At a Glance
- Tasks: Lead the design and development of innovative software tools for a cutting-edge sports platform.
- Company: Join Fanatics, a global leader in digital sports engagement.
- Benefits: Enjoy competitive salary, remote work options, and a home office setup stipend.
- Other info: Dynamic team culture with opportunities for mentorship and career growth.
- Why this job: Be part of redefining fan engagement with real-time prediction markets.
- Qualifications: Experience in software engineering, particularly with cloud-native environments and AI tools.
The predicted salary is between 81000 - 99000 £ per year.
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 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.
About the Team
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.
Role Overview
As a Staff Software Engineer within our Platform team, you will help define the technical direction of the platform underpinning our exchange and trading systems. You will lead the design and evolution of our infrastructure and platform standards to support a highly available, low‑latency exchange, partnering closely with exchange engineers and engineering leads to enable rapid innovation without compromising stability or security. This role requires a balance of deep hands‑on software engineering, systems thinking and technical leadership. You will lead complex projects that support the exchange—from load‑testing environments and mock integrations to monitoring and automated recovery. You will turn ambiguous requirements into practical designs, own delivery from ideation to production and help operate the platform as the exchange goes live. The balance of coding and infrastructure work varies by project, but you should be comfortable independently developing new software as well as improving existing systems, setting platform standards and mentoring engineers across experience levels.
On the engineering side, we are pioneering the use of AI as a code collaborator. We need engineers who have moved beyond experimentation—who actively use tools like Claude Code, Cursor, or GitHub Copilot to ship production code faster while maintaining exceptional quality.
Responsibilities
- Lead the design and development of software tools, services and automation that solve complex infrastructure, reliability and developer experience challenges.
- Define and evolve the architecture of highly available cloud‑native infrastructure, balancing performance, reliability, security and cost as the platform grows.
- Set technical direction for CI/CD pipelines and developer tooling, remaining hands‑on in delivering improvements to the software delivery lifecycle.
- Lead the development of load‑testing environments and supporting software, including mock services and integrations.
- Establish and evolve standards for AI‑augmented development, using effective prompting and validation practices to increase velocity without sacrificing code quality.
- Identify and mitigate AI‑generated code pitfalls, such as security vulnerabilities or over‑abstraction, and help teams evaluate the impact on quality and productivity.
- Guide the design and implementation of platform security safeguards and compliance standards to protect the integrity of the firm’s systems.
- Shape the system observability roadmap and lead improvements to monitoring, tracing, alerting and automated recovery.
- Partner with exchange, product and engineering leads to resolve architectural trade‑offs, align priorities and deliver scalable platform solutions.
- Mentor engineers across experience levels, lead technical design discussions and raise engineering standards across teams.
- Participate in the on‑call rotation, lead incident response for team‑owned services and drive engineering improvements that prevent recurring incidents.
Skills
- Significant experience in software, backend or platform engineering, with a track record of leading complex technical projects and delivering production software and scalable, cloud‑native environments.
- Deep software development expertise, including the ability to independently design, build, test and deploy services or substantial tools from scratch and guide others through complex implementation decisions.
- Deep hands‑on Kubernetes experience, including designing and operating production environments, troubleshooting complex failures, and establishing patterns for high availability and efficient scaling.
- Strong hands‑on experience with AWS and infrastructure as code using Terraform, including making architectural decisions across complex environments.
- High proficiency in Java and Python; Go is a plus. You should be comfortable bridging the gap between infrastructure and application logic.
- Deep understanding of distributed systems and the ability to make and explain trade‑offs between low latency, high availability, scalability and operational complexity.
- Experience shaping CI/CD and observability approaches, with hands‑on knowledge of tools such as Prometheus, Grafana or Datadog.
- Strong proficiency in using AI collaborators such as Claude Code, Cursor or GitHub Copilot to ship production code and improve engineering workflows.
- Ability to evaluate AI‑generated code for security gaps or architectural errors and establish rigorous testing and validation practices.
- Proven ability to turn ambiguous problems into a clear technical direction and deliver improvements across team boundaries, balancing immediate needs with long‑term architectural health.
- Strong communication skills, including the ability to explain complex technical decisions, influence without formal authority and collaborate effectively with distributed engineering and product teams.
- Experience mentoring senior engineers and building alignment around technical standards and architectural decisions.
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience in high‑growth startup environments.
- Experience with financial systems, exchanges, real‑money transactions or regulatory compliance.
- Background in designing and building internal developer platforms, tools, CLI applications or infrastructure automation services.
- Experience developing load‑testing environments, mock services or automated recovery systems.
