Platform Engineer, Data Services

Vytalize; Arkansas City (KS); On-site; USD 150,000 - 230,000; Full time

Job summary

Vytalize Health is seeking a Principal Engineer to design, build, and operate the CDS and API platform that embeds clinical insights into provider workflows. You will work with Data Engineering, Product, Clinical Operations, and EMR partners to enable in-workflow decision support via CDS Hooks and real-time APIs.

Responsibilities include owning CDS Hook contracts, coordinating EMR integrations (Epic, NextGen, Athena, ECW), and delivering secure, scalable APIs with robust testing and monitoring.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of API platform design, building, and operation at scale.
• 3+ years healthcare data integrations or interoperability standards (FHIR, HL7).
• Strong REST API design, versioning, error handling, auth patterns.

Responsibilities

• Own CDS Hook API contracts and evolution per SMART CDS Hooks spec.
• Lead integration with EMR systems (Epic, NextGen, Athena, ECW).
• Design and maintain REST and event-driven APIs exposing clinical data and care content.
• Establish API contracts, versioning, deprecation policies for external consumers.
• Implement OAuth 2.0, authorization scopes, rate limiting, and audit logging.
• Design reliable data pipelines for CDS Hooks and APIs with low latency.
• Build testing and QA for CDS Hooks and APIs across EMR systems.
• Set reliability metrics and SLAs for CDS Hook delivery and API performance.
• Mentor team members and document systems and designs.

Skills

API design

REST APIs

OAuth 2.0

Kubernetes

Backend languages

FHIR/HL7

EMR integrations

Cloud platforms

CI/CD

Security/compliance

Education

Bachelor's degree

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

OpenAPI

AWS

Databricks

CI/CD tooling

Job description

Principal Engineer

As a Principal Engineer, you will help design, build, and operate the clinical decision support and API-driven data delivery platform that enables Vytalize Health to embed timely, actionable clinical insights directly into provider workflows.

Working cross-functionally with Data Engineering, Product, Clinical Operations, and EMR partners, your solutions will transform how clinicians access data—moving from external tools and workarounds to seamless, in-workflow decision support via CDS Hooks and real-time APIs.

Responsibilities

• Own CDS Hook API contracts and evolution, ensuring compliance with SMART CDS Hooks specification while adding performance, reliability, and healthcare-specific optimizations
• Lead technical integration with EMR systems (Epic, NextGen, Athena, ECW) for CDS Hook discovery, execution, card rendering, and user action handling
• Design, build, and maintain public-facing REST and event-driven APIs exposing clinical data, quality metrics, care gaps, attribution data, and decision support content to partners and provider-facing applications
• Establish API contracts, versioning strategies, and deprecation policies that balance innovation with stability for external consumers
• Implement and maintain API security patterns including OAuth 2.0, scope-based authorization, rate limiting, and audit logging for compliant clinical data access
• Design and optimize real-time or near-real-time data pipelines feeding CDS Hooks and APIs—ensuring low latency, high freshness, and graceful failure modes
• Design and implement comprehensive testing and QA frameworks for CDS Hooks and APIs — including hook context validation, card rendering verification, and clinical workflow testing across EMR systems
• Establish reliability metrics and SLAs (latency, availability, freshness) for CDS Hook delivery and API performance; Exercise architectural judgment across tradeoffs in correctness, latency, scalability, maintainability, and operational risk in clinical data systems
• Design and implement reliability patterns for CDS and API services including monitoring, alerting, failure detection, graceful degradation, and incident recovery
• Partner with Data Reliability Engineer to define and operate SLAs for CDS Hook delivery, API response times, and data freshness aligned to clinical needs
• Establish and uphold engineering standards for API design, data schemas, integration patterns, and interoperability; maintain high-quality technical documentation and OpenAPI specifications
• Partner with Data Engineering to align upstream data models, gold-layer datasets, and platform capabilities with clinical decision support and API requirements
• Serve as the technical authority on clinical interoperability standards (SMART CDS Hooks, FHIR, HL7, CDS Hooks, EHR integration patterns)
• Collaborate with Product, Clinical Operations, and Business stakeholders to clarify requirements, translate clinical workflows into platform features, and shape product direction
• Ensure all CDS and API services comply with healthcare security, privacy, and regulatory requirements (HIPAA, state regulations, payer mandates)
• Partner with IT Security and Compliance teams to implement secure access controls, audit logging, encryption, and data protection measures across delivery mechanisms
• Design and implement audit trails for all clinical data access; support compliance audits and regulatory reporting
• Mentor team members through design reviews, pairing, and architectural guidance on clinical data integration and API design
• Document new and existing systems, designs, processes, and procedures

Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience designing, building, and operating API platforms, service-oriented systems, or backend infrastructure at scale
• 3+ years of direct experience with healthcare data integrations, EMR workflows, clinical data exchange, or healthcare interoperability standards (FHIR, HL7, CDA, claims data)
• Strong experience designing and operating REST APIs, including contract design, versioning, error handling, and authentication/authorization patterns
• Deep understanding of healthcare data integrations, EMR workflows, and interoperability patterns (FHIR, HL7, CDS Hooks, SMART on FHIR)
• Experience defining and measuring API performance metrics (latency, availability, error rates); familiarity with SLA monitoring and enforcement
• Proficiency in modern backend languages (Python, Java, Go, or similar); comfort reading and reviewing code across languages
• Experience with cloud platforms (AWS, Databricks, GCP) and containerized services (Docker, Kubernetes, or managed services)
• Proven ability to partner effectively across engineering, product, analytics, clinical operations, and business teams
• Comfortable working in a fast-moving, ambiguous environment with healthcare compliance and regulatory constraints
• Hands-on experience with CDS Hooks specification and SMART on FHIR implementations in production healthcare environments
• Experience implementing and testing CDS Hooks across multiple EMR systems (Epic, NextGen, Athena, ECW) including clinical workflow validation
• Familiarity with healthcare data formats and standards: CCD/C-CDA, claims data (837s, 835s), HL7 v2 or v3
• Experience designing and operating real-time or near-real-time data pipelines feeding clinical applications and decision support systems
• Knowledge of value-based care metrics, care gaps, quality measures (NQF, HEDIS), and HCC/RAF risk stratification
• Experience with API management platforms, developer portals, or partner ecosystem / API monetization patterns
• Experience with CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure-as-code, and safe deployment practices
• Background supporting provider-facing platforms or external clinical partners; Familiarity with healthcare data governance, interoperability regulations (21st Century Cures, ONC rules), and clinical data quality frameworks
• Experience with API testing frameworks and quality assurance for distributed systems

Annual bonus potential

Please note at no time during our screening, interview, or selection process do we ask for additional personal information (beyond your resume) or account/financial information.