Backend Engineer (Node.Js / Java)

About The Company

Sleeper is a rapidly expanding platform dedicated to connecting sports enthusiasts through engaging games and vibrant communities. As a leader in the fantasy sports and real-money gaming industry, Sleeper is redefining how fans interact with sports by offering season-long leagues, pick’em contests, and real-time social features. The company prides itself on a lean, passionate, and product-focused team that prioritizes user experience, aiming to deliver fast, reliable, and delightful products. Backed by prominent investors such as Andreessen Horowitz and General Catalyst, Sleeper is committed to building the future of sports engagement and fostering a dynamic environment that encourages innovation and growth.

About The Role

We are seeking a highly skilled Staff Software Engineer – Backend to join our remote-friendly team, with a preference for candidates located in the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, New York City, or the Pacific Northwest. In this pivotal role, you will be responsible for scaling and enhancing the core backend systems that power Sleeper’s fantasy sports and Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS) offerings.

You will lead architectural decisions, develop critical backend services, and mentor engineering team members to support millions of passionate sports fans worldwide. Your expertise will drive the development of real-time contest engines, game logic, personalized content, and secure payment systems, ensuring high performance, scalability, and reliability across our platform.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of backend software engineering experience, including leadership roles such as staff engineer or technical lead
• Proven experience designing and scaling distributed systems for high concurrency environments, such as gaming or real-time applications
• Strong proficiency in backend programming languages like Go, Python, Node.js, or Java
• Deep understanding of database systems (SQL and NoSQL), caching strategies, and message queues (e.g., Kafka, RabbitMQ, Pub/Sub)
• Experience designing and maintaining RESTful and GraphQL APIs, data models, and internal tooling
• Cloud platform experience (AWS, GCP, or similar), with familiarity in containers (Docker) and orchestration tools (Kubernetes is a plus)
• Strong product mindset with a focus on delivering user-centric features
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills, with a passion for mentoring and team development
• Bonus: Passion for sports, gaming, or building multiplayer and real-time systems

Responsibilities

• Design and develop core backend systems that support Sleeper’s games, including fantasy contests, user profiles, leaderboards, and real-time interactions
• Architect scalable, distributed systems capable of handling millions of concurrent users with low latency and high availability
• Lead end-to-end backend initiatives from conception through deployment, ensuring clean interfaces, well-documented services, and resilient infrastructure
• Optimize system performance through monitoring, profiling, and capacity planning to proactively address bottlenecks
• Collaborate with product, design, and frontend teams to deliver innovative features that enhance user engagement
• Mentor and review code contributions from engineering team members, fostering best practices and technical standards
• Drive technical innovation, set architectural direction, and promote a culture of excellence within the engineering team

Benefits

• Competitive salary ranging from $225,000 to $300,000 annually, complemented by stock options
• Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision insurance plans
• 401(k) retirement plan with company matching
• Generous paid time off and flexible remote work policy
• Opportunities for rapid career growth in a high-impact environment
• Participation in a small, collaborative team where individual contributions are highly valued

Equal Opportunity

Sleeper is an equal opportunity employer committed to fostering an inclusive environment for all employees and applicants. We do not discriminate based on race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, citizenship, age, disability, veteran status, or any other protected class.