Engineering Manager, Backend & Data

FloSports is a world-class sports media company strategically positioned to be the essential  destination for passionate sports fans, delighting them with live event coverage, breaking news,  highlights, stats, rankings, and team and player profiles. We are growing Our Sports every day  by continuing to invest in our ever-expanding ecosystem, which consists of over a dozen sport  verticals and hundreds of streaming partners. FloSports is creating the home for college  conferences/leagues and sports like grappling, hockey, track & field, racing, cheer, wrestling,  and more, and we are looking for innovative and passionate people like you to help us! 

THE ROLE: 

As an Engineering Manager, you will be responsible for leading and growing a high-performing team of talented backend and data engineers. You’ll be relied upon to help drive the design and delivery of core platform and data services that power FloSports’ fan experiences and internal systems. This role bridges the gap between deep technical understanding and strong cross-functional leadership, ideal for someone who can dive into architectural discussions with engineers and translate complex systems into clear priorities for business stakeholders.

RESPONSIBILITIES: 

• Lead, mentor, and grow backend and data engineers (4-6 direct reports) through coaching, feedback, and career development.

• Oversee the design and implementation of reliable and scalable backend and data services that power FloSports’ platform.

• Drive predictable delivery on team OKRs, balancing new feature work, reliability, and technical debt.

• Collaborate with product, design, QA and infrastructure teams to define technical priorities and execution plans.

• Maintain high engineering standards through code reviews, architecture discussions, and documentation.

• Contribute to the evolution of engineering processes that emphasize autonomy, ownership, and measurable impact.

• Partner with leadership to translate business goals into clear technical roadmaps and deliverables.

• Help cultivate a culture of technical curiosity, accountability, and continuous learning.

• Provide hands-on guidance when needed - from debugging distributed systems to reviewing architecture proposals.

• Recruit, interview, and onboard new team members

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND ABILITIES:  

• 7+ years of experience in backend or data engineering, including 2+ years in a people management or tech lead role.

• Excellent communication skills, able to clearly convey complex ideas to both technical and non-technical audiences.

• Demonstrated ability to balance technical depth with delivery, driving pragmatic solutions at scale.

• Passion for mentoring engineers and fostering high-performing, collaborative teams.

• Strong understanding of modern event-driven microservices and real-time stream processing architectures.

• Strong backend engineering experience (we primarily use TypeScript and Node.js).

• Experience deploying and managing production systems on AWS.

• Proficiency with CI/CD processes and observability best practices.

• Bonus: Experience with AWS serverless (SST/CDK/Terraform), DynamoDB, OpenSearch, and stream processing (Kinesis, DynamoDB Streams).

OUR COMMITMENT TO DIVERSITY:

At FloSports, we are bonded by our passion for sports and our purpose to unite communities around experiences that finally give underserved sports the love they deserve. We recognize the need to build a company that seeks out, embraces, and celebrates our individual differences, ideas, and talent. FloSports is committed to the pursuit of a fair, equal and inclusive workplace where everyone is given the opportunity to grow to their fullest potential. 

OUR BENEFITS:

• Recognized three years in a row as a Top Workplace by the Austin-American Statesman

• Flexibility at work - you can take control of your profession and personal schedule

• All-hands events hosted in beautiful Austin, Texas 

• Annual equity awards for all top performers

• Competitive and comprehensive medical, dental and vision plans

• Peace of mind through company-paid short-term disability, long-term disability and life insurance

• Generous 401(K) company match vested immediately

• Progressive parental leave policies

• Flexible paid time off

• Hack-a-thons and a full calendar of team-building and social events

• Company donation to youth teams and leagues that our employees coach

• Stocked snack bar, catered lunch and breakfast tacos every week