Senior Software Engineering Manager - Geolocation, Compliance & Trust

About Us

Fanatics 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.

Overview

Fanatics Betting & Gaming (FBG) is on a mission to create the best online sportsbook in the industry. We are seeking a Senior Software Engineering Manager (Sr. SEM) to lead an engineering team focused on delivering a secure, trusted, and seamless experience for our customers. This leader will own critical systems at the core of responsible gaming, regulatory compliance, and player eligibility — guiding teams through complex and ambiguous problems while ensuring operational excellence, consistent delivery, and long-term strategic impact.

Success in this role requires building strong, collaborative relationships with Product, Data, Risk, Legal, and Compliance partners to align on strategy, priorities, and outcomes that protect both our customers and our business.

The Gatekeepers team sits within the Customer Accounts & Transactions (CATX) domain and owns five critical compliance domains: geolocation, NJ regulatory data residency (user sync), state and self exclusion, responsible gaming enforcement, and prohibited persons. These systems form the backbone of FBG's regulatory posture across every live US state — and operate at the intersection of customer experience, legal obligation, and platform trust.

The Sr. SEM plays a pivotal role in shaping the architecture, processes, and engineering culture that ensure trust, safety, and compliance across the Fanatics Sportsbook ecosystem. You will lead backend engineering teams (Java, AWS) responsible for the systems that gate customer access to the platform — from real-time geolocation checks to responsible gaming limit enforcement and regulatory exclusion list ingestion.

At FBG, we're revolutionizing sports betting with cutting-edge technology, a customer-first mindset, and a world-class engineering team. You'll have the opportunity to work on complex, high-scale challenges in an exciting and rapidly growing industry — all while being part of a team that values innovation, integrity, and excellence.

Responsibilities

Operational Leadership & Ownership

• Lead engineering teams that own high-scale, high-stakes compliance systems across geolocation, state & self exclusion, responsible gaming, NJ data residency, and prohibited persons.
• Drive operational excellence by setting high standards for security, reliability, and regulatory compliance.
• Establish strong monitoring and alerting mechanisms to detect, prevent, and mitigate fraudulent activity and compliance violations.
• Partner with Risk, Legal, and Compliance teams to ensure regulatory requirements, responsible gaming standards, and state-level gaming compliance obligations are met.
• Own systems that enforce compliance gaming controls — including wager limits, session controls, cooling-off periods, self-exclusion enforcement, and problem gambling intervention workflows — ensuring real-time, accurate application across all regulated markets.
• Oversee geolocation and location services infrastructure that verifies customer location at the point of wagering, ensuring players are within legally authorized jurisdictions and that geofencing rules are enforced with high precision and low latency.
• Lead the engineering strategy for user sync processes — ensuring customer account data, eligibility status, self-exclusion flags, and compliance attributes remain consistent and up-to-date across all internal systems and third-party integrations.
• Maintain and evolve systems that enforce prohibited persons policies — including detection, blocking, and auditing of individuals who are legally or contractually barred from participation (e.g., employees, self-excluded players, minors, persons on exclusion registries, and other regulated categories).
• Proactively identify and resolve technical or operational risks before they impact customers or business integrity.

Team Performance & Delivery

• Build and maintain high-performing, mission-driven engineering teams focused on trust, safety, compliance, and performance.
• Define and execute a roadmap balancing customer experience, regulatory compliance, risk mitigation, and player protection.
• Empower teams to solve complex challenges in real-time eligibility enforcement, data replication, and responsible gaming tooling.
• Deliver robust, maintainable, and scalable software systems that protect customer data and ensure seamless, compliant account experiences.

Communication, Stakeholder Management & Product Partnership

• Communicate clearly and effectively with engineers, Product, Data Science, Legal, and Compliance stakeholders.
• Build deep partnerships with Fraud, Risk, Responsible Gaming, and Compliance Gaming product teams to align on goals and trade-offs.
• Drive crisp technical and strategic discussions across teams and leadership.
• Author and present clear documentation — including engineering roadmaps, vision documents, compliance risk assessments, and incident reviews.
• Represent the CAT domain's technical perspective in broader organizational strategy and planning.

Navigating Complexity & Ambiguity

• Lead teams through highly ambiguous security, risk, compliance gaming, and geolocation challenges with structured, data-informed approaches.
• Foster a culture of accountability and innovation — balancing experimentation with rigorous controls.
• Harmonize diverse viewpoints across Risk, Legal, Product, and Engineering to make high-impact, balanced decisions.
• Provide clarity and vision amid changing regulatory and threat landscapes, including evolving state gaming commission requirements and exclusion registry mandates.

Qualifications

We value aptitude and integrity over years of experience, but here are key skills that will make you successful in this role:

• 5-7+ years of experience managing software engineering teams, with a track record of delivering secure, scalable systems in high-risk or regulated environments.
• Background leading teams or contributing in a Java, AWS ecosystem preferred.
• Demonstrated experience building systems for fraud detection, payments, compliance, or responsible gaming is highly desirable.
• Experience with geolocation and location services technologies (e.g., GPS, IP-based location, third-party geolocation providers) used in regulated online gaming or financial services contexts is a strong plus.
• Familiarity with compliance gaming controls — including self-exclusion systems, wager/session limit enforcement, exclusion registry integrations, and responsible gaming tooling.
• Experience designing or managing user sync and data consistency pipelines across distributed systems and third-party platforms.
• Exposure to prohibited persons enforcement frameworks, including integrations with state or national exclusion registries, age verification, and employee/insider restriction systems.
• Ability to balance strategic direction with deep technical execution.
• Strong communication and storytelling skills to influence across Engineering, Product, Risk, Legal, and Compliance.
• Proven experience navigating complex, cross-functional, and regulatory challenges.
• Commitment to operational excellence and building resilient, high-trust systems.
• Passion for mentoring and developing engineers and leaders, while fostering a culture of security, empathy, and innovation.

Remote employees may also be eligible for a home office setup stipend.

Depending 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 connections 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.

Ready to build the future of sports betting? If you possess some of these skills but not all of them, we still encourage you to apply! Please note that visa sponsorship is not available for this position. We are open to fully remote candidates based in the United Kingdom. Remote employee may also be eligible for a home office setup stipend.

For information about our benefits, please visit https://benefitsatfanatics.com/

The salary range represents base pay only and does not include short-term or long-term incentive compensation. When determining base pay, as part of a final compensation package, we consider several factors such as location, experience, qualifications, and training. For information about our benefits, please visit https://benefitsatfanatics.com/ USA Remote Salary Range

$172,000—$258,000 USD By submitting your application, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge you have read our Candidate Privacy Policy.