Director, Platform Engineering

Job Description

ABOUT THE ROLE

SPORTS ENGINE is looking for a DIRECTOR PLATFORM OPS to build our next big thing in platform growth across Fandango, Rotten Tomatoes, Fandango at Home, SportsEngine, and SportsEngine Play

We are looking for a Director of Platform Operations to lead and scale our platform engineering function while remaining deeply hands-on. This is a player-coach role: you will provide technical and strategic leadership, mentor a team of engineers, and also roll up your sleeves to design, build, and operate our core cloud and platform services.

If you enjoy solving complex problems, building for scale, and making a measurable impact – we’d love to meet you.

WHAT YOU'LL DO

As a Director Platform Ops on our team, you will:

• Drive and participate in solution architecture and delivery across diverse domains, offering expertise in AWS cloud infrastructure and resources, containers (ECS/Kubernetes) and cloud-native architectures
• Develop, enhance, and operate platform capabilities including CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure as code, reusable patterns, and automation solutions that enable rapid, reliable, and secure deployments
• Design and implement standardized, reusable cloud infrastructure patterns and templates that help teams adopt best practices while maintaining security and compliance requirements
• Lead and enable the platform team in delivering consistent adoption of software delivery practices and solutions that optimize for fast feedback, observability, and operational excellence
• Evaluate existing standards and practices, identify gaps, and implement improvements to strengthen Development, Security, and Operational practices across the organization
• Demonstrate excellent communication skills through proactive status updates, clear documentation, knowledge sharing, and effective collaboration when facing technical challenges
• Partner closely with engineering teams to understand their needs, refine requirements, and deliver solutions that enhance developer productivity while meeting project objectives
• Work with emerging technologies around AI, MCP, RAG.
• Develop and integrate AI/LLM solutions using modern frameworks and APIs.
• Implement Model Context Protocol (MCP) for standardized interoperability across tools and platforms.
• Build and optimize RAG pipelines with embeddings, vector databases, and retrieval systems for context-aware responses.
• Prototype, benchmark, and deploy emerging AI/ML technologies in production environments.

Qualifications

WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR

• 10+ years of experience in infrastructure/platform/operations engineering, with 5+ years in leadership.
• Strong hands-on expertise in AWS, Python, Terraform, and GitOps (ArgoCD).
• Experience building CI/CD pipelines (GitHub Actions or equivalent).
• Strong knowledge of relational databases (Postgres, MySQL).
• Track record as both a technical contributor and team leader.
• Excellent communication, mentoring, and cross-functional collaboration skills.

BONUS POINTS FOR

• AWS Certifications: Relevant certifications such as AWS Certified Solutions Architect.
• Kubernetes and container orchestration experience.
• Familiarity with SRE practices and cloud cost optimization.
• Familiarity with AWS, Terraform IaC, Configuration Management (Ansible & Puppet) Kubernetes, k9s, ArgoCD, Database Engines (Mongo, Postgres, MySQL)
• Background in building or maintaining systems that support highly scalable application environments and event driven architectures
• Fundamentals of running AI related services

WORKER TYPE

Fully Remote: This role has been designated as fully remote, meaning it is expected to be performed from a non-Versant worksite, typically an employee’s residence.

Additional Information

As part of our selection process, external candidates may be required to attend an in-person interview with an NBCUniversal employee at one of our locations prior to a hiring decision. NBCUniversal's policy is to provide equal employment opportunities to all applicants and employees without regard to race, color, religion, creed, gender, gender identity or expression, age, national origin or ancestry, citizenship, disability, sexual orientation, marital status, pregnancy, veteran status, membership in the uniformed services, genetic information, or any other basis protected by applicable law.

If you are a qualified individual with a disability or a disabled veteran and require support throughout the application and/or recruitment process as a result of your disability, you have the right to request a reasonable accommodation. You can submit your request to [email protected].

Although you'll be hired as an NBCU employee, your employment and the responsibilities associated with this job likely will transition to Versant in the future. By joining at this pivotal time, you'll be a part of this exciting company as it takes shape.