Senior Back-End Developer

VARSITY SPIRIT, A VARSITY BRANDS COMPANY - THE DRIVING FORCE IN SPIRIT ACROSS CHEER, DANCE, BAND AND YEARBOOK

For over 50 years, Varsity Spirit has been the leading global source for all things spirit, including cheerleading, dance team, performing arts and yearbook. Focused on safety, entertainment and traditional school leadership, Varsity Spirit’s 5,000+ employees are dedicated to celebrating school spirit. A leader in apparel innovation, educational camps, clinics, competitions, and yearbook, Varsity Spirit impacts more than a million athletes each year.

OUR COMMITMENT TO SAFETY

At Varsity Spirit, the safety and wellbeing of the young people we serve is of the utmost importance. Since our inception 50 years ago, we have been – and remain – steadfastly committed to doing our part to create a safe and positive environment for our participants’ physical, emotional, and social development, and promoting an environment free from abuse and misconduct. Varsity has a zero tolerance for abuse in its programs, events, and associated business activities. Varsity is committed to reporting all suspicions, allegations, and incidents of abuse in full accordance with local laws and reporting requirements. Learn more at Our Commitment to Safety - Varsity.com.

LOCATION: REMOTE

HOW YOU WILL MAKE AN IMPACT:

This role requires a proactive individual capable of working independently and collaboratively to design, build, and maintain modern, accessible user interfaces for Varsity Spirit’s Yearbook Technology platform, delivering high-quality back-end solutions for complex business needs.

WHAT YOU WILL DO:

• Designs, develops, and maintains backend services using Java and related frameworks (Spring Boot, Hibernate, etc.)
• Builds and optimizes RESTful APIs and microservices architectures
• Works with AWS services including Lambda, EC2, S3, RDS, and SNS/SQS
• Implements containerization solutions using Docker and Kubernetes on AWS ECS/EKS
• Designs and optimizes database schemas and query performance
• Collaborates with frontend engineers to integrate user-facing elements with server-side logic
• Implements robust error handling, monitoring, and logging systems
• Participates in code reviews and mentor junior engineers
• Troubleshoots production issues and implement fixes
• Continuously improves our development processes and infrastructure

QUALIFICATIONS:

REQUIRED

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, Information Technology, or related field (or equivalent experience)
• Minimum of 8 years of professional software development experience
• Strong proficiency in Java and related frameworks (Spring Boot, Spring Cloud)
• Deep understanding of RESTful API design principles
• Extensive experience with AWS services (Lambda, EC2, S3, DynamoDB, RDS)
• Experience with infrastructure as code using CloudFormation, Terraform, or CDK
• Knowledge of containerization technologies (Docker, Kubernetes)
• Experience with CI/CD pipelines (Jenkins, GitHub Actions, AWS CodePipeline)
• Strong understanding of database design and SQL/NoSQL technologies
• Familiarity with serverless architecture
• Excellent problem-solving skills and attention to detail
• Ability to work independently and as part of a collaborative team
• Experience with Agile/Scrum development methodologies
• Experience with front-end development technologies, including Angular (preferred)

PREFERRED

• Contribution to open-source projects
• Experience with performance tuning and optimization

Physical Demands and/or Work Environment

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Please note this job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities required of the employee for this job.

JOIN THE BEST TEAM IN SPORT & SPIRIT

At Varsity Brands, we believe every student deserves the opportunity to succeed and every educator wants to make a difference. It takes a team to make a real impact, and through our two divisions – BSN SPORTS and Varsity Spirit – and our network of 6,000+ employees and independent representatives, we are proud to partner with a wide range of educational institutions and club and professional sports to transform the stud…