Senior Technical Software Engineer - API Platform Kong

Emirates; Dubai; On-site; AED 420,000 - 640,000; Full time

Job summary

Emirates in Dubai seeks a Senior Technical Software Engineer - API Platform (Kong) to design, implement, and operate enterprise API gateway capabilities and infrastructure.

You will drive architectural decisions, DevSecOps practices, and mentor engineers within an agile team, delivering scalable, secure APIs (REST/GraphQL) and CI/CD pipelines using GitLab. The role requires modern engineering methods (DDD, TDD), IaC with Terraform/Ansible, Kubernetes, and strong Linux networking skills.

Qualifications

• Degree in Computer Science/Engineering or Software Engineering.
• Minimum of 5+ years IT experience.

Responsibilities

• Collaborate to deliver design, development and deployment of API platform solutions using Kong.
• Drive engineering practices, automation, lean development, and blameless incident post-mortems.
• Partner with cross-functional teams to validate ideas with prototypes.
• Investigate issues, propose improvements, and support architectural reviews.
• Mentor Software Engineers and ensure coding standards.
• Ensure optimal use of enterprise platforms and infrastructure.

Skills

Kong API Gateway

RESTful APIs

GraphQL

Asynchronous APIs

IaC (Terraform, Ansible)

GitLab CI/CD

DDD & TDD

Java

Python

Kubernetes

Linux & networking

Observability with Dynatrace

DevSecOps

System design

Education

Degree in Computer Science/Computer Engineering/Software Engineering

Tools

Terraform

Ansible

GitLab

Dynatrace

TIBCO BusinessWorks

SnapLogic

Solace

Kubernetes

Job description

Job Description:

Job Purpose

At Emirates, we believe in connecting the world, to and through, our global hub in Dubai; and in constantly innovating to ensure our customers ‘Fly Better’. Join us in Cosmopolitan Dubai as a Senior Technical Software Engineer - API Platform (Kong) and make your mark on the aviation world!

The Senior Technical Software Engineer - API Platform (Kong) is a fully participating member of an agile feature team who will be designing, implementing, and supporting enterprise API platform capabilities and related infrastructure. The role focuses on the development and operation of API gateway solutions using Kong and other API Gateway technologies, ensuring secure, scalable, and reliable API services. You will support in driving and implementing software engineering strategies, standards, and guidelines. You will collaborate with the team to develop business-critical technical solutions through the application of software programming, robust engineering practices, and built-in quality. The job also includes planning/estimation, application development, deployment, release, hyper-care and operation of developed solutions.

In This Role, You Will

• Collaborate with the team to deliver technical design, development and deployment of complex solutions within relevant product. Carry out effective technical design reviews to ensure that the right architecture patterns are used by the team.
• Drive the adoption of Engineering practices , implement development process automation, lean software development, built-in-quality, test driven development, agile practices, and timely root cause analysis and blameless incident post-mortems.
• Partner with cross-functional teams to determine viability of solutions. Evaluate current problems, future requirements and existing solutions in medium to large projects to enable high level design and drive proof-of-concepts and implement prototypes to validate ideas.
• Investigate, debug and fix complex issues involving corner cases and rare conditions. Support continuous improvement by investigating alternatives and new technologies and presenting these for architectural review.
• Contribute to sprint/work design and planning by providing subject matter expertise on business domain and relevant technologies and actively contribute to technology specific community of practices.
• Manage and mentor Software Engineers to allow for skill/knowledge development through advice, coaching, and training opportunities. Responsible for their technical deliveries and adherence to design and coding standards and practices.
• Ensure optimal use of enterprise application platforms, tools and libraries in line with the approved technology architecture.
• Responsible for corrective, adaptive, preventative and perfective maintenance of products in collaboration with other capabilities for the relevant product.

Qualification

• Degree in a relevant field such as Computer Science, Computer Engineering or Software Engineering.
• Minimum of 5+ years of experience in Information Technology.

Knowledge/skills

• Strong experience in building, operating, and supporting enterprise-scale API platforms using Kong API Gateway, including API design, gateway configuration, policy enforcement, and production operations.
• Proven expertise in designing, developing, and securing scalable APIs (RESTful, GraphQL) for enterprise environments, leveraging microservices and integration platforms.
• Hands-on experience in the design, development, and management of asynchronous APIs, including event-driven and message-based integration patterns.
• Infrastructure as Code (IaC) expertise, with practical experience using tools such as Terraform and Ansible, along with source control and collaboration using GitLab.
• Demonstrated experience building and managing DevSecOps pipelines using GitLab CI/CD, enabling automated build, test, security, and deployment workflows.
• Experience in designing and developing complex, enterprise-grade software solutions using modern engineering methodologies such as Domain-Driven Design and Test-Driven Development within large, cross-functional organizations.
• Strong programming/automation skills in languages commonly used for integration and platform development, including Java and Python.
• Solid understanding of cloud computing concepts and Kubernetes, including containerized workloads, ingress controllers, and distributed platform architectures.
• Good understanding of Linux and networking fundamentals, including system troubleshooting, TCP/IP, load balancing, and security concepts.
• Strong knowledge of observability principles, with experience using monitoring and APM tools such as Dynatrace for metrics, logging, tracing, and performance analysis.
• Proven experience in designing, implementing, and operating highly scalable and high-performance systems capable of handling large data volumes and critical workloads.
• Good understanding of application and enterprise integration concepts, with hands-on experience in integration tools such as TIBCO BusinessWorks, SnapLogic and Solace.

Leadership: No

Salary & benefits

Join us in Dubai and enjoy an attractive tax-free salary and travel benefits that are exclusive to our industry, including discounts on flights and hotel stays around the world. Find out what it’s like to live and work in our fast-paced, cosmopolitan home city in the Dubai Lifestyle section of our website www.emirates.com/careers.