Technical Lead (API)

Asana; Vancouver; On-site; CAD 140,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health benefits

Culinary program

Parental leave policies

Job summary

Asana in Vancouver is seeking a staff-level Technical Lead to drive execution and vision for our developer platform and public API. You'll partner with Product to define agentic experiences and shape API capabilities, while mentoring engineers and developer advocates.

This role focuses on setting technical strategy for the API platform, ensuring flexibility and maintainability, and collaborating across Engineering to deliver high-velocity, high-quality API features using Scala, JavaScript, and

Qualifications

• 10+ years of engineering experience in large, complex codebases.
• Excellent communication, collaboration, and delegation skills.
• 1+ years building public-facing API products or Developer Platforms.
• 2+ years leading engineering teams of 5+ engineers.
• Curiosity about AI tools and emerging technologies.
• Mentoring engineers and fostering psychological safety.

Responsibilities

• Set the technical strategy for the API platform and advocate for engineering-driven investments.
• Drive the team to improve velocity while growing engineers' skills.
• Collaborate with Product, Design, Data Science, and User Research to meet developer needs.
• Own API design guidelines and help teams implement best practices.
• Write clean code across the stack using Scala, JavaScript, and TypeScript.

Skills

Engineering leadership

Communication

Public API product experience

Learning agility

Project management

Mentoring

AI awareness

Tools

Scala

JavaScript

TypeScript

Job description

• We’re looking for a staff-level Technical Lead to drive execution and technical vision for our developer platform
• Our API team has huge, cross-cutting scope: one day you’ll be partnering with Product to define what a great agentic experience looks like and contributing to the direction of industry-wide protocols, the next you’ll be setting best practices for exposing new Asana functionality via the public API and architecting foundational changes to our API’s core feature set and frameworks, all while mentoring the engineers and developer advocates on the team
• If you care deeply about building an agentic future for the enterprise and leading high-performing engineering teams, then we’d love to hear from you!
• Set the technical strategy for the API platform within Asana and advocate for engineering-driven investments, with a vision for keeping our systems flexible and maintainable
• Drive the team to continually and holistically better itself, enabling the engineers around you to deliver at a high velocity while helping them grow their skills in the process
• Be a key collaborator with other groups in Engineering and a technical counterpart to the API team’s Engineering Manager, serving as a public face for API engineering and representing our interests across team boundaries
• Partner with Product Management, Design, Data Science, and User Research to deeply understand developer and agentic needs, and then propose elegant solutions to meet them
• Own and shape the guidelines for what good API design looks like, partnering with product engineering teams to help them implement those best practices in a self-serve manner
• Develop across the entire stack to make developers’ experiences better by writing clean, beautiful code and leaving things better than you found them: this includes writing Scala, Javascript, and Typescript

Benefits

• Benefits - From comprehensive health benefits including mental health programs and coaching to our in-house culinary program and supportive parental leave policies, our benefits are intentionally designed to ensure that you are energized, focused, and thriving
• Development: We know that growth isn’t always linear, so we’ll support you in achieving your personal and professional goals. You’ll have the opportunity to take on big responsibilities that impact our success as a company and challenge you in new and fulfilling ways.
• Career growth: Your growth at Asana centers on ownership, access, and choice. All employees can tap into resources that support their growth and their team’s growth in the way that works best for their unique needs.

Qualifications, Experience and Requirements

• 10+ years of experience as an engineer working in large, complex codebases
• Excellent communication, collaboration, and delegation skills
• 1+ years building public-facing API products or Developer Platforms
• Quick learner and comfortable transitioning between different contexts and codebases, enabling you to jump in and rapidly unblock teammates facing thorny obstacles
• Deep project management experience including high-level timeline planning, risk mitigation, stakeholder management, and coordinating the work of others
• 2+ years leading engineering teams of 5+ engineers
• Demonstrates curiosity about AI tools and emerging technologies, with a willingness to learn and leverage them to enhance productivity, collaboration, or decision-making
• Excited to be a part of an inclusive culture where everyone brings the aspects of themselves to the workplace that they need to thrive, fostering an environment of psychological safety within your team
• Passionate about mentoring engineers at all skill levels; able to identify technical growth opportunities and deliver thoughtful, candid feedback