Principal Java Engineer, Hawk-Eye Innovations
Backend Platform
£76.3-100.3k
2 days a week in office
Sports officiating & broadcast technology
Be an early applicant
Sports officiating & broadcast technology
1001+ employees
Be an early applicant
£76.3-100.3k
2 days a week in office
1001+ employees
Company mission
To deliver best-in-class officiating, broadcast, and digital solutions to the sports world.
Role
Who you are
- This role sits within a small, fast-moving product engineering team and requires someone comfortable owning end-to-end technical delivery across the stack, with backend and data work as the primary focus
- Strong backend engineering background with production experience in Java (required)
- Demonstrated experience building low-latency, high-throughput systems - this is a core requirement, not a nice-to-have
- Working knowledge of a modern frontend framework such as React/TypeScript, sufficient to review and direct frontend work rather than deliver it independently
- Experience with cloud infrastructure and event-driven architectures (e.g. Kafka or equivalent streaming technology)
- Experience designing and evolving API contracts (OpenAPI or similar) in a fast-moving, still-evolving product environment
- Familiarity with modern cloud identity and access management approaches (e.g. AWS Cognito or equivalent) is a plus
- Strong communication skills - able to work directly with product and cross-functional stakeholders, and to mentor or direct engineers outside their own core discipline
- Comfortable with ambiguity: this is a build-phase product with evolving scope and infrastructure decisions still being finalised
What the job involves
- The Principal Software Engineer (Full-Stack, Backend-leaning) is a senior engineer responsible for the backend architecture, data pipelines, and API layer of a new sports technology product, while remaining capable of contributing to frontend development as needed
- You will be a core contributor to a new backend platform being built from scratch. The work spans the full data journey - from ingestion at the edge through to storage, transformation, and delivery to end users. Key areas of focus include:
- Low-latency data pipelines that ingest and process live sports tracking data, with strict latency requirements for time-critical outputs delivered to coaches and analysts in near real-time
- Event-driven processing using Kafka for streaming data and control messages between on-site devices and cloud services, handling both fast-path live outputs and asynchronous post-processing workflows via SQS and AWS Batch
- Cloud infrastructure on AWS, including Greengrass for edge-to-cloud orchestration, S3 for video and data storage, and Lambda for lightweight processing tasks
- Data transformation and aggregation layers that normalise tracking outputs, store them in a data lake, and make them available to downstream consumers via clean API contracts
- REST and WebSocket APIs that serve both a live data product for immediate consumption and an insights portal for historical analysis and performance comparison
- Observability and reliability - instrumentation, logging, and tracing are built in from the start, not bolted on. The platform needs to run 24/7 without on-site support
- Design and build backend services and APIs (REST/WebSocket) supporting data ingestion, transformation, and delivery to frontend and downstream consumers, with particular attention to latency and throughput given real-time processing requirements
- Own data storage and pipeline architecture, including integration with streaming/event infrastructure
- Implement authentication and authorisation in line with the team's chosen cloud identity and access management approach
- Provide technical direction and review for frontend development (React/TypeScript), working closely with frontend engineers to align on approach, component contracts, and data shapes - this is a collaboration and oversight function rather than day-to-day frontend delivery
- Collaborate closely with computer vision/data science engineers to define and consume data contracts
- Participate in technical decision-making for a product in active development, including architecture choices with long-term implications for scale, latency, and maintainability
- Contribute to technical leadership of the wider engineering team, given the seniority of this role
Our take
Hawk-Eye Innovations, part of Sony, delivers technology that enhances fairness, safety, and excitement for thousands of sporting events worldwide. As a leader in vision processing, Hawk-Eye provides solutions for officiating, video management, production, broadcasting, and digital experiences, helping teams, officials, and fans enjoy sports more effectively.
With a long list of clients, including Adidas, Fox Sports, and Nascar, Hawk-Eye has firmly established itself as a cornerstone of sports innovation. The company is constantly pushing boundaries, and is often called upon to create bespoke solutions tailored to the unique needs of sports leagues and broadcasters.
More recently, Hawk-Eye has continued to expand its use of automated officiating systems, particularly in tennis and football, where line-calling and offside decisions are increasingly driven by real-time tracking and AI-assisted analysis. These systems not only improve accuracy but also speed up decision-making, reducing disruption to gameplay. As leagues look to balance fairness with flow, hawk-Eye's technology is becoming an integral part of how modern sports is governed.
Steph
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
13% employee growth in 12 months
Company
Company benefits
- Flexible & Remote Working
- Generous Annual Leave
- Company Reward Schemes
- Health & Wellness Activities
- Onsite Gym
- Free Access to Unmind App
- Sony Discounts
- Pension Scheme
Company HQ
Basingstoke, UK
Leadership
Rufus Hack
(CEO)Rufus joined Hawk-Eye in 2021 as CEO. Prior to this, he worked at the European Tour for 6 years as the Head of Strategy, Chief Content Officer, and COO.
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