extensive IaC experience with Terraform, Pulumi, or similar tools.
• Go and/or Python development experience; CI/CD, observability.
• Experience using AI-powered tools in engineering workflows a plus.

Responsibilities

• Define and execute long-term Kubernetes strategy across GKE, EKS, RKE2, and on‑prem.
• Drive architectural decisions for cluster lifecycle, networking, IAM, observability.
• Lead large platform initiatives, set technical direction and standards.
• Establish SLOs/SILs and error budgets aligned with business priorities.
• Build IaC and GitOps workflows; self‑healing infra and tooling.
• Champion AI-powered engineering capabilities to improve efficiency.
• Lead critical platform incidents and drive post‑mortem improvements.
• Mentor senior engineers and elevate technical leadership.

Skills

Kubernetes

Go

Python

Leadership

Communication

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field

Tools

Terraform

Pulumi

Job description

At DraftKings, AI is becoming an integral part of both our present and future, powering how work gets done today, guiding smarter decisions, and sparking bold ideas. It’s transforming how we enhance customer experiences, streamline operations, and unlock new possibilities. Our teams are energized by innovation and readily embrace emerging technology. We’re not waiting for the future to arrive. We’re shaping it, one bold step at a time. To those who see AI as a driver of progress, come build the future together.

The Crown Is Yours

As a Principal Site Reliability Engier, you'll shape the long-term strategy for the infrastructure behind one of the most demanding platforms in sports betting and gaming. You'll drive the architectural direction of our cloud and on-premise platforms, helping engineering teams build, deploy, and operate highly reliable systems at scale. Working across Platform Engineering and Site Reliability Engineering, you'll influence how we modernize our infrastructure, strengthen operational excellence, and prepare our platform for the next generation of growth.

What you'll do

• Define and execute the long-term strategy for our Kubernetes platform across Google Kubernetes Engine, Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service, RKE2, and on-premise environments, ensuring reliability, scalability, and operational consistency.
• Drive architectural decisions across critical infrastructure, including cluster lifecycle management, networking, identity and access management, observability, autoscaling, capacity planning, and cost optimization.
• Lead large-scale platform initiatives across multiple engineering teams, establishing technical direction, engineering standards, and measurable outcomes that improve platform reliability and developer experience.
• Establish and evolve reliability practices by defining service level objectives, service level indicators, and error budget frameworks that align platform performance with business priorities.
• Build automation-first infrastructure through Infrastructure as Code, GitOps workflows, self-healing systems, and internal platform tooling that improve engineering velocity and reduce operational overhead.
• Champion the responsible adoption of AI-powered engineering capabilities that improve operational efficiency, accelerate incident response, and enhance developer productivity.
• Lead critical platform incidents, drive post-incident improvements, and strengthen platform resilience through automation, capacity planning, and operational excellence.
• Mentor senior engineers, influence technical strategy across the organization, and elevate engineering excellence through architecture reviews, coaching, and technical leadership.

What you'll bring

• A Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or a related technical field.
• At least 8 years of experience designing, operating, and scaling distributed cloud and on-premise infrastructure, including at least 3 years operating at the Staff, Principal, or equivalent technical leadership level.
• Proven experience leading large-scale infrastructure or platform initiatives that require cross-functional alignment and long-term technical ownership.
• Deep expertise with Kubernetes, including cluster architecture, networking, storage, security, operators, lifecycle management, and large-scale production operations.
• Extensive experience building and operating production infrastructure in AWS and Google Cloud Platform using Infrastructure as Code technologies such as Terraform, Pulumi, or similar tools.
• Strong software development experience in Go, Python, or both, with expertise in GitOps, continuous integration and continuous delivery, observability, distributed systems, Linux, and reliability engineering principles.
• Experience incorporating AI-powered tools into engineering workflows while applying sound judgment around reliability, security, and operational risk.
• Exceptional communication and leadership skills with a proven ability to mentor engineers, influence technical strategy, and drive engineering excellence. Experience working in regulated industries, hybrid cloud environments, contributing to open-source projects, or holding cloud certifications is preferred.

Join Our Team

We’re a publicly traded (NASDAQ: DKNG) technology company headquartered in Boston. As a regulated gaming company, you may be required to obtain a gaming license issued by the appropriate state agency as a condition of employment. Don’t worry, we’ll guide you through the process if this is relevant to your role.

The US base salary range for this full-time position is 200,000.00 USD - 250,000.00 USD, plus bonus, equity, and benefits as applicable. Our ranges are determined by role, level, and location. The compensation information displayed on each job posting reflects the range for new hire pay rates for the position across all US locations. Within the range, individual pay is determined by work location and additional factors, including job-related skills, experience, and relevant education or training. Your recruiter can share more about the specific pay range and how that was determined during the hiring process. It is unlawful in Massachusetts to require or administer a lie detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment. An employer who violates this law shall be subject to criminal penalties and civil liability.