Staff Engineer, Rotten Tomatoes

VERSANT is a leading force in news, sports and entertainment - home to iconic and trusted brands that inspire, inform, and delight audiences. Our unique combination of content, technology and services enriches the cultural fabric, igniting passions, sparking conversations, and connecting people to what they love most.

As an independent, publicly traded company, VERSANT brings together powerhouse cable networks - including USA Network, CNBC, MS NOW (formerly MSNBC), Oxygen, E!, SYFY, and Golf Channel - with dynamic digital and direct-to-consumer brands such as Fandango, Rotten Tomatoes, GolfNow, GolfPass, and SportsEngine. Together, these businesses reflect our commitment to delivering exceptional experiences across every screen and service.

VERSANT is an industry-changing media company fueled by innovation and an entrepreneurial spirit. With a strong foundation and a forward-looking vision, VERSANT empowers creativity, embraces change, and drives connection in an ever-evolving world.

Fandango is seeking a Staff Software Engineer to lead complex technical initiatives, mentor engineers, and shape the long-term direction of all of our brands (Fandango, Fandango at Home, and Rotten Tomatoes) with the best processes and practices of world. In this role as a technical leader, you will collaborate closely with cross-functional partners, influence architectural decisions, and ensure our engineering practices scale with the business.

You’ll focus on enriching the fan experience by building systems that manage studio data, metadata, and community reviews, utilizing LLMs and AI. Your work will empower audiences to discover, share, and connect socially while helping teams across the company leverage shared data and insights. Movies and TV are more than content. They are our culture and it’s in our DNA.

WHAT YOU'LL DO: As a Staff Software Engineer on our team, you will:

• Drive innovation across iconic brands: Lead development efforts for a diverse portfolio of product offerings spanning Fandango, Fandango at Home, and Rotten Tomatoes, delivering experiences that reach millions of users.
• Data & Metadata Leadership: Architect platforms for ingesting, normalizing, and distributing studio catalogs, ratings, and metadata at scale
• Social & Reviews: Expand features that let fans rate, review, and share their opinions, strengthening the community aspect of entertainment
• Enrich Experiences: Collaborate with product and design to deliver personalized discovery, recommendations, and curated content
• Data Sharing Across Teams: Ensure studio data and metadata flows seamlessly between ticketing, streaming, and review platforms
• Mentor & Inspire: Provide technical leadership and guide best practices for handling large-scale, content-rich systems
• Create market-ready platforms: Build API- and AI-driven SaaS products designed to scale—serving both internal teams and external clients through powerful distribution channels
• Champion security and compliance: Partner with Cybersecurity, Data Governance, Legal, and Privacy teams to ensure products meet the highest standards of trust, safety, and compliance

WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR:

• 8+ years of engineering experience in data-rich or content-heavy platforms
• Strong background in API-first development, integrations, and distributed systems
• Hands-on experience with modern cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP) Proficiency in Python, C#, Java, Typescript or equivalents with a focus on scalable and maintainable backend development
• Expertise in scalable distributed systems and cloud-native infrastructure. Expertise in metadata management, APIs, and content distribution
• Experience with community or social platforms, especially review/rating systems
• Strong collaborator with a history of building systems that serve multiple teams and products. Passion for building tools that enrich audience engagement
• Excellent collaboration skills, especially in cross-functional and cross-border contexts
• Track record of building diverse, inclusive teams and fostering a strong engineering culture
• Experience partnering with cybersecurity, data governance, legal and compliance teams to ensure secure, and compliant product delivery
• Change management skills – going from monolith to micro-services, on-premise to cloud, manual to automated, VMs to containers, etc.

BONUS POINTS FOR:

• Experience with other large entertainment focused platforms, centered around being consumer-facing at a large scale
• Familiarity and hands-on exposure with MCP Servers and highly accessible and available API platforms
• Knowledge of microservices and event-driven architectures at enterprise scale
• Cloud-native, global scaling experience (AWS and their various tool offerings)
• Understanding of the mindset of “Fail Fast, Learn Fast” and continuous improvement

Fully Remote: This role has been designated as fully remote, meaning it is expected to be performed from a non-Versant worksite, typically an employee’s residence.

Occasional travel is required and can range from within the country (typical, various times of the year) to global (not typical but still possible). #LI-remote

As part of our selection process, external candidates may be required to attend an in-person interview with a VERSANT Media employee at one of our locations prior to a hiring decision. VERSANT Media's policy is to provide equal employment opportunities to all applicants and employees without regard to race, color, religion, creed, gender, gender identity or expression, age, national origin or ancestry, citizenship, disability, sexual orientation, marital status, pregnancy, veteran status, membership in the uniformed services, genetic information, or any other basis protected by applicable law.

For LA County and City Residents Only: VERSANT Media will consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories, or arrest or conviction records, in a manner consistent with relevant legal requirements, including the City of Los Angeles' Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance, the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers, and the California Fair Chance Act, where applicable.

If you are a qualified individual with a disability or a disabled veteran and require support throughout the application and/or recruitment process as a result of your disability, you have the right to request a reasonable accommodation. You can submit your request to [email protected].

VERSANT Media is committed to fair and equitable compensation practices. We include a good faith pay range for each position to comply with applicable state and local pay transparency laws and to promote equity across our organization. Actual compensation will be based on factors such as the candidate's skills, qualifications, experience, and location and may include additional forms of compensation and benefits such as health insurance, retirement plans, paid time off, etc.

VERSANT Media is not accepting unsolicited assistance from search firms for this employment opportunity. All resumes submitted by search firms to any employee at VERSANT via-email, the Internet, or in any form and/or method without a valid written Statement of Work in place for this position from VERSANT's Talent Acquisition team will be deemed the sole property of VERSANT. No fee will be paid in the event the candidate is hired by VERSANT as a result of the referral or through other means.