AI Engineer

Job Description

About this role

Fanatics Betting and Gaming is seeking an AI Engineer on our cross-functional Applied AI team that is on a mission to 10x FBG with AI. You’ll build and productionize the software foundations that power next-gen recommenders, autonomous AI agents, and scalable AI-driven experiences—working in a fast-paced, startup-style environment where you’ll move from prototype to ship-ready features in days, not months. As an AI Engineer at Fanatics, you will partner with Applied Scientists, Data Engineers, and Product teams to design, implement, and maintain end-to-end systems that deliver personalized recommendations and autonomous agent capabilities to millions of fans. You’ll translate cutting-edge research into rock-solid code, architect microservices for low-latency inference, and champion best practices in reliability, scalability, and observability.

Responsibilities

• Design & Build Recommender Services Architect and implement microservices that serve real-time personalized recommendations (e.g., odds suggestions, content feeds) at low latency and high throughput.
• Develop AI Agent Frameworks Create, integrate, and extend agent orchestration pipelines—building tools to deploy, monitor, and iterate on multi-agent workflows.
• Collaborate in a Startup-Like Pod Work hands-on across the stack: from data ingestion and feature engineering to model deployment and UX integration—rapidly prototyping and shipping proof-of-concepts alongside engineers and product managers.
• Optimize for Scale & Reliability Implement CI/CD for model updates, containerize inference workloads (Docker/Kubernetes), and instrument services with logging, tracing, and alerts to meet 99.9% uptime SLAs.
• Champion Engineering Best Practices Write clear, maintainable code; conduct code reviews; mentor junior teammates; and evangelize automated testing, code linting, and performance monitoring.

Skills & Qualifications

• 7+ years of professional software engineering experience, with at least 2 years focused on AI/ML systems
• Hands-on experience building and deploying models in production
• Proficiency in Python (FastAPI, Flask) and familiarity with strong-typed languages (Java, Go, or C#) for microservice development
• Experience with container orchestration (Docker, Kubernetes) and cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure)
• Knowledge of AI agents and frameworks (e.g. LangChain, Ray RLlib, custom orchestrators)
• Solid understanding of distributed systems , API design, and data pipelines
• Comfortable navigating ambiguity in a startup-like environment : you’re resourceful, rapid in iteration, and thrive on end-to-end ownership

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.

About The Team

Launched in 2021, Fanatics Betting and Gaming is the online and retail sports betting subsidiary of Fanatics, a global digital sports platform. The Fanatics Sportsbook is available to 95% of the addressable online sports bettor market in the U.S. Fanatics Casino is currently available online in Michigan, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Fanatics Betting and Gaming operates twenty-two retail sports betting locations, including the only sportsbook inside an NFL stadium at Northwest Stadium. Fanatics Betting and Gaming is headquartered in New York with offices in Denver, Leeds and Dublin.