Lead API Engineer - IND

About Gradera

At Gradera, we’re defining a new category of enterprise transformation called Software-Orchestrated Services™ (SoS™) — a governed blend of human expertise and digital intelligence that transforms how enterprises operate.

Our mission is to build intelligent digital workers that augment teams and automate work across the value chain, helping organizations become more efficient, agile, and resilient.

We don’t believe in one-size-fits-all solutions. Every engagement is tailored to the unique needs of each enterprise — grounded in governance, security, and reliability. By aligning technology with strategy, we empower our clients to achieve measurable outcomes and lead with confidence in a rapidly evolving digital landscape.

Lead – API Engineer

Overview

Key Responsibilities
•Provide technical leadership, mentorship, and guidance to the API engineering team
•Lead the design, implementation, and evolution of API architecture and backend services
•Champion API-first development, ensuring clear contracts and comprehensive documentation (OpenAPI/Swagger)
•Architect and implement secure, scalable, and performant APIs
•Ensure robust authentication, authorization, and data protection for all endpoints
•Drive adoption of best practices in API design, versioning, and integration
•Optimize API performance for low-latency, high-frequency interactions
•Oversee observability, monitoring, and alerting for all APIs and backend services
•Collaborate closely with product, UI, and runtime teams to deliver integrated solutions
•Collaborate with the SDET to ensure comprehensive test coverage and effective test data creation
•Lead the adoption of modern API tools, frameworks, and best practices
•Ensure engineering rigor, code quality, and documentation standards are met
•Facilitate clear communication, knowledge sharing, and effective documentation within the team
•Support team growth through coaching, feedback, and skills development

Core Qualities & Skills
•Proven experience leading API or backend engineering teams and delivering complex API projects
•Deep expertise in API architecture, design, and implementation (RESTful, GraphQL, etc.)
•Strong programming skills in relevant backend languages (e.g., Node.js, Python, Java, Go, etc.)
•Experience with API security, authentication, and authorization (OAuth, JWT, RBAC, PKCE)
•Experience with API documentation and standards (OpenAPI/Swagger, Use Case, JSON Schemas, etc.)
•Strong understanding of performance optimization, scalability, and reliability for APIs
•Experience with observability, monitoring, and troubleshooting for backend services
•Strong collaboration and alignment skills across disciplines
•Willingness to learn, share knowledge, and adapt to evolving technologies
•System design skills and awareness of technical debt and tradeoffs
•Excellent communication, documentation, and stakeholder management abilities
•Comfort with ambiguity, discovery, and rapid change
•Commitment to engineering excellence, security, and responsible practices

Preferred Qualifications
•7+ years of hands-on API or backend engineering experience, with 2+ years in a technical leadership role
•Track record of architecting and delivering scalable, reliable API systems
•Experience with modern development practices (CI/CD, automated testing, code reviews)
•Demonstrated ability to mentor and grow engineers
•Experience working in cross-functional, agile teams

Highly Desirable
•Experience with API gateways (e.g., Envoy, Kong, Apigee) and service mesh patterns (e.g., Istio)
•Experience with event-driven and streaming architectures (pub/sub, callbacks, Kafka, etc.)
•Experience with cloud-native infrastructure and automated provisioning (e.g., Terraform)
•Experience building developer portals and self-service onboarding for APIs
•Ability to perform API Domain Modeling with a strong product orientation, aligning technical design with user and business needs
•Experience thriving in fast-paced, ambiguous environments and balancing rapid delivery with technical excellence
•Experience leading or working with distributed, multidisciplinary teams

Success Metrics
•API response time (median and p95)
•Uptime and reliability of critical services
•Test coverage for API and backend logic
•Developer velocity and time from API design to production
•Time to First Prototype (TTFP)
•Integration lead time for API consumers
•Technical debt reduction and architectural alignment
•Team growth, engagement, and retention
•Stakeholder satisfaction and cross-team collaboration