Director, Backend Engineering

Blitz is a quickly growing and self-sustaining start-up that provides gamers with personalized stats and insights powered by billions of matches. High performance is at the core of our values. We are a team of gamers and entrepreneurial technologists with big ambitions. At Blitz, you will find co-workers who are friendly, eager to collaborate, and work creatively to ship market-defining software. If you thrive in an environment optimized for autonomy, innovation, teamwork, and embody our principles, Blitz is the place for you to make an outsized impact.

Overview

As the Director of Backend Engineering, you will be pivotal in guiding the development of robust, scalable backend systems that power our innovative applications. This role requires a visionary leader with a deep understanding of backend architecture and a proven track record in managing engineering teams. For the interim, the role will report directly to the SVP of Product, leading a team of talented engineers, and working closely with Frontend, Product, QA, and Data teams to ensure seamless integration and performance across our entire technology stack. Your expertise will help shape the backbone of our products, ensuring they are reliable, efficient, and aligned with our company's objectives.

This position requires all hires to be onsite Monday - Thursday out of our Los Angeles (Playa Vista) office, with the option to WFH on Friday.

What You’ll Do

• Managing a team of backend engineers to deliver features needed by product and other engineering teams
• Working closely with product managers and other engineering teams to plan and budget work based on company priorities
• Make pragmatic decisions on software architecture and implementation
• Drive good engineering practices on the backend team and ensure team success
• Keep an efficient cloud infrastructure footprint and control cost

What It Takes

• 3 - 5 years experience with Elixir
• With 2 - 4 years experience with Phoenix, Oban, GenStage, and more
• 2 - 4 years experience with Postgres and Redis 
• 1+ year of experience with Prometheus, Grafana, and Sentry
• Full understanding of Git, GitHub and CircleCI
• Degree in Computer Science, Statistics, Math, or related quantitative field
• 6+ years of experience in backend engineering and engineering management
• Highly proficient in Elixir, SQL, Architecture, cloud computing (GCP, AWS)
• Experience with managing mix of onsite and remote engineering teams
• Experience working with leadership and other engineering managers on problem solving
• Strong structured problem solving and critical thinking skills when presented with ambiguous problems
• Strong collaboration, organization, and communication skills
• Familiarity with gaming (MOBAs and shooters are a plus)

Nice To Have

• Track record of delivering highly utilized and scaled backend solutions in the cloud
• Experience in optimizing cloud resources used by a high scale backend
• Experience in the gaming industry

What We Offer 

• Competitive salary: $180-230k
• Annual performance bonus
• Stock options program
• Unlimited paid vacation
• Option for employer paid coverage (Medical, Dental, Vision) plan
• 401(k) matching
• Gaming laptop and peripherals
• Company-wide team building events

Salary for the successful applicant depends on a variety of job-related factors, including but not limited to geographic location, market demands, experience, training, and education.

Blitz is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We are committed to equal employment opportunity and the use of affirmative action programs to ensure that persons are recruited, hired, trained, transferred and promoted in all job groups regardless of race, color, religion, age, disability, national origin, citizenship status, military or veteran status, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth and related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information, and any other category protected by federal, state or local law.