Staff Software Engineer – Backend

- 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.- 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.