Principal Software Engineer (Remote, United Kingdom)

THE TEAM
The TM1 Data Apps area is a group of Ticketmaster teams that provides Reporting, Marketing and Real Time data insights to our clients and partners. Following a recent restructure, the teams are now focused on working towards a common data source and accelerating our development of features and capabilities for our clients.

THE JOB
Ticketmaster Data Apps is looking for an experienced, motivated, and self-driven candidate who can work across the teams to foster collaboration, introduce best practices, share learnings and support the Engineering Director with designing and engineering larger initiatives within the teams. Now is an exciting time to join the team and make a real difference as well as showcase your design and architecture skills as we shape the next generation of data in ticketing with intelligent profile, AI initiatives, integration with various components of the TM ecosystem, and overall, building a world-class system. If you are the sort of person that enjoys a fast-paced work environment, is able to quickly pick-up cutting-edge technologies and product concepts, and has the desire to experiment with and evaluate new technological paths forward, this is the role for you.

WHAT YOU WILL BE DOING

• Design and develop new systems and implement enhancements to existing systems, breaking down complex problems into essential components and building efficient solutions.
• Work with product teams to understand large units of development and the impact on the teams specifically to identify areas of reuse across the teams to eliminate wasteful development.
• Own and evolve technical strategy and architectural direction across all three teams.
• Review existing infrastructure and work with the teams to enhance and refactor to modern architectures focusing on reuse and simplification, develop and design high-traffic, large scale software applications and data flow processes, infrastructure for deploying and long-term maintenance of the systems.
• Design and develop peripheral systems and processes - monitoring and alerting services, automated build and deployment pipelines, systems for gathering application performance metrics, ensuring efficiency in cost.
• Push best practices in system development ranging from test coverage, use of enterprise standards, adherence to target architecture, high-availability and scalability, low latency, and fault-tolerance, thus ensuring delivery of high-quality systems.
• Establish shared engineering standards, patterns, and guardrails, and ensure their consistent adoption across the wider function.
• Identify systemic technical risks and dependencies that span multiple products or teams, and lead their resolution.
• Work with the teams to design and build a comprehensive QA platform/solution to ensure quality and speed of delivery.
• Own solution design discussions and meetings to ensure systems are aligned in the bigger scheme of things. Also evaluating new tools and technologies for feasibility, cost and subsequent use in the company and teams.
• Influence longer-term technology decisions and investment priorities with senior engineering, product, and business stakeholders.
• Ensure that solutions developed within individual teams support enterprise architecture, scalability, reliability, and security objectives.
• Act as a principal technical advisor on decisions with significant or long-term implications beyond the immediate area.
• Leading teams in development of new systems and new initiatives by executing the duties mentioned above as well as guiding, mentoring and in general helping team members in learning applications, technologies, best practices and processes. Reviewing code for quality, correctness and efficiency.
• Owning specific work unit deliveries from a day-to-day standpoint – participating in daily agile stand-ups, escalating blockers to stakeholders, ensuring timely completion of tasks & overall project & sprint goals. Communicating updates to stakeholders and working with them on timelines.
• Working with specific team members to aid them in developing their skills.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW (or TECHNICAL SKILLS)

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or related technical field.
• Proficiency in one or more of the following programming languages – Java, Typescript, NodeJS and willingness to learn the others.
• 5+ years of experience in building high-traffic web applications and deploying to production with a focus on quality and long-term maintainability.
• Experience in working with cloud-based platforms (preferably AWS).
• Experience supporting live applications - good debugging skills, reading logs, reading application dashboards like Grafana / AWS monitors (e.g., CloudWatch) - identifying issues and solving them efficiently.
• Experience writing SQL queries, working with SQL (e.g., MySQL) and NoSQL databases (e.g., DynamoDB).
• Experience working with Infrastructure as code tools like Terraform, Kubernetes, and Helm.
• Experience working with code and build tools like Gitlab, CI/CD, Jenkins, and Sonar.
• Experience working in an Agile team - attending stand-ups, delivering work in a time-boxed setting, etc.
• Ability to work under some pressure e.g., handling production issues, on-call support for live systems, etc. An overall calm personality - ability to see the big picture and how the current team / task / project fits into it.

NICE TO KNOW (GOOD TO HAVE)

• Experience in the entertainment and/or online ticketing industry.
• Familiarity with operating across diverse cultural and regulatory environments (Europe, Asia, South America).
• Understanding of your own usage of AI (Claude or similar) in the SDLC.

YOU (BEHAVIOURAL SKILLS)

• Strong verbal communication, ability to clearly communicate ideas, work status, advocate for (or against) a particular approach or design.
• Documentation skills - ability to make the path easier for new team members / new hires / interns by organizing knowledge in Confluence, wiki, or similar.
• Ability to manage self and own time, deliver work on time, evaluate and estimate work.
• Ability to work with various teams, including tech and product, incorporate their inputs into the work being done, and manage expectations on issues & enhancements.
• Experience working across multiple teams and working on cross team projects.
• Desire and experience mentoring junior members of the teams.

LIFE AT TICKETMASTER
We are proud to be a part of Live Nation Entertainment, the world’s largest live entertainment company. Our vision at Ticketmaster is to connect people around the world to the live events they love. As the world’s largest ticket marketplace and the leading global provider of enterprise tools and services for the live entertainment business, we are uniquely positioned to successfully deliver on that vision. We do it all with an intense passion for Live and an inspiring and diverse culture driven by accessible leaders, attentive managers, and enthusiastic teams. If you’re passionate about live entertainment like we are, and you want to work at a company dedicated to helping millions of fans experience it, we want to hear from you.

Our work is guided by our values:

• Reliability - We understand that fans and clients rely on us to power their live event experiences, and we rely on each other to make it happen.
• Teamwork - We believe individual achievement pales in comparison to the level of success that can be achieved by a team.
• Integrity - We are committed to the highest moral and ethical standards on behalf of the countless partners and stakeholders we represent.
• Belonging - We are committed to building a culture in which all people can be their authentic selves, have an equal voice and opportunities to thrive.

EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES
We are passionate and committed to our people and go beyond the rhetoric of diversity and inclusion. You will be working in an inclusive environment and be encouraged to bring your whole self to work. We will do all that we can to help you successfully balance your work and home life. As a growing business, we will encourage you to develop your professional and personal aspirations, enjoy new experiences, and learn from the talented people you will be working with. It's talent that matters to us and we encourage applications from people irrespective of their gender, race, sexual orientation, religion, age, disability status or caring responsibilities.

HIRING PRACTICES
The preceding job description has been designed to indicate the general nature and level of work performed by employees within this classification. It is not designed to contain or be interpreted as a comprehensive inventory of all duties, responsibilities, and qualifications required of employees assigned to this job. Ticketmaster recruitment policies are designed to place the most highly qualified persons available in a timely and efficient manner. Ticketmaster may pursue all avenues available, including promotion from within, employee referrals, outside advertising, employment agencies, internet recruiting, job fairs, college recruiting and search firms. Ticketmaster may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support application screening and assessment. All hiring decisions are made with human review.