Staff Backend Architect - Real-Money DFS Platform

Sleeper; San Francisco, New York (CA, NY); Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 300,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

Medical, dental, and vision insurance

401(k)

Generous PTO

Hybrid work policy (SF Bay Area or NYC

Opportunities for fast career growth

Small, focused team

Job summary

Sleeper is hiring Senior and Staff Backend Engineers for Sleeper Picks, our real-money product. Picks is two games sharing one wallet and one user: daily fantasy sports, and prediction markets.

Real money changes the engineering. Prices move in real time, entries surge before games start, and settlements must be correct the moment a game ends. You’ll own systems end to end, from data models to API contracts, partnering with designers and mobile/web teams to ship features.

Qualifications

• 5+ years backend engineering experience.
• Shipped features end to end, not only infrastructure.
• Experience with real-money gaming, payments, or marketplaces a plus.
• Distributed systems expertise and real-time updates.
• Deep ownership of architecture at scale.
• You’re a sports fan with opinions on DFS or prediction markets.

Responsibilities

• Build and own core Picks systems end to end — contest and entry lifecycle, pricing and market data, settlement and grading.
• Make real money correct: reconciliation and settlement logic that’s right the first time.
• Handle real-time at scale: moving prices and positions, surges, and settlements.
• Partner with risk and trading on exposure management and internal tooling needs.
• Integrate with third-party projection, market, and payments providers, and design for failures.
• Ship features end to end with designers and mobile/web engineers.
• Staff: own architecture, raise the bar through design and code reviews.

Skills

Backend engineering

Elixir

Go

Java

Python

Rust

Node.js

Distributed systems

Job description

Sleeper is hiring Senior and Staff Backend Engineers for Sleeper Picks, our real-money product. Picks is two games sharing one wallet and one user: daily fantasy sports, and prediction markets.

Real money changes the engineering. Prices move in real time, entries surge before games start, and settlements must be correct the moment a game ends. You’ll own systems end to end, from data models to API contracts, partnering with designers and mobile/web teams to ship features.