Engineering at Startup Speed and Global Scale

Ian joined DraftKings in 2022 as part of our Dublin team, expecting a fast-moving engineering environment. What he didn’t expect was how quickly the work, the people, and the sense of ownership would help him grow professionally. 

“It’s so fast-paced, and in a good way,” Ian said. 

Today, he’s a Senior Software Engineering Manager working on systems that power some of the biggest moments in sports entertainment, the kind of moments where millions of customers are placing bets in real time and expect a seamless experience.

For Ian, that’s exactly what makes the work exciting. “We had up to 60,000 bets per minute during the Super Bowl,” he says. “As an engineer, building things and seeing them work is so enthralling.”  

Behind those numbers is a team of engineers building systems designed to scale under pressure. Ian’s team recently led a major migration from HTTP protocols to Kafka for a key platform feature, a project sparked by an engineer who believed there was a better way to do things.

That kind of ownership is what stands out most to Ian about engineering at DraftKings. Ideas don’t sit in endless approval chains. Engineers are trusted to identify problems, propose solutions, and build meaningful improvements. 

Ian describes DraftKings as the “Goldilocks zone,” somewhere between startup energy and enterprise scale. Teams move quickly, but there’s also growing structure and stability that support long-term career growth.

The other major reason Ian loves working here? The people. “Everybody here has that can-do attitude,” Ian says. “There’s no, ‘That’s another team’s problem.’ We come together, figure it out, build it, and get it into production.”

It’s also why Ian spends part of his time helping build community in our Dublin office through belonging initiatives and social events designed to help teammates connect, whether they work remotely or in the office.

“One of the things I like to focus on is people being happy in their team,” Ian said. “It’s really cool to bring people together.” 

For software engineers in Dublin who want to build systems at scale and take ownership beyond writing code, Ian believes DraftKings offers something different from the typical tech company experience.

Ready to work on systems that perform at a massive scale and help shape the future of sports entertainment? Check out our open roles in Dublin.