BSN SPORTS, A VARSITY BRANDS COMPANY - THE RECOGNIZED LEADER IN TEAM ATHLETIC GEAR
For over 50 years, BSN SPORTS has been the largest team sporting goods equipment and apparel distributor of choice in the United States. Our 3,000 BSN SPORTS employees strive to support the Heart of the Game by putting valuable time back into the day of coaches and administrators through excellent service platforms. Our company mission is simple: Save coaches and administrators time with everything they do off the field so they have more time to impact young lives on it.
LOCATION: Remote
HOW YOU WILL MAKE AN IMPACT:
Varsity Brands is building a modern, unified digital platform designed to power the full experience of sport and spirit, connecting product configuration, ordering, fulfillment, and customer engagement through scalable, API-driven services and shared platform capabilities.
The Software Engineer III (SE III) role is a senior-level individual contributor responsible for designing, building, and scaling complex services and platform components. This role drives technical decision-making, ensures system scalability and reliability, and influences engineering standards and practices across teams.
Impact of the Role
- Drives development of scalable, high-performance platform services that support enterprise growth and platform adoption
- Improves system reliability, performance, and maintainability across the platform
- Enables reuse and consistency through well-designed services and shared components
- Influences engineering standards and architectural direction across teams
- Drives technical consistency and reuse across teams by establishing patterns adopted beyond immediate scope
WHAT YOU WILL DO:
- Design and build scalable, high-performance backend systems and services
- Lead technical design and solution architecture decisions for features and components
- Own major services or platform components, ensuring reliability and performance
- Drive resolution of complex, cross-system production issues, including root cause analysis
- Establish and promote engineering best practices, standards, and reusable patterns
- Mentor and develop engineers across levels, providing technical guidance and coaching
- Collaborate with Product, Design, and Engineering teams to align technical solutions with business needs
- Contribute to and influence platform architecture and long-term system design
- Design and contribute to reusable platform services and shared capabilities that enable multiple teams to build on common infrastructure
Key Performance Indicators
Success in this role will be measured through:
- Reliability and scalability of owned systems and services
- Reduction in technical debt and system inefficiencies
- Influence on engineering standards, practices, and design quality
- Effectiveness in mentorship and team capability development
- Contribution to platform-level outcomes and system performance
- Improvement in system scalability, reuse, and platform adoption across teams
Knowledge, Skills, Abilities
The ideal candidate will demonstrate the following capabilities:
Technical Knowledge
- Deep understanding of:
- Distributed systems and service-based architecture
- API design and integration patterns
- Cloud-native architecture and system scalability
- Strong grasp of performance, reliability, and system design principles
Technical Skills
- Advanced proficiency in backend engineering (Java, APIs, services)
- Ability to:
- Design scalable architectures and services
- Optimize system performance and reliability
- Lead complex debugging and root cause analysis
- Experience with cloud platforms, CI/CD pipelines, and system observability tools
Cognitive & Problem-Solving Abilities
- Solves complex, ambiguous technical problems across systems
- Anticipates risks and proactively mitigates issues
- Applies system-level thinking to design and solution development
Collaboration & Influence
- Influences technical direction and engineering standards across teams
- Partners effectively with cross-functional stakeholders
- Drives alignment on technical solutions and approaches
Leadership Without Authority
- Demonstrates technical leadership and influence without formal authority
- Mentors and develops engineers, strengthening team capability and performance
- Shapes engineering culture and best practices
Education, Certification and Experience
Required:
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related technical discipline; or equivalent combination of education and experience
- 5-8+ years of software engineering experience, with demonstrated ownership of systems or services
Physical Demands and/or Work Environment
The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
Please note this job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities required of the employee for this job.
OUR VALUES
Service - We lead with heart. We champion community.
Passion - We love what we do. It fuels our purpose.
Integrity - We do what we promise. We own our actions and decisions.
Respect - We earn it by giving it. Because everyone deserves it.
Innovation - We never stop striving to be better. For ourselves and our community.
Transparency - We are committed to openness and honesty in everything we do.
OUR BENEFITS
We are committed to putting you and your families first. For benefits eligible roles, we offer a variety of choices and costs as well as program enhancements that align with our responsibility to elevate the employee experience. Some of our offerings include:
- Comprehensive Health Care Benefits
- HSA Employer Contribution/ FSA Opportunities
- Wellbeing Program
- 401(k) plan with company matching
- Company paid Life, AD&D, and Short-Term Disability
- Generous My Time Off & Paid Holidays
- Varsity Brands Ownership Program
- Employee Resource Groups
- Access to Financial Coaching and member-owned Credit Union
- St. Jude Partnership & Volunteer Opportunities
- Employee Perks including discounts on personal apparel and equipment!
Eligibility for company-sponsored benefits is determined by scheduled work hours, and the terms of the applicable benefit plans. Benefit offerings and eligibility requirements may vary by position and are subject to change in accordance with plan documents and applicable law.
Varsity Brands companies are equal opportunity employers. Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, citizenship, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, veteran’s status, age or disability.
Skills Required
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical discipline, or equivalent combination of education and experience
- 5-8+ years of software engineering experience with demonstrated ownership of systems or services
- Advanced proficiency in backend engineering using Java, APIs, and services
- Deep understanding of distributed systems and service-based architecture
- Deep understanding of API design and integration patterns
- Deep understanding of cloud-native architecture and system scalability
- Strong understanding of performance, reliability, and system design principles
- Experience with cloud platforms, CI/CD pipelines, and system observability tools
Varsity Brands Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Varsity Brands and has not been reviewed or approved by Varsity Brands.
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Equity Value & Accessibility — Employee co-ownership is positioned as a broad-based ownership program available to all employees, offered in addition to regular pay and benefits. This adds potential long-term financial upside tied to company performance.
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Healthcare Strength — Comprehensive health coverage is described as part of the standard package, alongside HSA/FSA contributions and a holistic wellness program. These elements indicate a relatively broad set of health and wellbeing supports on paper.
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — Paid time off, holidays, and paid parental leave are included in the stated benefits offering. This suggests formal time-off and family leave provisions are part of the overall rewards package.
Varsity Brands Insights
What We Do
Varsity Brands elevates the student experience- in Sport, Spirit, and Achievement. We are BSN SPORTS, the recognized leader in athletic gear; Varsity Spirit, the driving force in spirit; and Herff Jones, the most trusted name in celebrating student milestones. We partner with educators, coaches, and students to build school pride, student engagement, and community spirit. With a mission to inspire achievement and create memorable experiences for young people, Varsity Brands elevates the student experience, promotes participation and celebrates achievement through three unique but interrelated businesses: BSN SPORTS, a Varsity Sport Brand; Varsity Spirit; and Herff Jones, A Varsity Achievement Brand. Together, these assets promote personal, school and community pride through their customizable products and programs to elementary and middle schools, high schools, and colleges and universities, as well as church organizations, professional and collegiate sports teams and corporations. Through its dedicated employees and independent representatives, Varsity Brands reaches its individual and institutional customers each year through competitions, camps and sales.
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