Vivid Seats · 5 days ago
Engineering Manager, Core Services
Chicago, IL
Full-time
Hybrid
Senior Level
$160K/yr - $195K/yrVivid Seats is a leading online ticket marketplace dedicated to connecting fans with live events. They are seeking an experienced Software Engineering Manager to lead their Core Services Engineering teams, focusing on backend systems and APIs that enhance customer experiences. The role involves managing a team of engineers, guiding architectural decisions, and ensuring the reliability and performance of mission-critical services.
EventsInternetMarketplaceReservationsTicketing
Responsibilities
Demonstrate deep fluency in designing and operating high-volume, transactional backend systems built with Spring and Spring Boot, deployed on AWS, and backed by data stores such as MySQL RDS and Snowflake, supporting revenue-critical applications including order and payment processing
Partner with product managers, business stakeholders, and dependent engineering teams to define, design, and deliver new backend capabilities and shared services that support web and mobile applications
Identify and drive opportunities to evolve, scale, and optimize our backend services and API strategy, ensuring performance, reliability, and ease of consumption across the platform
Lead complex backend initiatives, serving as a technical subject matter expert in service design, system architecture, implementation, deployment, and operational support within a fast-paced Agile environment
Provide strong technical leadership and input into service-level design and architecture decisions, driving innovation in scalability, resiliency, data flow, and integration patterns
Hire, develop, and retain a high-performing team of backend engineers, while contributing to broader engineering talent, culture, and organizational initiatives
Lead the team to excellence in execution, delivering high-quality, reliable backend systems and APIs on time and in alignment with defined SLAs and expectations
Create alignment across engineering teams and stakeholders, inspiring teams through clear communication, effective leadership, and a strong sense of ownership for core platform services
Acclimate to Vivid Seats’ values and organizational goals to understand how your department drives initiatives forward
Understand your teams’ contributions and the needs of stakeholders that rely on your deliverables to bring business objectives to life
Set weekly touch points with direct reports to understand their role, motivations, and needs, building trust and leading with empathy
Develop basic understanding of applications, tech stack, and development process
Empower and coach team members to achieve personal and functional goals that correlate to department objectives
Develop and lead initiatives for your team that enhance process, drive innovation, and build on Vivid Seats values
Delivery of stable, scalable, and high-performing backend services and APIs that support our B2C application suite as well as other critical areas of our business
Contribute to our approaches, methods, or technologies to support overall business goals and drive team efficiency
Meaningfully contribute to department roadmap exercises that balance current needs with future strategic initiatives
Use Datadog for end-to-end observability of backend services, including APM, metrics, and logging, to maintain performance, availability, and reliability
Monitor and evolve team deliverables, individual goals, and overall performance to ensure alignment with broader initiatives of your department and the organization while coaching your team to grow skill sets
Collaborate with stakeholders to confirm accurate prioritization and refine processes for collaboration and best practices
Demonstrate deep understanding of backend architectures and shared services that power B2C web and mobile applications, including order management and payment processing systems, and the business context that drives Core Services work
Qualification
Required
Proven technical experience working in software engineering, preferably with modern languages (like Java) and frameworks such as Spring Boot
Demonstrated technical leadership in a fast-paced Agile environment where you have led high performing teams, proposed designs, and collaboratively solved architectural challenges related to the growth and development of products
Ability to diagnose technology related escalations from production systems and ensure timely deliveries
A love of technology, passion for programming, and a strong curiosity to solve real problems with code at scale
Experience setting clear performance and business outcome expectations with a team of direct reports
Ability to drive work efforts and impact through the team; establishing and maintaining role, ownership and accountability definitions between direct reports and their counterparts
Effective planning and collaboration skills to partner with Product Management and stakeholders on the Product and technology roadmaps
A proven track record of delivering solutions to market
Excellent communication and teamwork skills while demonstrating a sense of urgency and accountability
Self-Starter with strong work ethic, growth mindset, and superior attention to detail
Benefits
Annual bonus incentives
Equity for all employees
FLEX PTO
Mental health days
Medical, dental, and vision insurance
401K matching
Monthly credits and discounts for attending live events
A variety of additional workplace perks
Company
Vivid Seats
Vivid Seats operates as an online ticket marketplace that connects fans with event ticket sellers.
Founded in 2001
501-1000 employees
H1B Sponsorship
Vivid Seats has a track record of offering H1B sponsorships. Please note that this does not
guarantee sponsorship for this specific role. Below presents additional info for your
reference. (Data Powered by US Department of Labor)
Distribution of Different Job Fields Receiving Sponsorship
Represents job field similar to this job
Trends of Total Sponsorships
2025 (3)
2024 (2)
2023 (2)
2022 (2)
2021 (4)
2020 (3)
Funding
Current Stage
Public CompanyTotal Funding
$368.1MKey Investors
Vista Equity Partners
2023-12-08Post Ipo Secondary· $120.25M
2021-12-22Post Ipo Equity· $22.85M
2021-10-19Post Ipo Equity· $225M
Leadership Team
Lawrence Fey
Chief Executive Officer
Eric Vassilatos
Co-Founder
Recent News
2025-12-09
2025-12-06
Company data provided by crunchbase