Senior Java Engineer (PST overlap)
About the role
Our client is one of the largest game studios known for their very successful MOBA and FPS franchises. You will be a member of the Organized Play team that builds the systems that power competitive play - from tournament registration and operator tooling to the backend services that drive player and fan-facing experiences.
We're hiring a Senior Backend Software Engineer to help build and extend tournament systems supporting Organized Play initiatives.
You'll work across:
Compete Services - Spring Boot-based services supporting tournament workflows and public-facing APIs
Esports Services - modelling tournaments, brackets, and match structures
The core challenge here is complex business logic and correctness. These systems directly impact competitive outcomes and the experiences of players and fans. This is a hands-on senior role with end-to-end ownership.
Please note, availability to attend afternoon/evening meetings is a requirement for this role as most of the team is located on the US West Coast (LA and Seattle)
Responsibilities
Implement tournament lifecycle logic (Swiss, playoffs, standings, tiebreakers)
Build workflows for registration, dropouts, rule enforcement, and audit logging
Extend backend services that model tournaments and match structures
Design and evolve clean, maintainable backend components
Develop REST and GraphQL APIs
Work with relational databases to model and query tournament data
Debug complex production issues and review peer code
Participate fully in 2-week sprints and team rituals
Required qualifications
6+ years backend development experience with ownership of production systems.
Strong modern Java (17+)
Experience building services with Spring Boot or similar frameworks
Demonstrated ability to design clean, maintainable backend architectures
Experience building systems with complex workflows or state transitions
Experience designing REST APIs
Experience with JPA / Hibernate or strong SQL-first data modeling (e.g., JOOQ)
Solid relational database fundamentals
Comfortable working independently in a remote environment
Nice to have
Experience with GraphQL APIs
Experience with event-driven systems (Kinesis, Kafka, etc.)
Experience implementing caching or rate limiting
Experience building correctness-critical systems
Experience building internal/operator tools
Experience with competitive or gaming platforms
Familiarity with trading card games (TCGs) and tournament formats (e.g., Swiss rounds, decklists, brackets), or a strong interest in competitive gaming, esports