Staff Applied AI Engineer

About Us

Fanatics is building a leading global digital sports platform. We ignite the passions of global sports fans and maximize the presence and reach for our hundreds of sports partners globally by offering products and services across Fanatics Commerce, Fanatics Collectibles, and Fanatics Betting & Gaming, allowing sports fans to Buy, Collect, and Bet. Through the Fanatics platform, sports fans can buy licensed fan gear, jerseys, lifestyle and streetwear products, headwear, and hardgoods; collect physical and digital trading cards, sports memorabilia, and other digital assets; and bet as the company builds its Sportsbook and iGaming platform. Fanatics has an established database of over 100 million global sports fans; a global partner network with approximately 900 sports properties, including major national and international professional sports leagues, players associations, teams, colleges, college conferences and retail partners, 2,500 athletes and celebrities, and 200 exclusive athletes; Are you a builder who has already shipped AI that changed how a business runs? Were hiring full-time Applied AI Engineers to join a small, senior team that sits at the center of how Fanatics transforms itself with AI. Each Applied AI Engineer works like a tiger team: embed with a business function, find its biggest bottlenecks, replace slow, manual work with AI agents and workflows that actually run in production, then move on to the next challenge.
Youll own problems end to end: define them, design the solution, build it, prove it works, and drive adoption. Youll have real autonomy, executive visibility, and a direct line to leadership, with joint reporting to the CFO and Corporate AI Transformation Lead.
Were looking for someone with prior experience doing applied AI work at a startup or fast-growing company, who is used to moving quickly with limited resources and is ready to bring that pace to a global brand.
Embed within corporate functions across the business, find the workflows where AI can remove the most manual effort or unlock the most growth, fix them, then rotate to the next function.
• MCP servers, agent SDKs, orchestration tools, browser and computer use, and evals.
• Think in systems and bias toward solving the problem, not toward building for its own sake. sometimes its configuring an existing tool.
• Partner with business leaders to be accountable for outcomes, and help them rethink how their teams operate in an AI-first way.
• Help set the bar for AI across the company, including tool evaluation, security and InfoSec coordination, governance, and best practices.
• Spread the practice: document and showcase wins, coach colleagues, and help build a company culture that automates by default.
3+ years of experience in applied AI or software engineering, including time at a startup or fast-growing company where you shipped AI-powered products or automations to real users.
• A track record of building and deploying custom agents or agentic workflows with frontier LLMs that solved real business problems, not just prototypes.
• Fluency with the modern AI stack: Strong coding skills (Python preferred) and the judgment to pick the right tool for the job, including buying or configuring instead of building.
• Bachelors degree in Computer Science, AI/ML, Software Engineering, or a related field preferred; Bonus points if youre a fan of sports, collectibles, or fandom culture (because were a little obsessed).
Real ownership of high-visibility problems, with exposure to every part of Fanatics and direct access to senior leadership.
• A chance to be part of a small, hand-picked team shaping how a global sports and collectibles company becomes AI-first.
• Competitive salary and comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage.
• Generous paid time off, paid holidays, and parental leave.
• NYC office with daily in-person collaboration.
• If youve built AI that moved a business and youre ready to do it at global scale, lets talk. The salary range represents base pay only and does not include short-term or long-term incentive compensation. When determining base pay as part of a final compensation package, we consider several factors such as location, experience, qualifications, and training. By submitting your application, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge you have read our Candidate Privacy Policy.
Fanatics will never ask candidates for money, banking information, or other sensitive personal information as part of the interview process. If you receive a suspicious message claiming to be from Fanatics recruiting, please do not respond and report it

here

.