{"id":3822596,"url":"https://alion.io/job/fanatics-engineering-manager-search-consumer-ai","title":"Engineering Manager, Search & Consumer AI","company":{"id":1756301,"name":"Fanatics","domain":"fanatics.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/fanatics-com","size_band":"5000+","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Greenhouse","truth_index":{"grade":"A","score":87,"open_postings":12,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":0.417,"repost_share":0.167,"time_to_fill_p50_days":42,"computed_at":"2026-11-09T06:03:00Z"}},"role":"Leadership","role_family":"Leadership","seniority":"lead","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"remote","remote_scope":"stated_countries","remote_scope_basis":"board_field","remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["New York, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":["US"],"hiring_countries_total":1,"salary":{"min":190000,"max":237500,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":237500},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":1,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"Apache Kafka","optional":false},{"name":"AWS","optional":false},{"name":"AWS Bedrock","optional":false},{"name":"dbt","optional":false},{"name":"Java","optional":false},{"name":"Kotlin","optional":false},{"name":"LLM","optional":false},{"name":"NLP","optional":false},{"name":"OpenSearch","optional":false},{"name":"Sentiment Analysis","optional":false}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-11-05T16:47:51Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-11-05","last_verified_at":"2026-11-10T03:43:42Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":4,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":4},"description":"About Us\nFanatics is building a leading global digital sports platform. We ignite the passions of global sports fans and maximize the presence and reach for our hundreds of sports partners globally by offering products and services across Fanatics Commerce, Fanatics Collectibles, and Fanatics Betting & Gaming, allowing sports fans to Buy, Collect, and Bet. Through the Fanatics platform, sports fans can buy licensed fan gear, jerseys, lifestyle and streetwear products, headwear, and hardgoods; collect physical and digital trading cards, sports memorabilia, and other digital assets; and bet as the company builds its Sportsbook and iGaming platform. Fanatics has an established database of over 100 million global sports fans; a global partner network with approximately 900 sports properties, including major national and international professional sports leagues, players associations, teams, colleges, college conferences and retail partners, 2,500 athletes and celebrities, and 200 exclusive athletes; and over 2,000 retail locations, including its Lids retail stores. Our more than 22,000 employees are committed to relentlessly enhancing the fan experience and delighting sports fans globally. \nAbout the Team\nFanatics Core is the engineering organization building the shared capabilities, including search, AI, and customer intelligence, that every product across the Fanatics ecosystem builds on. We are seeking an Engineering Manager to lead the team that owns Search and Consumer AI. This leader will own some of the most leveraged surfaces we build: how fans find what they’re looking for, how AI shows up inside our apps, and how AI powers an excellent customer experience.\nYou will lead a team of software engineers spanning two closely connected charters:\n Consumer AI: customer support AI, including LLM-powered assistants, conversational analytics, sentiment analysis, predictive troubleshooting, and the tooling that lets customer success teams act on AI-generated insights; and (2) embedded AI experiences in the fan journey, such as AI commentary, recommendations, summaries, and in-app assistance.\n Search: native search, including query understanding, relevance and ranking, autocomplete, and personalization; and (2) AI search, including natural-language and conversational search that lets fans ask for what they want in their own words and get answers, not just results.\nSuccess in this role requires strong partnership with Product, Data Science, Customer Operations, and product teams across the ecosystem to shape the roadmap, make smart trade-offs, and deliver outcomes fans feel. You’ll work on complex, high-scale challenges as part of a team that values innovation, collaboration, and excellence.\nResponsibilities\nDelivery & Ownership\nLead the team to deliver against commitments across Search and Consumer AI, owning delivery plans end to end: scope and sequence work, remove blockers, and manage risk.\nSet a high bar for reliability, performance, and relevance quality, with observability in place for AI and search services.\nEnsure the team’s work meets Fanatics standards for data governance, security, compliance, and responsible AI.\nOwn on-call, incident response, and operational health for the team’s systems.\nStrategy & Roadmap\nPartner with Product and engineering leadership on planning and roadmap building, using technical insight and fan impact to influence priorities.\nConnect day-to-day execution to team strategy and Fanatics business goals so engineers understand why their work matters.\nPartner with product teams across the ecosystem to embed AI experiences into their surfaces, agreeing on shared ownership, interfaces, and quality bars.\nGuide how LLMs and ML models are evaluated, integrated, and rolled out in production.\nCommunication & Collaboration\nCoordinate across engineers, adjacent teams, and cross-functional partners to drive end-to-end delivery.\nRepresent the team’s plans, progress, and risks in planning and review forums.\nKeep the team informed on goals, trade-offs, and decisions, and create space for two-way feedback.\nPeople & Ways of Working\nHire, onboard, and grow a high-performing team; give candid, timely feedback and invite the same.\nMentor engineers on craft, ownership, and collaboration, and support their career growth.\nBuild team processes (planning, reviews, retros, experimentation) that help the team learn fast and ship reliably.\nMust be open to occasional travel to Fanatics offices and other locations for conferences, events, meetings, and team building.\nQualifications\nWe value aptitude over experience, but here are some key skills that will make you successful on this team:\n1-3+ years managing a software engineering team, or significant tech-lead experience with people-leadership responsibilities, delivering complex, high-scale systems.\nExperience in a Java / AWS ecosystem; familiarity with AWS Bedrock or equivalent managed AI services preferred.\nExperience shipping consumer-facing AI/ML or NLP features to production, including integrating LLMs and building the pipelines and evaluation practices that keep them reliable.\nStrong understanding of search, discovery, or relevance systems, including how traditional search and LLM-based approaches complement each other.\nStrong technical judgment and clear, confident communication with engineers, Product partners, and leadership.\nProven ability to mentor engineers and build a healthy, high-performing team culture.\nPreferred\nBackground in customer support AI or embedded consumer AI experiences (assistants, conversational analytics, AI commentary, recommendations).\nFamiliarity with Kafka, Airflow, dbt, OpenSearch, Kotlin, and Salesforce.\nExperience building shared platforms consumed by multiple product teams.\nDepending on the role, your interview and onboarding experience may include in-person components, such as onsite interviews or Launching into Better: LIVE-a multi-day cultural immersion in New York City for full-time, non-seasonal hires. These sessions are designed to build connection and bring our culture to life, though specific travel and participation requirements will be confirmed based on your role and location. Your recruiter will provide clear guidance at each stage of the process.\nFor information about our benefits, please visit https://benefitsatfanatics.com/\nRanges will change based on country and state of residence, which are reflected in Geographical Zones defined by Fanatics Betting and Gaming. The range incorporates all of our Geographical Compensation Zones and is subject to change as the Zone associated with the actual offer is confirmed. In addition to the base and bonus, full-time employment, and more. For information about our benefits, please visit https://benefitsatfanatics.com/\nSalary Range\n$190,000—$237,500 USD\nBy submitting your application, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge you have read our Candidate Privacy Policy.\nFanatics will never ask candidates for money, banking information, or other sensitive personal information as part of the interview process. 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