Staff Backend Engineer - Java/Kotlin, Lead & Scale

Fanatics Inc.; New York (NY); Remote; USD 144,000 - 235,000; Full time

Job summary

Fanatics Inc. is seeking a Backend Staff Engineer for Fanatics Core. You will lead strategic, hands-on work, building scalable backend systems that support the Fanatics App and related platforms. Your role balances immediate needs with long-term technical excellence, mentoring peers and shaping architecture across teams.

You will own end-to-end delivery, drive best practices, and collaborate with product, design, and operations to deliver delightful experiences for fans and partners.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of experience building scalable backend distributed systems.
• Proficiency in Spring with Kotlin and/or Java is a plus.
• Knowledge of observability practices (logging/monitoring/tracing).
• Expertise in Agile software delivery with cross-team collaboration.
• Excellent communication skills with diverse audiences.
• Team-first mentality and adaptability in a high-growth environment.

Responsibilities

• Drive development, testing, documentation, and deployment of scalable software.
• Understand product and roadmap to shape team strategy.
• Lead end-to-end technical execution of complex features and systems.
• Define and enforce engineering principles and best practices.
• Partner with product, design, and stakeholders for technical decisions.
• Lead incident resolution as part of on-call rotation.
• Identify and remove roadblocks; collaborate cross-team when needed.
• Conduct and elevate code reviews to improve quality.
• Lead planning and design discussions; promote better architecture.

Skills

Backend engineering

Spring Kotlin/Java

Observability

Agile delivery

Communication

Team player

High-growth

Tools

Kafka

Amazon SQS

Kubernetes

Terraform

Go

Job description

Fanatics Inc. is seeking a Backend Staff Engineer for Fanatics Core. You will lead strategic, hands-on work, building scalable backend systems that support the Fanatics App and related platforms. Your role balances immediate needs with long-term technical excellence, mentoring peers and shaping architecture across teams.

You will own end-to-end delivery, drive best practices, and collaborate with product, design, and operations to deliver delightful experiences for fans and partners.