Lead API Engineer

We are partnering with a client to hire a Lead API Engineer who has personally designed, built, secured, and operated APIs end?to?end in large-scale environments. This is a hands-on technical leadership role , not a people-management position.

The ideal candidate is a deeply experienced API engineer with recent coding experience who understands how APIs should be built at enterprise scale , can articulate why certain standards exist, and can influence teams to adopt them. You will help shape and evolve our API-first modernization strategy while remaining close to the code and architecture.

What You'll Do

Own APIs End-to-End

• Personally design, build, deploy, secure, and operate APIs from concept through production.
• Work across the full API lifecycle: design ? implementation ? gateway ? deployment ? observability ? versioning ? deprecation .
• Ensure APIs meet enterprise standards for reliability, security, scalability, and usability.

Lead API Architecture & Standards (Hands-On)

• Act as a technical lead and advisor for API architecture, patterns, and standards across teams.
• Define and evangelize best practices for:
  • REST, GraphQL, gRPC
  • Event-driven and asynchronous APIs
  • Contract-first API development
• Partner with engineers and architects to ensure consistent API design across the organization.

Build at Enterprise Scale

• Design and implement cloud-native, API-first platforms using microservices and event-driven architectures.
• Work closely with API gateways, mediation layers, and observability tooling to ensure production-grade operations.
• Make informed architecture decisions (e.g., REST vs. GraphQL vs. async ) based on use case, scale, and consumer needs.

Influence Without Authority

• Guide engineering teams through technical influence , not hierarchy.
• Clearly explain the why behind API standards and architectural decisions.
• Handle healthy pushback and trade-off discussions while maintaining engineering rigor.

Required Technical Skills

API Development (Critical - Must Be Hands-On)

• Proven experience personally writing APIs , not just reviewing designs.
• Deep expertise with:
  • REST, GraphQL, gRPC
  • Event-driven and asynchronous API patterns
• Strong understanding of enterprise API standards and consistency across teams .

API Design & Best Practices

• Domain-Driven Design (DDD)
• Contract-first development (OpenAPI/Swagger, Postman)
• API versioning, backward compatibility, and deprecation strategies

End-to-End API Ownership

• API gateways (design, configuration, integration)
• Security (OAuth 2.0/2.1, JWT, rate limiting, mTLS)
• Deployment, hosting, and infrastructure awareness
• Monitoring and observability of APIs in production

Technology Stack

• Primary language: Java (Spring Boot) - majority of the environment
• Secondary: .NET / C#
• Nice to have: Python (especially for AI-related or integration use cases)
• Cloud-native technologies (containers, Kubernetes, service mesh)
• Messaging and event platforms (Kafka or equivalents)
• CI/CD and infrastructure-as-code familiarity

Leadership Profile (Very Important)

• Lead-level engineer , not a manager
• Continues to code and design personally
• Able to:
  • Influence technical direction
  • Communicate API standards clearly
  • Collaborate with engineers, architects, and stakeholders
• Does not need executive-facing experience, but must :
  • Clearly explain design decisions
  • Defend standards with sound technical reasoning
  • Guide teams toward better API practices

Ideal Candidate Summary

You are:

• A hands-on API engineer with recent, real production experience
• Strong in Java / Spring Boot
• Deeply knowledgeable about the full API lifecycle
• Comfortable working in enterprise-scale API ecosystems
• Able to guide and influence teams without relying on authority
• Not dependent on AI tools to do the core engineering work

Compensation: $190,000-225,000 annually
Salary is based on a range of factors that include relevant experience, knowledge, skills, other job-related qualifications.