Senior Software Engineer

Senior Software Engineer

Job Summary

Sports Reference LLC is searching for a Senior Software Engineer to design, build, and test software for our 8 websites. The Engineering Department currently has 22 members consisting of Developers, Test Engineers, DevOps, and Scrum Masters.

We currently serve 20 million (and growing) monthly users on our free, ad-supported Reference Sites (, , , etc.) and , our SaaS offering that provides powerful search and filtering capabilities for deeper exploration of our vast databases. In 2023, we acquired , the viral baseball trivia game, and have since launched ad-supported grid games for basketball, football, hockey, and soccer.

To Apply

Please visit our jobs website at and submit your resume and a cover letter for this position.

We will begin the phone interview process the week of July 13th. Applications arriving after this date will be collected, but will receive consideration at the discretion of the hiring manager based on the progress we have made in filling the position. We have provided a general outline of our interview process here:

Our Purpose and Values

We democratize data, so our users enjoy, understand, and share the sports they love.

We value:

• Respect for our users, the athletes we cover, and our team;
• Craftsmanship in building tools and products;
• Reliable tools and services that meet our users' needs every day; and
• Data democratization. We publish many data sets for emerging and underserved sports. The New York Times covered our recognition of the Negro Leagues as major leagues in the summer of 2021. We added women’s college basketball data to our site in 2023 and now have the only publicly available database of every score in women’s NCAA Division 1 history.

To meet these expectations, we encourage team members to participate in company discussions and share new ideas, features or potential solutions to problems.

Background

In this role, you will help design, build, and test complex, high-visibility technical projects for Engineering. You will work on modern web applications that serve millions of users and incorporate data from 5 sports across our 7 reference websites. As a member of an agile development team, you will be expected to produce high-quality results by contributing to projects that involve full-stack development, CI/CD workflows, and data ingestion pipelines.

Although not immediate, this role would have a small number of direct reports as the company grows.

Goals and Tasks for Your First Year (In rough order of importance)

Must-Reach Goals and Tasks

• Build, test, and deploy features for modern web applications by contributing to projects that involve full-stack development, CI/CD workflows, and data ingestion pipelines. This work will be guided by more senior Software Engineers
• Actively own features or systems and define their long-term health, while also improving the health of surrounding systems
• Assist our skilled support and operations teams in triaging and resolving production issues
• Write understandable, testable code with an eye towards maintainability and performance
• Sports Reference strives to be an innovative company, so we will expect you to keep up with new trends and tools that may benefit or threaten Sports Reference now or in the future

Nice-to-Reach Goals and Tasks

• Help define large projects within Engineering by creating technical options, working collaboratively within the Engineering team to find the best solution for Sports Reference
• Help review and implement processes around security and compliance

Expectations

• Complete projects related to company objectives as time and skills allow.
• Continue your ongoing professional development, which we will support.

Qualifications and Skills

A qualified candidate will satisfy the following:

• More than three years of experience in a software development position.
• Experience managing direct reports OR
  • Strong interpersonal skills
  • Strong communication skills
  • Proven mentoring/coaching experience
  • High Emotional Intelligence
  • Experience resolving interpersonal conflict
  • A desire to manage people career growth, yearly goals, perform annual performance reviews, and make decisions about employees future at the company
• Evidence that you are capable of meeting many of the goals listed above.
• Have a history of getting things done (and done well).
• If you don’t think your application will have evidence that you can meet all of the 'nice-to-reach goals and tasks' above but still are interested in the job and otherwise qualify, please apply. Nobody checks every box—we’re looking for candidates that are particularly strong in a few areas, and have some interest and capabilities in others.

Salary

Our salary range starts at $123k for U.S. based employees. We are a remote-first company and determine our pay range for this position based on the market rates for Philadelphia, our home base. The salary offered will be based on your experience and skill level.

Annual bonuses are variable and are tied to a percentage of the company's end of year profits and the employee's time worked and salary earned during the year. In the last three years, they have averaged 15% of an employee’s annual salary.

Benefits

Even though we are a small company, Sports Reference has a generous benefits package.

• The total value of our benefits package is up to $30,000.
• We cover full health and dental insurance costs for full-time employees and their dependent children. We cover 70%-80% of plans for an entire family.
• We have a 401k with a match on your contributions up to 4% of your base salary. The 401k has many low cost investing options.
• We pay all premiums for company-sponsored life and long-term disability insurance for all employees.
• We provide up to $7,000/year in continuing education benefits.
• Even if you live in or near Philly, you have the option to work remotely as much as you choose. We generally work a standard workday, but with flexibility to adjust hours within that framework.
• Any parent welcoming a new child to their family is entitled to 13 weeks of fully paid leave, and up to an additional 39 weeks at half-time.
• Employees begin with 18 days of PTO per year and an additional 8 paid company holidays and accrue sick leave at the rate of one day per month.
• We will generally buy you whatever equipment will make you the most productive.
• We typically will pay for reasonable moving-related expenses related to your acceptance of a position with Sports Reference. Please ask if you have questions regarding this benefit.
• We provide a $68/month remote work stipend to cover the cost of internet access and incidental expenses.

Other Information

• Sports Reference's first site was launched in 2000. We have bootstrapped ourselves to 45 full-time employees and have no venture capital backing.
• Applicants must have a legal right to work in the United States or Canada. Hiring an employee not based in the US or Canada would be difficult to coordinate at this time.
• We are willing to provide accommodations for candidates for whom the timing or structure of our interview process may be challenging. This may include early morning or evening interview times or provide payment to cover child care expenses if needed. If you are applying for a role where verbal communication is not a significant requirement, we may consider an alternative form of interview as is reasonably possible and suitable. Similarly, if an extended period of internet connectivity is a challenge, we may consider an alternate form of interview. If we invite you to interview, please let us know of any possibly necessary accommodations.
• Our typical interview process is described at
• Sports Reference is a remote-first company. Sports Reference is located in Philadelphia and non-Philadelphia candidates will be considered on an equal footing to those who are local. Presently, all Sports Reference employees are working remotely at least some of the time, but those in the Philly area may work from the office on days of their choosing.
• This is a full-time position.
• Employment at Sports Reference LLC is at-will and this position is an at-will appointment.
• 100% of our merchandise sales support youth sports.

Sports Reference is a growing company, and your work will be highly visible and have a definite and immediate impact (Read about us in the New York Times and The Athletic ($)). We reached over 20 million users each month and served over 2.0 billion pages in 2023.

Sports Reference provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to age, ancestry, citizenship status, civil union status, color, discrimination, domestic partnership status, domestic violence victim status, familial status, gender, gender expression, gender identity, gender transition, genetic information, immigration status, marital status, marriage to a co-worker, mental or physical disability or illness, military service, military and veteran status, national origin (including physical, cultural, or linguistic characteristics), nationality, parental leave, pregnancy (including childbirth, breastfeeding or medical or common conditions related to pregnancy or childbirth), race (including traits that are historically associated with race, such as hair texture and protective hairstyles, including braids, locks and twists), religion, retaliation, sexual harassment, sexual or affectional orientation (actual or perceived, whether or not traditionally associated with the person’s designated sex at birth), status with regard to public assistance, transgender identity, unfavorable discharge of military status (less than “honorable” but not “dishonorable”), or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state or local laws and ordinances, or on the basis of sports franchise preferences.