Lead Software Engineer

Lead Software Engineer About Chalkboard: Chalkboard is building the future of sports gaming. Our mission is to blur the line between watching and playing by turning real-money sports gaming into a social, immersive experience built for fans who play to win. We're reimagining how sports fans engage with the games they love. At our core, we’re a team of sports-obsessed builders who value clarity, fairness, and the thrill of helping fans turn insight into action. The Role: We’re looking for a Lead Software Engineer to join Chalkboard and take ownership of critical product and platform areas across our engineering pods. These systems power core parts of our business and must be scalable, reliable, and built to support rapid growth. In this role, you’ll partner closely with Product, Engineering, and cross-functional teams to drive execution and shape how we build. You’ll act as the technical leader for your pod—owning architecture, improving systems, and raising the bar for how we ship. If you thrive in fast-paced environments and enjoy leading through deep technical expertise, this role is for you. Your Game Plan: You’ll lead a pod to build and scale critical systems at Chalkboard, driving technical excellence, execution, and cross-team alignment. - Act as the technical leader for your pod, partnering with Product to shape roadmap and delivery - Own system architecture, ensuring scalability, reliability, and performance across services - Establish and uphold best practices in system design, data integrity, and engineering quality - Lead sprint planning, technical decision-making, and release coordination - Drive clarity through strong documentation and improved engineering processes - Identify gaps in systems, processes, and architecture—and take action to address them - Improve team velocity, predictability, and execution through better planning and communication - Coach and support engineers while remaining hands-on in building and problem-solving - Build strong partnerships across Product, Engineering, and other cross-functional teams - Increase collaboration and trust across distributed teams - Raise the bar for ownership, accountability, and technical excellence across pods What You Bring to the Team: - ~8+ years of software engineering experience - Strong full-stack experience (Node.js, React, React Native preferred) - Deep understanding of system design, databases, and scalable architectures - Experience working with modern data stores (e.g., PostgreSQL, MongoDB) and cloud platforms (e.g., GCP) - Proven ability to own and operate high-impact, production systems - Experience in fast-paced, startup environments with an enterprise-level mindset - Ability to balance technical leadership with hands-on execution - Strong product intuition and ability to collaborate cross-functionally Pro Points: - Experience working on high-scale or transaction-heavy systems - Background in payments, financial systems, or other mission-critical domains - Experience in sports betting, gaming, or consumer-facing real-time products - Prior experience leading pods or small engineering teams Why Chalkboard: We care about results, but also how we get there. As Chalkboard grows, so do you. New problems, bigger plays, and opportunities to step up when it matters most happen often here. We want our team performing at their best, so here’s how we support our players: - Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage starting day 1, with the majority of premiums covered by Chalkboard - 401(k) with company match - Lunch on us everyday with a corporate DoorDash account - Refuel in the office with protein shakes, energy drinks, and a snack buffet - Flexible time off policy, plus 10 company holidays, WFH during the holidays