What’s it like being an Engineer at FanDuel?

Software Engineering Senior Manager Jordan Leach and engineers working in our Wallet vertical answer common candidate questions.

Written by Jordan Leach, Software Engineering Senior Manager in Wallet- Core Products & Experiences

You may have noticed that FanDuel is hiring! Our Engineering & Technology group is continuing to grow while others have stopped and that speaks to the state of our industry and how much FanDuel values our Engineering & Technology professionals.

One of the most pivotal roles we have at FanDuel is that of a Software Engineer. Throughout my time building a brand new team of Software Engineers I’ve found that there are several commonly asked questions that candidates ask both me and my Engineers. Rather than continuing to provide my “Manager spin” on what I think a Software Engineer at FanDuel would say, I thought it’d be best to put together a list of FAQs that has answers directly from Engineers that work in Wallet teams.

Here are some of our most Frequently Asked Questions about the Engineer Life at FanDuel:

Can you describe FanDuel’s Engineering Culture?

Free and open, if you have the drive to make change and a valid case for it then no one is going to stop you and in general they will help you.

-Mark Lewis, Lead Software Engineer

The thing that is most important to FanDuel’s Engineering Culture is that passion and openness to learn. Everyone is passionate about the product, everyone is passionate about the Engineering, and everyone is open to trying new things and helping people learn. A lot of companies say they do that, at FanDuel we actually do it.

-Michael Robertson, Software Engineer

We get a lot of freedom. We own the outcomes. We get to choose the tech that is best for the problem we’re trying to solve. This is shared across all of FanDuel engineering. We get a lot of freedom to experiment and do things like Hackathons that are very important and give us even more opportunity to showcase our work.

-Alex Dodd, Software Engineer

What is your tech stack and why do you use it?

For our product our tech stack is Java for the core functionality, MySQL for the DB, and Python for a portion of our testing framework.Infrastructure wise we host our tech stack on AWS using services such as EC2, EKS, AWS Lambda, and AWS RDS managing it all with Terraform. Our stack works well for the scale we operate at, doing occasionally 10k/s operations on our highest usage endpoints requires well established technology that can handle the throughput while being flexible enough to allow for continuous development.

-Jack Croft, Lead Software Engineer

In CPE we are mainly a Java tech stack with some Python on the backend and React for our frontend. A lot of the legacy systems and vendor connections are written in Java so the integration with Java makes things much simpler especially when we can take advantage of the SDKs. We have a ton of internal knowledge that really understand the inner-workings of Java and how we can use it to our advantage!

-Gus Hales, Senior Software Engineer

How would you describe FanDuel’s Work From Home (WFH) vs in the office strategy for Engineering & Technology?

I like the hybrid model of WFH and in the office as I got to meet my team mates for good working, socializing, and team bonding hours in the office, and still got the flexibility of WFH.

-Duc Nguyen, Senior Software Engineer

It gives you the flexibility to pick a schedule of going into the office that works best for you and your team. It allows you to get the most out of going into the office and still get the advantages and convenience of working from home when needed

-Tanner Merck, Software Engineer

What amount of autonomy do Engineers have over decisions such as coding language, infrastructure choices, and developer tools?

We have great autonomy over all of these things. We always have the opportunity to bring new ideas and new ways of doing things. Everyone is always open to seeing them demonstrated and making an informed decision for how we could or couldn’t use them going forward.

-Michael Robertson, Software Engineer

I think there is a good mix of autonomy and standardisation. I feel if there was a pressing need for some new technology or concept and this could be demonstrated sensible there would be no resistance to change at FanDuel. I also think we’ve spent considerable effort on what we’re standardising. We focus on related and repeatable problems, which helps teams stay connected, and helps engineers navigate the organization and support other services if they are on call.

-Alex Dodd, Software Engineer

What is the growth and Engineering career path like at FanDuel?

Engineering levels and growth are clearly laid out for us, so we know what is expected of us, and how to advance our career.

-Patrick Owen, Software Engineer

We have two paths available for Engineers, the management path and the engineer path. The steps to continue growing up both require different skills and build on each other with each level. It’s great that you have the flexibility to go down whichever career path best fits you.

-Edward Hadley, Senior Software Engineer

FanDuel offers great opportunity for growth for any level of the engineering path. Within the individual contributor path, the development moves from Software Engineer to Senior and then Lead Engineer within an engineering delivery team. After that come opportunities to work across teams as Principal Engineer. Alternatively within the Management path- there is the opportunity to move from Senior Engineer to leading a team as Software Engineering manager, Senior Software Engineering Manager then Director As FanDuel continues to hire and expand our business, there’s ample room for growth within the company.

-Jack Croft, Lead Software Engineer

In 1 sentence, tell us why you work at FanDuel?

I like the people that I work with. They make everything better. I’ve worked at companies where the work is the same and the problems are always there but the people are what make working at FanDuel great. I work for a gaming company which can surprise people at times but FanDuel’s principles and values make me confident we’re always doing the right thing for the customer.

-Gus Hales, Senior Software Engineer

I get to work with the best people on business critical software at scale.

-Kevin Paton, Senior Software Engineer

It’s truly cutting edge. Whether it’s the tools we use or the processes we use. FanDuel is the first place where we’re actually practicing true Agile development. We’re always trying to push the boundaries and get better.

-Michael Robertson, Software Engineer

Hopefully, these responses from some of our best Engineers help paint a picture for what it’s like to be an Engineer at FanDuel. If you’re interested in joining this awesome team of Engineers checkout our available positions on the FanDuel Careers page!

What’s it like being an Engineer at FanDuel? was originally published in FanDuel Life on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.