Senior Software Engineer, Data

PlayOn Sports operates one of the largest real-time data ecosystems in high school sports, spanning streaming video, ticketing, scoring, and fan engagement across multiple brands. As a Senior Data Engineer on the Data Platform team, you will help power analytics, AI, and operational insight across NFHS Network, GoFan, and MaxPreps.
In this role, you will design, build, and operate the shared data platform that ingests real-time and batch data from operational systems, transforms it into trusted and analytics-ready datasets, and delivers it reliably to downstream consumers.
The ideal candidate is a senior individual contributor who thrives in production data systems, values correctness and clarity, and takes ownership of critical pipelines that the business depends on every day.
The outcomes you’ll deliver:• Reliable ingestion and transformation of real-time event streams into analytics-ready datasets.• High-quality, well-modeled data powering BI, AI, and operational reporting.• Production-grade pipelines with strong observability, SLAs, and cost controls In this role, you can expect to

• Build and operate streaming and batch pipelines consuming Kafka-based event streams.
• Implement data models, transformations, and dynamic tables in Snowflake.
• Ensure data freshness, completeness, and correctness for critical business domains.
• Partner with Unified Data Service engineers on event contracts and schema alignment.
• Deliver curated datasets and APIs to BI, Data Science, and AI teams.
• Implement data quality checks, monitoring, and alerting.
• Optimize platform performance and cloud cost efficiency.
• Participate in on-call rotations and incident response.

To thrive in this role, you have

• 5+ years of experience in data engineering or analytics platform roles.
• Strong SQL skills and production experience with Snowflake or similar data warehouses.
• Experience consuming streaming data via Kafka, Flink, or Spark Streaming.
• Proficiency in Python for data pipelines and automation.
• Experience designing analytics-ready data models.
• Comfort operating production systems with SLAs and on-call responsibilities.

How You Play

• Ownership over Participation– You take responsibility for achieving holistic outcomes, prioritize key objectives, and adapt quickly when situations require a different approach. You follow through even against the toughest challenges.
• Team over Stars – You are a bridge builder, establishing processes and relationships with teams outside your own. You work to rally around common goals, find win-win solutions, compromise when necessary, and help others succeed.
• Growth over Comfort– You are driven by a desire to grow and actively seek opportunities to expand your comfort zone, skills, and confidence. You embrace new challenges with curiosity, accepting discomfort and failure as opportunities to learn.
• Fairness over Popularity – You approach decisions with a scientist’s mindset, challenging your assumptions and remaining objective. You consider long-term impact rather than relying on short-term gains, proactively seek others’ perspectives, and manage emotions in decision-making.