I am working with a leader in sports technology and helping them with a key hire for a company critical team (could call it their engine room...)
They are looking for an experienced Senior Backend Engineer with a solid understanding in backend engineering (ideally C# but open to others), distributed systems, working in a data heavy environment and cloud.
This is the team behind the world's largest library of sports video and AI-infused data, covering everything from schoolboy fixtures to professional leagues, across football, basketball, rugby, ice hockey, American football, baseball, softball and volleyball.
Film gets organised and distributed within hours, tagged and tracked automatically, for every level of sport, everywhere in the world.
That entire pipeline runs through one unified data platform: the Global Sports Library.
Why this role matters
This team is the backbone that connects identities, metadata and game context across every product in the business. Every player identity, every game moment, every stat and highlight gets resolved once, here, and consumed everywhere else. Get this right and it becomes a shared capability the whole ecosystem builds on, powering the experience for teams, athletes and fans worldwide.
The team
- Small squad, real ownership (this hire takes a 3-person team to 4)
- You'll shape the technical direction of the GSL itself + play a key role in architecture/ tech decisions
- Sits inside one of the most technically respected engineering groups in the business
What you'll actually do
- Own hard backend problems: data consistency, entity resolution, large-scale ingestion pipelines, scalability under real load
- Provide technical leadership, decompose complex problems, set architectural direction, mentor through code review and pairing
- Focus on outcomes over output; collaborate across departments on what gets built next
- Participate properly in Scrum ceremonies and help shape team culture
What they need
- A Senior Backend Engineer. Genuinely backend-first - Working with C#/.NET (JVM/Java background is a straightforward switch and genuinely welcomed)
- Real cloud experience (AWS preferred) with TDD and CI/CD as standard practice
- Distributed systems experience
- GraphQL, Elasticsearch, MongoDB, Kubernetes
- Someone who is comfortable holding architectural direction
- Someone with experience working in a data heavy environment
Nice to have, not required
- Video encoding or on-demand rendering at scale
Role details
- Paying up to £105k + bonus + stock
- Hybrid in London (2-3 days a week)
- Interview process will include a systems design interview