Principal Engineer API Platform
$144,200–$288,400 year
RemoteUnited States
Job Summary
Define and enforce enterprise API design standards across REST, GraphQL, and MCP-based interfaces, establishing governance from specification through retirement. Architect systems for delivering APIs to multi-environment targets including cloud and on-premises gateways, while embedding AI-powered coding assistance and MCP servers to expose the API catalog as live context for developer workflows. Lead technical direction for the developer platform, driving adoption of secure-by-default patterns and operationalizing compliance guardrails for healthcare regulations. Partner with product and architecture teams to shape the roadmap, mentor engineers, and ensure high-quality, production-grade code using JavaScript/TypeScript and Java/Spring Boot.
Required Qualifications
- 10+ years of software engineering experience, with a meaningful portion spent designing and delivering APIs at enterprise scale
- 5+ years of direct experience with API security, including OAuth 2.0, OIDC, mTLS, rate limiting, and API threat modeling
- 5+ years working with API gateway products and API management platforms (e.g., Apigee, Kong, Azure APIM, or equivalent)
- 5+ years of backend development in Java/Spring Boot and/or Node.js
- 5+ years working with large public cloud platforms (GCP, AWS, or Azure), including the networking and identity primitives that underpin secure API delivery
- 3+ years of experience influencing technical direction across multiple teams in a principal, staff, or architect-level capacity
- 3+ years partnering with product management, architecture, and program management to shape roadmaps and deliver complex platform capabilities
- Experience building or operating an API catalog, developer portal, or internal developer platform
- Experience with GraphQL schema design and federation at scale
- Experience with mature CI/CD practices, source control, automated testing, and contract-first API development
Desired Qualifications
- Hands-on experience building AI-powered developer tooling, including LLM-integrated coding assistants, MCP servers, or AI-assisted API design workflows
- Experience working with agent-to-agent (A2A) integration patterns or MCP-based tooling
- Experience with healthcare data standards and APIs, including FHIR, HL7, and CMS interoperability requirements
- Experience designing and operating event-driven APIs using Kafka or comparable streaming platforms
- Strong written communication skills, particularly in technical design documents and architecture decision records (ADRs)
- Demonstrated experience growing and mentoring senior engineers and technical leads
- Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience (Highschool diploma plus 4 years relevant work experience)
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