Job Description

About Fanatics Markets

Fanatics Markets is the real-money prediction and trading app where you can invest in moments you care about. Built on a secure platform, we let users predict real-world outcomes and trade on events they actually follow - from sports and entertainment to political elections and beyond. Our mission is to redefine how fans engage with the moments and markets that matter most. We're looking for the right people to help us build the future of prediction markets.

As an Sr Engineering Manager, Distributed Systems, you’ll be responsible for powering the rapidly growing Fanatics Markets app. We embrace principles of data-driven development, operational excellence, and continuous process optimization to deliver a stable, scalable platform. Central to our strategy is Kotlin Multiplatform, which empowers us to deliver high-quality features quickly and consistently across multiple ecosystems. By focusing on object-oriented design, modern coding practices, open-source frameworks, and third-party platform integrations, we continuously innovate and deliver at speed in this exciting and fast-moving market.

We are seeking a leader that can mentor and inspire teams building distributed systems that power our core platforms. You will be responsible for growing high-performing engineering teams, shaping technical direction, and ensuring delivery of resilient and scalable services built on Kotlin, Spring Boot, Postgres, Kafka, Redis, and Kubernetes In this role, you will balance people leadership, organizational strategy, and technical oversight, enabling teams to deliver with excellence and speed.

Responsibilities

• Lead, coach, and develop engineering managers and senior engineers, fostering a culture of innovation, accountability, and continuous improvement.
• Partner with product and business stakeholders to align technical investments with company strategy, balancing long-term platform evolution with near-term priorities.
• Guide teams in building distributed, event-driven, and fault-tolerant systems leveraging Kafka, Redis/Redis PubSub, and Postgres.
• Provide architectural oversight and ensure best practices are applied when building services in Kotlin/Java with Spring Boot.
• Drive organizational excellence in deployment, scalability, and operations through Kubernetes, Helm, and Terraform.
• Set and measure engineering goals (availability, performance, delivery cadence, quality) and hold teams accountable to outcomes.
• Champion diversity, inclusion, and growth, ensuring that engineers thrive in a supportive and challenging environment.
• Recruit, retain, and scale top engineering talent to meet the demands of growing systems and business needs.
• Advocate for engineering across the organization, influencing leadership on technology strategy and distributed systems investment.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of software engineering experience, including 4+ years managing engineering teams (managing managers a plus).
• Proven success leading teams building and operating distributed systems at scale.
• Strong track record of building engineering organizations that deliver business-critical systems with reliability and speed.
• Familiarity with modern backend stacks, particularly Kotlin/Java, Spring Boot, Postgres, Kafka, Redis, and Kubernetes
• Experience creating clarity and alignment in complex technical and organizational contexts.
• Excellent communication and leadership skills, with the ability to influence both technical and executive stakeholders.
• Passion for building teams and cultures that deliver impactful results.
• Experience leading multi-team programs or platform transformations.
• Background in scaling organizations through high-growth phases.
• Able to deal with ambiguity and strong self-motivation.

Salary Range: $204,250 – $268,750 USD per year

The base salary for this role is based on job-related knowledge, skills, and experience and may vary depending on the successful candidate’s geographic location. Remote employees may also be eligible for a home office setup stipend. For information about our benefits, please visit https://benefitsatfanatics.com/

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.

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.