Engineering Lead, Creator and Seller Operations (Fanatics Live)

Fanatics Collectibles•New York, NY

8d•$160,000 - $200,000•Remote

About The Position

Fanatics is building a leading global digital sports platform. Fanatics Collectibles is a new company operating at the intersection of collectibles, culture, and technology. Fanatics Live is transforming the digital shopping and collector experience through livestream commerce, creator-led content, and interactive fan engagement. The platform enables collectors to discover, purchase, and engage around collectibles in real time through immersive live experiences. Every show on Live depends on the people who run it. Breakers, sellers, and a new wave of creators choose where to stream based on how easy we make it to run their business. Our goal is to make Live the lowest-lift way to run a collecting business or build an audience, and the platform sellers choose to stream on first. This means sellers and creators should ship orders with almost no effort, get paid on time with full clarity on what they earned, know their audience and what drives their sales, and get started quickly, even without a full breaking operation. We are seeking an Engineering Lead to build and lead a new team within Fanatics Live Breaking, with full ownership of the creator and seller experience. This is a chance to shape a team from the ground up. You will work closely with the Live teams, because every great show starts with a seller who wants to stream here. You will partner with the Live Breaking engineering leader to design the processes and rituals that fit your team and move the business forward. You will own the roadmap with Product and Design, and stay close to the people you build for: sellers, creators, and the account managers who support them. We are looking for a leader who understands the product and our ambitions, sets the team up to win, and jumps into the code when the moment calls for it. This role is hands-on. The Engineering Lead takes part in architecture and design reviews, reviews code, debugs production issues with the team, and writes production code when the team needs it. Their main focus is the product, the team, and setting both up for success.

Requirements

8+ years of professional software engineering experience, with a backend or full stack background
2+ years leading engineers, as an engineering manager or a team lead
Proven record of leading a team that ships production systems on a predictable cadence
Strong technical judgment on distributed systems, APIs, and data models, with the ability to evaluate designs and tradeoffs
Experience partnering with Product and business stakeholders to define priorities and deliver outcomes
Clear communication with engineers, business partners, and external users
Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related technical field, or equivalent practical experience

Nice To Haves

Experience as an engineering manager, including hiring and growing a team
Experience building seller, merchant, or creator platforms on a marketplace or e-commerce product
Experience with orders, shipping, payments, or payout systems
Experience standing up a new team
Familiarity with Elixir, GraphQL, React, or real-time technologies
Experience implementing or scaling AI-assisted engineering workflows
Passion for sports, collectibles, creators, or digital communities

Responsibilities

Lead, coach, and grow a team of backend and web engineers, including hiring and onboarding as the team scales
Own the roadmap with Product and Design for the seller and creator experience, deliver it predictably, and adjust plans as priorities and risks change
Turn goals into shipped work: easier shipping, clear payouts, insight into audience and sales, and faster onboarding for new creators and sellers
Work directly with account managers, sellers, and creators to find where they lose time, and replace manual workflows with tools they can use on their own
Work with the rest of Live so the team's processes fit how Live builds and ships, and set clear ownership boundaries with other teams
Guide technical decisions across in-house systems and third-party integrations such as shipping and payment providers, with clear tradeoffs and risks
Hold a high bar for reliability on seller-facing flows, and respond fast when sellers are blocked
Stay engaged in architecture and design reviews, partner with senior and staff engineers to keep the seller platform in step with the rest of Fanatics, and empower engineers to own implementation details
Drive effective use of AI-assisted engineering tools across development, testing, and code review
Build a culture of ownership, accountability, and continuous improvement