Staff Software Engineer – Backend

About the role

We’re looking for a Staff Software Engineer - Backend to help us scale the core systems behind our fantasy sports and DFS (Daily Fantasy Sports) offerings. In this role, you’ll drive architectural decisions, build critical backend services, and mentor fellow engineers as we scale to support tens of millions of passionate sports fans.

Responsibilities

• Design and build core backend systems that power Sleeper's games and real-time user experiences—fantasy contests, Sleeper Picks, user profiles, leaderboards, and more.
• Architect scalable, distributed systems capable of handling millions of concurrent users with low latency and high availability.
• Lead backend initiatives from concept to deployment, ensuring clean interfaces, well-documented services, and resilient infrastructure.
• Optimize system performance and proactively address bottlenecks through monitoring, profiling, and capacity planning.
• Collaborate cross-functionally with product, design, and frontend teams to deliver features that users love.
• Mentor engineers, provide thoughtful code reviews, and shape backend engineering best practices and standards.
• Drive innovation, technical direction, and team culture as a key engineering voice at the leadership level.

Requirements

• 7+ years of backend software engineering experience, including experience in staff-level or tech lead roles.
• Proven ability to design and scale distributed systems that serve millions of users in real-time or gaming environments.
• Strong proficiency in one or more backend languages (e.g., Go, Python, Node.js, Java), and an understanding of trade-offs between them.
• Deep knowledge of databases (both SQL and NoSQL), caching strategies, and message queues (e.g., Kafka, RabbitMQ, Pub/Sub).
• Comfortable designing and maintaining RESTful and/or GraphQL APIs, data models, and internal tooling.
• Cloud experience (AWS, GCP, or similar), with familiarity with containers (Docker) and orchestration (Kubernetes a plus).
• Strong product mindset—you care about the why, not just the how, and you build with users in mind.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills. You elevate your teammates and enjoy mentoring.

Qualifications

• Bonus: Proficiency in Elixir
• Bonus: Passion for sports, gaming, or building multiplayer or real-time systems.

Skills

• Backend software engineering
• Distributed systems architecture
• Database management
• API development
• Cloud computing
• Product development

Benefits

Competitive salary ($225,000–$300,000/year not inclusive of stock options and benefits)

Equity

Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision insurance

401(k)

Generous PTO and flexible remote work policy

Opportunities for fast career growth in a high-impact role

A small, focused team where your contributions truly matter

Pay

$225,000 to $300,000 per year salary

Schedule

Remote-friendly. Preference for SF Bay Area, Los Angeles, NYC, or Pacific Northwest.