We are looking for a Senior Backend Engineer (Python) to build and maintain the services and APIs that power our sports intelligence products for internal teams and external clients. This role focuses on reliability, scalability, and clean API design in high-traffic systems.

About the Company:

Sportz Interactive is a leading sports technology company that powers fan engagement and sports intelligence products for global sports properties. With a presence in over 40 sports worldwide, the company builds real-time data platforms, analytics tools, and fan-first experiences that delight millions of users during live matches and beyond. The FanOS Intelligence division focuses on delivering high-quality, scalable backend services and APIs that power internal teams, external clients, and partners.

Role Overview:

We are looking for a Senior Backend Engineer (Python) to build and maintain the services and APIs that power our sports intelligence products. This role is ideal for an engineer who enjoys owning services in production, thinking about system behaviour at scale, and contributing to architecture and technical decisions. You will work across backend services, data platforms, model-serving layers, and high-traffic systems, with a strong focus on reliability, scalability, and clean API design.

Key Responsibilities:

• Backend Engineering & API Development: Build and maintain scalable backend services and APIs supporting sports intelligence products. Design and own service and API contracts consumed by internal engineering teams, external clients, and partners. Manage API versioning, backward compatibility, documentation, and breaking changes.

• Data Integration & Service Reliability: Build services that reliably serve data products and model outputs across real-time and high-traffic use cases. Integrate backend services with data platforms, warehouses, and model-serving layers. Write clean, maintainable, well-tested code aligned with engineering best practices.

• Scalability & Production Readiness: Design backend systems with performance, scalability, and reliability in mind, particularly for read-heavy workloads. Implement appropriate caching strategies to improve system performance. Ensure services are production-ready with appropriate monitoring, logging, alerting, and operational documentation. Support troubleshooting and resolution of production issues. Ensure smooth operational handover to teams responsible for running the services.

• Engineering Collaboration: Contribute to architecture discussions and technical decisions across the team. Participate actively in code reviews and maintain high standards for code quality. Work from product and technical specifications while identifying gaps and asking the right questions when requirements are incomplete. Collaborate with data, ML, product, and other engineering teams to deliver reliable end-to-end solutions.

• Development Practices: Follow established CI/CD and testing practices to ensure safe and reliable releases. Contribute to improving engineering workflows, development standards, and operational practices. Stay updated with relevant backend, cloud, and infrastructure technologies.

Tech Stack:

• Backend: Python
• Databases: SQL (Relational databases)
• APIs: REST APIs, API versioning, backward compatibility
• Infrastructure & Cloud: Cloud infrastructure (AWS/GCP/Azure), Containerized application deployment (Docker, Kubernetes)
• Tools: CI/CD pipelines, Automated testing, Observability tools (monitoring, logging, alerting)
• Nice to have: Streaming technologies (e.g., Kafka), Real-time/event-driven systems, Data platforms, Model-serving layers, ML-powered applications

• 5+ years of experience building and shipping backend services in production.
• Strong proficiency in Python.
• Strong SQL skills and working knowledge of relational databases.
• Experience designing and developing REST APIs, including API versioning and backward compatibility.
• Good understanding of caching, performance optimization, and scalability in read-heavy systems.
• Experience with cloud infrastructure and containerized application deployment.
• Familiarity with CI/CD practices, automated testing, and observability tools.
• Strong understanding of production software engineering practices.
• Ability to work independently from technical specifications and proactively clarify ambiguous requirements.
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Technology, or a related field.
• Good to have: Experience with real-time/event-driven systems, streaming technologies, external client-facing APIs, data-intensive applications, or model-serving.

• Global Exposure: Work with marquee sports properties across 40+ sports worldwide.
• Innovative Culture: A "fan-first" environment that values curiosity, quality, and fun.
• Flexibility: Monday to Friday schedule with flexible timings.