Staff Engineer - Backend/Kotlin (REMOTE)

Fanatics Inc.; United States; Remote; USD 140,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Fanatics seeks a Backend Staff Engineer to lead ambitious projects and set the standard for technical excellence across our backend and mobile teams.

You will own scalable backend systems, guide architecture from ideation to production, and mentor engineers while collaborating with product, design, and other stakeholders to deliver delightful fan experiences across Fanatics platforms.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of experience building highly scalable backend distributed systems.
• Proficiency with Spring and Kotlin and/or Java is a plus.
• Knowledge of observability practices, including logging, monitoring, and tracing.
• Expertise in Agile software delivery with mentoring experience.

Responsibilities

• Drive development, testing, documentation, and deployment of high-quality, scalable software.
• Shape team strategy by understanding industry, product, and roadmap.
• Lead end-to-end technical execution of complex features from ideation to deployment.
• Define and enforce engineering principles, guidelines, and best practices.
• Collaborate with product, design, and stakeholders for high-impact decisions.
• Lead incident resolution as part of on-call rotations.
• Identify and remove roadblocks; collaborate cross-team to maintain momentum.
• Conduct and elevate code reviews to improve quality.
• Guide planning and design discussions to improve architecture and patterns.
• Champion software quality, testability, metrics, and documentation.
• Mentor engineers across levels to foster growth.
• Occasional travel to Fanatics offices for conferences and events.

Skills

Backend engineering

Distributed systems

Code reviews

Mentoring

Architecture

Observability

Agile delivery

Tools

Spring

Kotlin

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.

Overview

As a Backend Staff Engineer at Fanatics Core, you are a recognized technical leader. You operate both strategically and hands-on while leading ambitious projects, and your solutions set the standard for the team. Your bold decisions balance immediate business needs with long-term technical excellence. Through your leadership, you cultivate a culture of excellence and innovation that leaves a lasting impact on both your immediate team and the broader mobile team. Lastly, you are user-obsessed and know how to drive features from the backend all the way to the frontend.

We own the Fanatics App, the brand-forward application of Fanatics that encompasses elements of all of our different brands and businesses. The Fanatics App brings together Free to Play games, live events, ecommerce, and new product experiences to deliver a new Sports platform. Fundamentally, we are one team in everything we do from the user experience to coding and architecture. In order to deliver on our Customer Promise, we use best in class technologies; thus allowing platforms to be as up to date as possible so that we can rapidly deliver and innovate in this exciting new market.

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.

Responsibilities

• Drive the development, testing, documentation, and deployment of high-quality, scalable software into production
• Develop a comprehensive understanding of the industry, product, and roadmap, leveraging this knowledge to shape team strategy and influence the direction of the organization
• Lead the end-to-end technical execution of complex features and systems, from ideation and architecture to deployment and refinement
• Define and enforce engineering principles, guidelines, and best practices
• Partner closely with product, design, and other stakeholders to make high-impact technical decisions that align with both business goals and long-term scalability
• Lead incident resolution as part of the on-call rotation, ensuring swift diagnosis and remediation of critical software issues
• Proactively identify and remove roadblocks, occasionally collaborating cross-team collaboration to maintain momentum on complex projects
• Conduct and elevate code reviews, sharing expertise to enhance code quality
• Steer team planning and design discussions, introducing innovative approaches to solve technical challenges and optimize design patterns
• Champion improvements to software quality, testability, operational metrics, and team documentation, setting a higher standard for the organization
• Mentor and coach engineers at all levels, fostering a culture of continuous learning and professional growth across the team
• Be open to occasional travel to Fanatics offices and other locations for conferences, events, meetings, and team-building activities

Required Qualifications

• 7+ years of experience building highly scalable, performant and evolvable backend distributed systems; proficiency in Spring with Kotlin and/or Java is a plus.
• Demonstrated ability to drive best practices in backend development and mentor others in effective coding and architectural strategies, such as clean code, hexagonal/layered architectures, domain driven design and other design and architectural patterns
• Knowledge of observability practices , including logging, monitoring, and tracing in distributed systems.
• Expertise in Agile software delivery , with a track record of modeling a