[Hiring] Tech Lead- Poker @Bullfinch Recruitment

Role Description

As the Tech Lead, you'll step into a pivotal leadership role at the heart of their platform. You'll drive engineering execution, ensure rock-solid reliability, and lead the technical delivery of a high-performance online gambling product.

Working closely with the CEO, you'll help shape the technology roadmap and scale a world-class iGaming platform. This role is designed for an ambitious, high-impact engineer-leader who thrives in fast-moving environments, embraces AI-native development, and is ready to take on meaningful ownership.

Key Responsibilities

• Technology & Engineering Strategy:
  • Shape and execute the technology roadmap, aligning engineering with product and commercial goals.
  • Act as a trusted technical partner to the CEO, surfacing risks, opportunities, and key trade-offs across the platform.
  • Stay ahead of trends in iGaming, tooling, and regulation, translating them into practical improvements.
  • Champion AI-assisted development across the team, from code generation and testing to documentation and incident response.
• Platform & Product Delivery:
  • Own end-to-end delivery of the core platform: player accounts and wallets, game engine, bonus systems, CRM tools, and back-office systems.
  • Focus on building a platform that is scalable, resilient, and high-performing under real-time, high-concurrency conditions.
  • Lead integrations with live dealer studios, payment providers, KYC/AML services, and risk tools.
  • Partner closely with product to turn roadmaps into predictable, high-quality releases.
• Security, Compliance & Reliability:
  • Ensure the platform meets the demands of regulated gambling environments, implementing robust KYC, AML, responsible gaming, and fraud prevention systems.
  • Uphold strong cybersecurity and data protection standards, covering secure development, encryption, access control, and disaster recovery.
  • Support audits and regulatory reviews with confidence.
• Team Leadership:
  • Lead and grow a multidisciplinary team across engineering, QA, DevOps, and data.
  • Build a culture of accountability, high standards, and continuous improvement.
  • Ensure the team is aligned, empowered, and consistently delivering at a high level across distributed locations.
• Delivery, Operations & Infrastructure:
  • Own and evolve the full SDLC, from agile delivery to CI/CD pipelines, automated testing, and incident management.
  • Define and track key platform metrics (availability, latency, deployment frequency, error rates) to drive continuous improvement.
  • Ensure smooth production operations and cost-efficient infrastructure at scale.
• Vendors & Integrations:
  • Manage technical relationships with key partners - live dealer studios, payment providers, aggregators, and cloud vendors.
  • Ensure integrations are robust, flexible, and strategically aligned.
  • Contribute to the technical side of commercial agreements, including SLAs, data flows, and integration responsibilities.
• Data & Analytics:
  • Support the evolution of their data platform, including event pipelines, warehousing, and real-time analytics.
  • Leverage data and emerging AI/ML capabilities to drive personalisation, optimise player experience, and enable smarter decision-making across the business.

Qualifications

• Strong hands-on engineering experience and a proven path into leadership - whether as an Engineering Manager, Head of Engineering, or similar.
• Strong background and understanding of Poker.
• Solid grasp of distributed systems and modern cloud architectures, including microservices and event-driven design.
• Experience with payments, wallets, or game integrations is advantageous.
• Comfortable working in AI-native environments, actively using AI tools to accelerate development and team productivity.
• Understanding of security, data protection, and compliance in regulated environments.
• Experience building and leading distributed teams.
• A degree in computer science or a related field is preferred, or equivalent experience in a high-growth tech environment.
• Familiarity with their stack is a bonus: Node.js, NestJS, MongoDB, Redis, Socket.io, mediasoup, Next.js, React, Kubernetes (Helm), Dolby, and AWS S3.

Personal Attributes

• Ambitious and ready for a step up - eager to take ownership and grow into a larger leadership role.
• Think AI-first, using modern tools to move faster, build smarter, and increase impact.
• Communicate clearly and confidently with both technical and non-technical stakeholders, balancing speed with quality.
• Bring integrity and a strong sense of responsibility when building technology in a regulated, player-facing environment.