Senior Software Engineer

Who we are: Founded in 2001, Vivid Seats (NASDAQ: SEAT) is a leading online ticket marketplace committed to becoming the ultimate partner for connecting fans to the live events, artists, and teams they love. We believe in the power of experiences and are fiercely dedicated to building products that inspire human connections. Named as one of Built In's top places to work in 2025, we believe that our People are our greatest competitive advantage. To support our People, we have built a company culture that empowers our employees to embrace challenges, encourages unity through collaboration, and seeks to constantly evolve by leveraging data and inspiring innovation.

We believe in harnessing emerging technology to power performance and unlock creativity. As part of our culture of innovation, we actively embrace the use of AI tools to enhance decision-making, improve workflows, and produce better outcomes for our customers.

The Opportunity: As a Senior Software Engineer at Vivid Seats, you’ll play a critical role in developing the heart of our ticketing marketplace, which powers over $3 billion in annual sales across Concerts, Sports, and Theater events. You’ll take ownership of new features and contribute to the evolution of our core Java-based systems, ensuring scalability, performance, and reliability.

As part of the Supply Team, you’ll help manage millions of active ticket listings. You’ll work with cutting-edge technologies including AI, ML, LLMs, in a fully cloud-native AWS environment, helping us deliver seamless, end-to-end customer experiences—from browsing events to receiving tickets at the box office.

How your role contributes to the success of Vivid Seats:  

• Help set the direction of the design and development of the systems powering our Vivid Seats Marketplace and Third-Party Marketplaces.
• Lead and mentor small teams of engineers to develop innovative solutions that give Vivid Seats a competitive advantage, encourage team members, and champion technology improvements for your delivery team. Examples include: International multi-currency enablement and automated event creation and listing mapping.
• Work cross functionally in Agile development teams that deploy to AWS production environments on demand, multiple times a day.  
• Tackle some of the most difficult challenges scaling an e-commerce marketplace by developing creative algorithms and features that maximize value and efficiency across the organization.  
• Partner with a team of Product Owners, Quality, Data and Platform Engineers, to deliver exceptional software, showcasing your work at the end of each work cycle.  
• Implement your expertise for best practices in design patterns, code quality, testing, and innovation to keep our commitment of always putting our customers first. 
  
  

How your role expectations will progress as a Senior Software Engineer in the first 30, 90, and 180 days: 

30 Days In

• Complete new hire orientation and gain access to the tools, systems, and resources needed for success.
• Learn how the ticketing marketplace operates and identify where contributions will drive the most customer impact.
• Acclimate to team norms, business goals, and Vivid Seats’ culture and engineering values.
• Build a working understanding of the core applications, tech stack, architecture, and development processes.
  
  

90 Days In

• Mentor and guide other engineers on coding standards, best practices, and design patterns.
• Contribute to architectural decisions, development methods, and technology evaluations.
• Strengthen relationships across engineering, product, and business teams to improve delivery flow.
• Participate actively in sprint planning, estimations, and technical design discussions.
• Deliver scalable, high-performing services and front-end components for the core platform.
  
  

180 Days In

• Lead small groups of engineers in feature development and system improvements.
• Collaborate with senior and lead engineers to define technical direction and establish best practices.
• Invest in continuous learning to evolve skill sets aligned with team goals and tech initiatives.
• Take full ownership of team-owned applications, systems, and services.
• Deliver clean, maintainable code that supports business goals and advances platform maturity.
  
  

 What You’ll Bring: 

• Experience developing Web based, Distributed and Multi-Tier architecture using Java or other major platforms - Python, React, etc.
• Strong understanding of RESTful API design and experience building, testing, and maintaining robust REST-based web services. Strong knowledge of Spring, REST, Service Oriented Architecture, and OAuth.  
• Experience in modern front-end technologies such as JavaScript, React, and Single Page Application Frameworks and their interactions with APIs.
• Experience with cloud-based architectures, AWS preferred
• Experience with distributed messaging systems such as Apache Kafka, AWS SNS, and SQS to build scalable, event-driven architectures.
• Hands-on experience with containerization and orchestration tools such as Docker, Kubernetes, and AWS EKS.
• Proficiency in Jenkins, GitHub Actions, or other CI/CD tools to automate build, test, and deployment pipelines in a fast-paced Agile setting.
• Proficient in SQL and relational database modeling with RDS Aurora MySQL, with some knowledge of Mongo based object-oriented databases.
• Ability to translate complex technical concepts into high-level architectural designs, and act as a subject matter expert across architecture, implementation, deployment, and support..  
• Strong communication and collaboration skills in cross-functional Agile teams.
  
  

Vivid Seats Pay Transparency Disclaimer: Full time offers from Vivid Seats include annual bonus incentives and equity for all employees; FLEX PTO; mental health days; medical, dental, and vision insurance; 401K matching; monthly credits and discounts for attending live events; and a variety of additional workplace perks. The typical starting salary within the full salary range for this position can range. Factors which may affect starting salary include geographic market, relevant skills/experience, education, and other qualifications.

Full Salary Range: $135,000 – $165,000 USD

https://corporate.vividseats.com/careers/

Location: Chicago, IL

We believe in a hybrid working model which provides employees the flexibility to take advantage of in-person and remote collaboration. Check out our brand new HQ office, bursting with the energy of live events fandom and the vibrancy of Chicago’s rising tech scene.

Our Commitment:

We are an equal opportunity employer that values the critical importance of a diverse workforce and sense of belonging. Many of our roles have flexible requirements and we encourage you to apply regardless of whether you meet every qualification.

Founded in 2001, Vivid Seats (NASDAQ: SEAT) is a leading online ticket marketplace committed to becoming the ultimate partner for connecting fans to the live events, artists, and teams they love. We believe in the power of experiences and are fiercely dedicated to building products that inspire human connections. Named as one of Built In's top places to work in 2025, we believe that our People are our greatest competitive advantage. To support our People, we have built a company culture that empowers our employees to embrace challenges, encourages unity through collaboration, and seeks to constantly evolve by leveraging data and inspiring innovation.