Engineering Manager, Fan Experience
Gametime · Chicago, IL ·
- Seniority
- C level
- Category
- Management
- Experience
- 5+ years
The Role
Gametime’s Fan Experience team owns how fans discover, decide on, and purchase tickets on the demand side of our marketplace — the core experience for millions of ticket buyers across iOS, Android, mobile web, and desktop. This Engineering Manager will lead a team of full-stack and front-end engineers building the features and value propositions that define how fans experience Gametime, partnering day-to-day with a dedicated Product Manager and Designer to move quickly from idea to production.
This is a hands-on role. You’ll spend real time on the keyboard alongside your team, and you’ll set the standard for how the team uses frontier models, AI coding tools, and new harnesses to generate, review, test, and monitor code — raising both velocity and quality as the bar for what’s possible keeps moving. This role reports to the VP of Product.
What You’ll Do
- Hands-on leadership: spend a meaningful share of your time actually coding alongside the team — you lead from the front, not just from the roadmap
- AI-forward engineering: set the standard for how your team uses frontier models, AI coding agents/harnesses, and new tooling to generate, review, test, and monitor code — the primary lever for increasing velocity and quality (i.e. fewer bugs, more stable services, cohesive system architecture) together, not as a trade-off
- Cross-functional partnership: partner closely, day-to-day, with a dedicated PM and Designer as a trio; bring a real point of view on what the product and features should be, not just how to build them
- Velocity investment: partner with product to identify and invest in what will let the team move faster over time — tooling, domain foundation design, tech debt paydown, and better use of AI in the development loop
- Risk partnership: partner with product to surface the risks in what’s being proposed, and bring concrete recommendations and proposals for how to mitigate and eliminate those risks over time
- Delivery: own the engineering roadmap and execution plan for your area, balancing speed, quality, and technical debt
- Mentorship and talent bar: mentor engineers toward their next career level, hold a high talent bar for hiring and performance on your team, and help level up talent on other teams too
- Cross-team technical leadership: partner with engineering leads and counterparts on other teams to improve the marketplace more broadly, technically, over time
- A team and roadmap tied directly to fan-facing feature velocity, quality, and business outcomes on the demand side of our marketplace
What You’ll Bring
- A hands-on engineering manager — comfortable spending real time writing and reviewing code alongside your team, not just directing from above
- Direct experience using frontier models, AI coding agents/harnesses, and modern tooling to meaningfully improve engineering velocity and quality, and a point of view on where this is headed
- A track record of shipping consumer-facing product features that moved measurable business outcomes
- Strong cross-functional partnership skills — comfortable operating as a true peer to Product and Design, with your own opinions on what should be built, not just executing their specs
- Experience managing full-stack and/or front-end engineering teams, with meaningful
people-management experience (typically 5+ years in engineering, including several as a manager) - Familiarity with SQL/analytics to diagnose funnel and feature performance
- Experience leading full-stack teams with end-to-end ownership of consumer-facing web and mobile products, backend services, and APIs in a high-traffic marketplace or e-commerce environment.
- Strong understanding of modern front-end stacks (e.g., React and React Native), backend services, APIs, and full-stack architecture, with the technical depth to lead teams across the stack.
- Experience partnering with Product and Design in a fast-moving, iterative environment (feature flags, A/B testing, rapid experimentation)
- A data-driven approach to prioritization and technical trade-offs
Nice to Have
- Experience in consumer marketplaces or high-intent, high-conversion consumer apps
- A track record of building or championing internal tooling/platform investments that compounded
team velocity over time
What We Offer
- Flexible PTO
- Competitive salary & equity package
- Monthly Gametime credits for any event ($1,200/yr)
- Medical, dental, & vision insurance
- Life insurance and disability benefits
- Diverse Family-forming benefits through Carrot Fertility
- 401k, HSA, pre-tax savings programs
- Company off-sites and meet-ups
- Wellness programs
- Tenure recognition
At Gametime pay ranges are subject to change and assigned to a job based on specific market median of similar jobs according to 3rd party salary benchmark surveys. Individual pay within that range can vary for several reasons including skills/capabilities, experience, and available budget.
Gametime is committed to bringing together individuals from different backgrounds and perspectives. We strive to create an inclusive environment where everyone can thrive, feel a sense of belonging, and do great work together. As an equal opportunity employer, we prohibit any unlawful discrimination against a job applicant on the basis of their race, color, religion, veteran status, sex, parental status, gender identity or expression, transgender status, sexual orientation, national origin, age, disability or genetic information. We respect the laws enforced by the EEOC and are dedicated to going above and beyond in fostering diversity across our company.