- Experience leading technical initiatives spanning multiple teams or evolving platform architecture through significant growth or change.
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. Please note that visa sponsorship is not available for this position. We are open to fully remote candidates based in the United Kingdom. Remote employees may also be eligible for a home office setup stipend.
Staff Platform Engineer, Fanatics Markets - UK Edinburgh, Scotland, UnitedKingdom; Leeds, England, United Kingdom; London, England, United Kingdom employer: Fanatics, Inc.
Fanatics is an exceptional employer that fosters a dynamic and inclusive work culture, offering employees the chance to thrive in a high-performing team environment. With a focus on professional growth and development, the Global VAT & Tax Manager role provides unique opportunities to lead multi-jurisdiction VAT compliance while enjoying the flexibility of hybrid working in Manchester. Employees benefit from collaboration across diverse teams, ensuring a rewarding experience that drives both personal and organisational success.
StudySmarter Expert Advice🤫
We think this is how you could land Staff Platform Engineer, Fanatics Markets - UK Edinburgh, Scotland, UnitedKingdom; Leeds, England, United Kingdom; London, England, United Kingdom
✨Join Local Tech Meetups
Get out there and mingle with fellow developers by joining local tech meetups. It’s a fantastic way to meet people who might be working at Fanatics, Inc. or know someone who does. Plus, you can pick up some trendy tech skills and trends while you're at it!
✨Contribute to Open Source Projects
Show off your coding chops by jumping into open-source projects. Not only does this give you practical experience, but it also gets you noticed in the dev community. You'll create a killer portfolio that speaks volumes about your skills to Fanatics, Inc..
✨Tap into Online Developer Communities
Don’t underestimate the power of online developer communities like GitHub, Stack Overflow, and even Reddit. Participate in discussions, share your projects, and build your visibility. We can often find opportunities through these channels that can lead to a full-time gig at companies like Fanatics, Inc..
✨Explore Job Boards Specifically for Tech Roles
Keep your eyes peeled on job boards that focus on tech roles. Sites like TechCareers or Stack Overflow Jobs can often have listings for companies like Fanatics, Inc. that might not show up on broader job sites. Make it a habit to check these regularly, and don’t hesitate to apply directly through our website!
We think you need these skills to ace Staff Platform Engineer, Fanatics Markets - UK Edinburgh, Scotland, UnitedKingdom; Leeds, England, United Kingdom; London, England, United Kingdom
Some tips for your application 🫡
Show off your coding skills:When applying for a software engineering role, it's super important to showcase your coding skills. Make sure your CV includes your tech stack, any relevant programming languages you’re comfortable with, and examples of projects you've worked on. If you have a GitHub profile, link it up! We love to see code in action.
Tailor your portfolio:For a full-time role, we’d expect to see some solid examples of your work in your portfolio. Make sure to include at least two or three projects that highlight your problem-solving skills and your ability to work with different technologies. Focus on the projects that are most relevant to the position at Fanatics, Inc..
Craft a killer cover letter:Your cover letter is your chance to stand out—make it personal! Explain why you want to work at Fanatics, Inc. and how your skills align with the role. Show us your passion for software development. We dig enthusiastic candidates who understand the value of collaboration and continuous learning!
Be clear and concise:When it comes to writing your CV and cover letter, clarity is key. Avoid jargon that could confuse us and stick to simple, direct language. Highlight your achievements with quantifiable results where possible, and keep everything easy to read. A well-organised application goes a long way!
How to prepare for a job interview at Fanatics, Inc.
✨Brush Up on Your Coding Skills
For a full-time software engineering role, it's crucial that we stay sharp with our coding abilities. Expect technical questions that might involve solving problems on the spot or discussing algorithms. Practise on platforms like LeetCode or HackerRank to get comfortable with the types of questions that often come up.
✨Know Your Tools and Frameworks
Make sure we’re well-acquainted with the tools and technologies listed in the job description. Familiarise ourselves with any specific frameworks or programming languages mentioned. If Fanatics, Inc. uses React or Node.js, for instance, be ready to discuss how we’ve used them in previous projects or coursework.
✨Showcase Your Projects
Bring along a portfolio that highlights our best work. This could be code samples, GitHub repositories, or any side projects we’ve built. Make sure we can talk through our thought process for each project, especially the challenges we faced and how we solved them—this shows our problem-solving skills in action.
✨Prepare for Behavioural Questions
While technical skills are key, full-time positions also require cultural fit. Be ready to discuss our previous experiences and how we handle teamwork, conflict, and deadlines. Brush up on the STAR method—Situation, Task, Action, Result—to clearly articulate our past experiences when discussing how we've contributed to a team.
