Staff Software Engineer Backend at Sleeper

We're building the future of how millions of sports fans connect, compete, and celebrate together. At Sleeper, our lean, product-obsessed team is redefining fantasy sports and real-money gaming with fast, delightful experiences that keep users coming back. Backed by Andreessen Horowitz and General Catalyst, we're scaling rapidly and looking for a senior backend leader who thrives on ownership and impact.

Role at a glance

Staff Software Engineer, Backend is a full-time, lead-level role. You'll work remotely from anywhere, with a preference for candidates in the SF Bay Area, Los Angeles, NYC, or the Pacific Northwest.

Your impact

• Design and build the core backend systems that power fantasy contests, real-time leaderboards, user profiles, and other high-traffic features used by tens of millions of sports fans.
• Architect and scale distributed services that handle millions of concurrent users while maintaining low latency and high availability.
• Lead major backend initiatives from concept through deployment, mentor engineers, and shape best practices that keep our platform reliable and fast.

What you'll need

Seven or more years of backend engineering experience, including time spent in staff or tech-lead positions, plus a proven track record designing and scaling distributed systems that serve millions of users in real-time or gaming environments. Strong proficiency in at least one backend language such as Go, Python, Node.js, or Java, along with deep knowledge of both SQL and NoSQL databases, caching strategies, and message queues like Kafka, RabbitMQ, or Pub/Sub. Comfort designing and maintaining RESTful or GraphQL APIs, data models, and internal tooling. Hands-on experience with cloud platforms (AWS or GCP), containers (Docker), and orchestration tools such as Kubernetes. A product mindset that prioritizes user impact, excellent communication skills, and a genuine interest in mentoring teammates. Passion for sports or gaming is a plus.

Perks and compensation

We offer a competitive base salary of $225,000–$300,000 per year. Additional benefits include equity compensation, comprehensive medical, dental, and vision insurance, a 401(k) plan with company matching, generous paid time off, and a flexible remote-work policy that supports fast career growth on a small, high-impact team.