Technical Architect

The role: Technical Architect 

We’re on an exciting journey; as part of the Flutter group we form a key piece of the world’s largest Betting and Gaming company with brands. This role sits within our Pokerstars international brand. We’re expanding our team as we use our technical and sports betting expertise to deliver a best of breed Sportsbook.

As part of Flutter’s International division – within the Sports vertical – you’ll contribute to the success of the PokerStars brand

Our tech teams work remotely within Bulgaria, occasionally you’ll need to come to the office in Sofia. Not often, but up to 4-5 times a month and of course, we’ll cover all related expenses. Working as a team is what makes us great and spending quality time together is essential for keeping us mission-aligned.

Why join the team?

• You’ll work on the most critical, strategic projects at the heart of the world’s largest public online gaming business, with funding and opportunities to match our huge ambition
• It’s your chance to build and run new platforms and systems that will ultimately be used by millions around the world, building on your career and learning new tech skills to solve problems that only exist at this scale
• You’ll be part of the award-winning Flutter group tech family, working with the best product and technology professionals, learning new skills and developing yourself in new ways
• Work with exciting new technologies and patterns, to name a few…
  • gRPC, AWS, Java, Spring, Javascript, NodeJS, Postgres, Apache Kafka, Unix/Linux, Kubernetes, Docker
• To work on a mix of greenfield and brownfield architectural challenges
• To be part of a strategic multi-year programme to completely modernise our Trading platform to enable it to be truly global
• To work on a highly scalable customer facing architecture: we plan to grow to 300 bets a second
• Capacity and performance optimisation improvements for existing systems
• Ensuring our architecture is compliant with the many jurisdiction regulators we operate
• To be part of an agile, geographically distributed (Leeds, Sofia, London, Toronto), highly collaborative and friendly architecture team

What you will do….

As a Technical Architect, you will be part of a team of architects, leading on technical designs and direction. You will peer with Product, Platform, Engineering and Infrastructure teams to deliver sustainable, high-performance tech platforms and solutions to provide the best possible experience for our customers. 

You will be a technical subject matter expert for International Sports products and services and, via solution designs and impact assessments, be the design authority for new and existing services. You will communicate the business goals, constraints and risks to the delivery team members, so that they can build and operate the systems and services that support and deliver International Sports business goals and address the constraints and risks that are present.

Together with the other International Sports architects, you will develop and communicate an architectural vision and roadmap which is understood and supported by the whole business, and which provides clear, achievable principles and direction for the technology team to follow.

You will communicate the key facts, risks and assumptions to enable the heads of function to understand and make decisions for International Sports products and services.

You`ll be the technical authority for your area within International Sports. You`ll become an advocate and drive best practices and technical improvements in the squad. You`ll encourage squad “champions” for different areas of expertise like performance testing and others. You`ll coach other squad members from a technical perspective, increasing their expertise. You`ll become a champion for technical ownership and operational readiness within the squad and tribe.

You`ll cooperate with the Head of Architecture and Lead Architect to recruit the best architects for your team. You`ll engage with product teams on forward planning and drive team focus on delivery goals and value. You`ll lead by example on transparent communication, ensuring that business expectations are always set realistically. You`ll champion, maintain and uphold our architecture process and practices, and drive improvements to working practices. You`ll lead on inceptions and elaboration of work. You`ll create technical designs, roadmap plans, defining and documenting architecture for your services.

Our mission is to create the best place our people have ever worked at, leading the way in terms of technology and innovation; We want you to be a part of this mission, helping from within.

You will be self-motivated and willing to contribute at all levels, listening and learning from those around you. Culture is the foundation of our success and we want you to be a part of it and drive it. 

You will support, and learn from, the people around you, always looking to do things better. We have a strong culture, and we want you to be a part of it.

