Senior Lead Software Engineer, Backend

At DraftKings, AI is becoming an integral part of both our present and future, powering how work gets done today, guiding smarter decisions, and sparking bold ideas. It’s transforming how we enhance customer experiences, streamline operations, and unlock new possibilities. Our teams are energized by innovation and readily embrace emerging technology. We’re not waiting for the future to arrive. We’re shaping it, one bold step at a time. To those who see AI as a driver of progress, come build the future together.

The Crown Is Yours

As a Senior Lead Software Engineer, you’ll drive the architecture and development of high-scale systems that power real-time, always-on applications used by millions. You’ll lead with technical authority, owning the entire engineering lifecycle, guiding implementation, and mentoring a team of talented developers. In addition to foundational engineering work, you’ll play a critical role in integrating AI capabilities into our platform, from building data pipelines and RL infrastructure to setting up evaluation frameworks for safe and scalable model deployment. This is a hands-on leadership role where you’ll influence the product roadmap, drive AI innovation, and shape the future of our engineering organization.

What you’ll do as a Senior Lead Software Engineer

Architect, develop, and maintain scalable, secure systems and APIs that integrate AI and ML models, including reinforcement learning cycles and evaluation systems into real-time customer experiences

Own the full development lifecycle, from defining feature architecture to breaking down AI-related workstreams and guiding implementation across engineering and data teams

Build and maintain data pipelines that support model training, inference, and monitoring, ensuring reliable flow of data across the machine learning lifecycle

Establish model evaluation frameworks to validate AI systems in production, track performance, and support continuous improvement

Partner with research and product teams to translate AI goals into system-level implementations, including designing and tuning reward functions in RL use cases

Lead by example, writing high-performance, well-tested code that raises the bar for quality, scalability, and operational reliability

Act as a first responder for the systems your team owns—triaging, debugging, and resolving complex production issues with urgency and accountability

Drive cross-functional collaboration with Product, Design, and Data Science to align technical execution with business and AI priorities

Mentor and develop engineers at all levels, fostering a team culture grounded in ownership, innovation, and continuous learning

Stay informed on the latest AI and ML advancements—bringing new techniques and tooling into our platform where they can drive measurable impact

What you’ll bring

At least 7 years of experience in backend development using object-oriented programming languages such as C# or Java, with advanced proficiency in software architecture, OOP principles, and scalable system design, or equivalent experience deploying machine learning models into production pipelines.

Strong experience designing and building distributed systems in cloud environments like AWS or GCP, with exposure to ML workflows and data pipeline architecture

Hands-on experience operationalizing AI systems, including reinforcement learning agents, evaluation pipelines, and the design of reward functions

Deep familiarity with Python for AI engineering work, alongside experience in backend software development

Proven success in building resilient, high-performance systems backed by comprehensive automated testing, including unit, integration, and performance coverage

Demonstrated leadership in setting technical direction, conducting code and design reviews, and influencing system-wide architecture decisions

A track record of mentoring engineers and cultivating high-performing, growth-oriented engineering teams

A strong commitment to engineering best practices, continuous improvement, and keeping pace with evolving AI and ML technologies

Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science or any suitable combination of education, experience, and training

#LI-SM1

Join Our Team

We’re a publicly traded (NASDAQ: DKNG) technology company headquartered in Boston. As a regulated gaming company, you may be required to obtain a gaming license issued by the appropriate state agency as a condition of employment. Don’t worry, we’ll guide you through the process if this is relevant to your role.

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DraftKings is proud to be an equal-opportunity employer. We do not tolerate discrimination of any kind and are committed to providing equal employment opportunities regardless of your gender identity, race, nationality, religion, sexual orientation, status as a protected veteran, or status as an individual with a disability.