About the Role
We are looking for a technically minded Systems Engineer to join our Race Day Operations team. This role sits at the intersection of live event operations, networking, cloud systems and real‐time racing data delivery.
Today, our race day operators are skilled at running races, but the systems behind them have grown more sophisticated: GPS tags on horses, on‐course routers and collectors, VPN tunnels back to our office Windows applications, TCP and MQTT data flows, AWS‐hosted cloud services and a React‐based operator interface. We need someone who can operate race day systems confidently while understanding the underlying networking, hardware and cloud services that power the platform.
This role works closely with our software engineers, who own the cloud platform and applications, and with our operations team. You will be the technical anchor on race days, calm under pressure, methodical in diagnosis, and confident across networking, on‐course hardware and the data pipeline.
What You Will Do
Race Day Operation
* Operate the race day software during live meetings, including pre‐race setup, in‐race monitoring and post‐race verification.
* Run races to the standards expected by our racing club and broadcast customers, ensuring timing, sectional and tracking data is accurate and delivered on time.
* Coordinate with on‐course crew, stewards and broadcast partners during meetings.
* Complete race day checklists, logs and incident reports.
Systems and Technical Support
* Monitor the end‐to‐end data pipeline: GPS tags, on‐course base stations, 4G routers, VPN connectivity, the Windows ingest application, MQTT brokers and the cloud platform.
* Diagnose and resolve issues across networking, hardware and software during live races, escalating to engineering when appropriate.
* Maintain venue‐specific configurations across multiple racecourses and codes.
* Use monitoring tools such as Grafana and AWS CloudWatch to detect issues early and act before they affect race delivery.
* Document fixes, configuration changes and lessons learned so the wider team benefits.
Continuous Improvement
* Identify recurring issues and work with engineering to remove their root causes.
* Contribute to operational runbooks, troubleshooting guides and onboarding material for the operations team.
* Support the rollout of new venues, new hardware and current product features into the operations workplace.
* Participate in incident response and post‐incident review activities for race day operational issues.
What We Are Looking For
Essential
* Background in systems engineering, IT operations, network engineering or a similar discipline (formal qualification or equivalent hands‐on experience).
* Strong understanding of networking fundamentals: TCP/IP, routing, VPNs, firewalls, 4G/LTE connectivity.
* Comfortable with Windows server and desktop environments, including configuration of applications and services.
* Working understanding of cloud‐hosted operational systems (AWS preferred), including monitoring, logging and event‐driven data flows using services such as MQTT/IoT, Lambda and CloudWatch.
* Methodical troubleshooting mindset - able to trace a problem from a tag in the starting gate through to the cloud, and isolate where it has gone wrong.
* Calm and professional under live event pressure.
* Strong written and verbal communication - clear documentation, clear escalation, clear handover.
* Willing and available to work Tuesday to Saturday, with race day flexibility (early mornings, late finishes, public holidays as required).
Nice to Have
* Exposure to IoT, GPS or RF‐based tracking systems.
* Experience supporting live broadcast, sports timing or other real‐time data environments.
* Familiarity with MQTT, TCP socket‐based protocols and time‐series data.
* Scripting ability (Python, PowerShell or similar) for log inspection and small automations.
* Familiarity with MongoDB or other databases at a query level.
* Basic familiarity with Linux environments and command‐line troubleshooting.
* Previous experience in racing, broadcasting or another live operational industry.
What This Role Is Not
This role is not a software development role. You will not be building features in our React applications or writing production code for our cloud services — our software engineering team owns that. You will, however, be expected to understand the systems well enough to diagnose problems, work alongside engineering, and feed back operational insight that improves the product.
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