How you will do it…

You will be International Sport’s technical SME ensuring all solutions and platforms are secure, compliant, fit for purpose and cost effective, specifically:

• Evolve existing, production systems to modern architectures, for example:
  • Migrating away from monolithic applications to microservices deployed on containers
  • Migrating applications platforms from on-premise datacentres to the public cloud (AWS)
• Lead on technical designs
• Take responsibility for security and compliance within your domain
• Have a strong understanding of security standards, patterns and controls to ensure our systems are secure and compliant e.g. network segmentation, web application firewalls etc.
• Leverage your extensive experience and understanding of non-functional requirements, monitoring and alerting, infrastructure as code etc.
• Use your governance experience to ensure our teams are following best practice, e.g. developing policies, guardrails and high-quality documentation
• When required, work hands on with engineers, but also be outward facing, understanding the bigger picture
• Help to continuously evolve our architectural strategy, and make sure we’re aligned to it
• Highlight, document, and communicate technical priorities; Drive down tech debt
• Create platform and infrastructure documentation and diagrams to aid understanding and alignment
• Communicate key facts, risks, and assumptions to enable the heads of function to understand and make the right high-level decisions for International Sports platforms, products and services
• Be the guardian of quality of your architectural domain, making sure it’s fit for purpose, and built with NFRs and evolvability in mind
• Evangelise operational concerns
• Constantly learn; be a technical authority for your domain
• Communicate clearly and honestly with a wide variety of technical and non-technical people; Support the people around you to succeed
• Assess the impact of upcoming pieces of work on our teams, and architecture; identify the key decisions
• Be an active member of our thriving tech community

How we work 

We believe in providing the best career for everyone; your progression begins on the day we first meet. 

Career progression, staff engagement and satisfaction are paramount to us. We want an environment where architects can do their best work and be the best that they can be.  

• Our architects work closely with colleagues in all positions, so communication and interpersonal skills are important for this role 
• Our architects are T-Shaped, we expect deep expertise in one or two areas but an essential knowledge across our architecture – our most senior architects are able to jump in where there may be a gap to help keep work flowing 
• We rely on iterative, incremental development and fast feedback – we expect a good understanding of the mechanics of this including a solid understanding of automation and its role in modern software delivery 
• Our architects have experience of working in a modern agile environment (e.g. Scrum / Kanban) 
• You will be comfortable working independently or collaboratively with good time and prioritisation skills 

What’s in it for you? 

The salary for this job is based on experience, so whilst we are not able to go into detail at this stage, we can say that we offer great salary packages and also like to throw in a discretionary annual performance bonus. In addition, we provide advice and financial relocation assistance to those moving to Bulgaria.

We offer health and dental insurance for you, your partner and your children (if you all live at the same address). In addition, you are entitled to a personal allowance interest which encourages our employees to upskill themselves or pursuit a hobby. A baby bounty is offered to our employees as well, granting 1000 BGN upon the birth of a child.

Our in-house training and development team deliver fantastic support in terms of developing your skills and helping you progress your career. In the office there is always free fresh fruit, snacks and drinks. In addition, we contribute a certain amount to the transportation and lunch expenses of our employees.

Our employees can always enrol to our sports program, and in terms of relaxation we have a playroom, including a PlayStation and a pool table. Our social team organise great events; including our sensational summer and Christmas parties.

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What happens next? 

We will aim to get back to you as soon as possible. If you meet the criteria, then we’ll invite you to a phone interview and if that goes well, we’ll meet you for a face-to-face interview. 

The Group

PokerStars is part of Flutter Entertainment Plc, a global sports betting, gaming and entertainment provider headquartered in Dublin and part of FTSE 100 index of the London Stock Exchange, which brings together exceptional brands, products and businesses and a diverse global presence in a safe, responsible and ultimately sustainable way.

We are an equal opportunity employer that values diversity.
We do not discriminate on any protected characteristic as defined by applicable law.

We will look to provide reasonable accommodation for applicants with disabilities to participate in the job application or interview process. If you need assistance, please contact talent@starsgroup.com       
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