Principal Architect

Senior Principal Architect

About Betfair Romania Development
Betfair Romania Development is the largest technology hub of Flutter Entertainment, with over 2,000 people powering the world's leading sports betting and iGaming brands. Exciting, immersive and safe experiences are delivered to over 18 million customers worldwide, from our office in Cluj-Napoca. Driven by relentless innovation and commitment to excellence, we operate our own unbeatable portfolio of diverse proprietary brands such as FanDuel, PokerStars, SportsBet, Betfair, Paddy Power, or Sky Betting & Gaming.

Our Values
The values we share at Betfair Romania Development define what makes us unique as a team. They empower us by giving meaning to our contributions, and they ensure that we consistently strive for excellence in everything we do. We are looking for passionate individuals who align with our values and are committed to making a difference.

Win together | Raise the bar | Got your back | Own it | Positive impact
About the Brand: FanDuel
FanDuel is a leading force in the sports-tech entertainment industry, redefining how fans engage with their favourite sports, teams, and leagues. As the premier gaming destination in North America, FanDuel operates across multiple verticals, including sports betting, daily fantasy sports, online gaming, advance-deposit wagering, and media.

Exposure to emerging innovative technologies in business applications is an advantage
About the Role: Principal Architect
This role sits at the apex of our Engineering community—our Principal Architects are technical thought leaders who shape the long-term vision and technical direction of the organisation. You will work across a broad engineering landscape, influencing multiple teams and verticals while solving the most complex, ambiguous problems in the business.

As a Principal Architect, you will own the technical strategy for an engineering vertical spanning
both backend and frontend domains
, ensuring cohesive architectural direction across the entire stack. You will work closely with senior engineering leaders and regularly engage with executive stakeholders, ensuring that technical strategy incorporates and supports broader business objectives.

Beyond driving system design and operational excellence, you will act as a role model for engineers across all levels—providing mentorship, promoting high technical standards, and helping shape a culture of continuous improvement and innovation. While you won't have line management responsibilities, your influence will be felt across the entire engineering organisation.

Everyone on our team has a big part to play—and your part will be pivotal.

Key Accountabilities & Responsibilities

• Lead the architectural vision for an engineering vertical, aligning backend and frontend teams on a coherent and scalable technical strategy
• Drive operational excellence across the vertical, taking a hands-on role in solving the most critical and complex technical issues across the full stack
• Stay ahead of industry standards, trends, new technologies, and integration strategies, especially in areas such as AI and distributed systems
• Apply strong knowledge of Artificial Intelligence and foster meaningful AI adoption in engineering workflows
• Write production-quality code across backend or frontend services, translating complex paradigms into clear, accessible implementations for engineers at all levels
• Insist on high standards for code quality while balancing pragmatism and delivery needs
• Influence the strategy of engineering teams, guiding them in making informed technical trade-offs between short-term business needs and long-term technology goals
• Drive engineering best practices across Operational Excellence, Security, Quality, and Reliability
• Coach and mentor engineers and architects, helping them deepen their backend, frontend, or full-stack expertise
• Contribute to the professional development of engineering communities by sharing knowledge and leading architectural discussions
• Support software systems as part of an on-call rotation, ensuring reliability and production excellence

Skills, Capabilities & Experience Required

• Expert-level experience designing and building highly scalable, fault-tolerant, and highly available backend and frontend systems
• Strong full-stack architectural expertise across Java/JVM services and modern frontend technologies (React, NodeJS, JavaScript/TypeScript)
• Proven ability to influence technical decisions across large engineering organisations (50+ engineers)
• Deep understanding of complex data structures, algorithms, distributed systems, and modern architectural patterns
• Expert-level knowledge of design patterns and architectural principles applicable across backend and frontend domains
• Experience making pragmatic trade-offs between immediate delivery needs and long-term architectural health
• Hands-on coding proficiency in modern programming languages such as Java, Python, JavaScript/TypeScript, or functional/OO languages
• Experience defining standards across backend and frontend, including performance, observability, API design, platform reliability, and UI architecture
• Strong understanding of operational excellence, including production readiness, incident management, and on-call best practices
• Demonstrated ability to drive engineering excellence through influence, not authority
• Excellent communication and leadership skills, with the ability to clearly articulate complex technical topics to diverse stakeholders
• Innovation mindset, with strong curiosity for emerging technologies such as AI, GenAI tooling, and modern cloud patterns
• Hands-on experience with modern development tooling, including GenAI-assisted IDEs (Cursor, Windsurf, GitHub Copilot)

Benefits

• Hybrid & remote working options
• €1,000 per year for self-development
• Company share scheme
• 25 days of annual leave per year
• 20 days per year to work abroad
• 5 personal days/year
• Flexible benefits: travel, sports, hobbies
• Extended health, dental and travel insurances
• Customised well-being programmes
• Career growth sessions
• Thousands of online courses through Udemy
• A variety of engaging office events

Disclaimer
We are an inclusive employer. By embracing diverse experiences and perspectives, we create a lasting, positive impact for our employees, customers, and the communities we're part of. You don't have to meet all the requirements listed to apply for this role. If you need any adjustments to make this role work for you, let us know, and we'll see how we can accommodate them.

We thank all applicants for their interest; however, only the candidates who best meet the job requirements will be contacted for an interview.

By submitting your application online, you agree that your details will be used to progress your application for employment. If your application is successful, your details will be used to administer your personnel record. If your application is unsuccessful, we will retain your details for no longer than three years, to consider you for future opportunities within the company.