Senior API Platform Engineer – Scalable, Secure APIs

YPO; United States; Hybrid; USD 119,000 - 155,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Remote work flexibility

Performance-based bonus opportunities

Total rewards package

Job summary

YPO, a global leadership community, is seeking a Senior API Platform Engineer to advance our API-first platform powering member ecosystem and governance. You will own API design, backend systems, and the move to a serverless, scalable architecture on AWS, collaborating across product, data, IT and security teams.

You will tackle complex data models, caching, data consistency, security and observability challenges while delivering production-grade APIs using REST/GraphQL, AWS API Gateway, Lambda

Qualifications

• 6–8+ years of backend/API engineering experience, with deep hands-on experience designing and building API layers for complex, production-scale systems.
• Strong REST and/or GraphQL API design experience, including contracts, versioning and lifecycle management.
• Experience designing APIs over complex or highly connected data models, including graph-based or relationship-driven data.
• Strong understanding of non-functional requirements at the API layer, including scalability, reliability, resilience, latency, security and observability.
• Experience solving caching, data consistency, concurrency and performance challenges in distributed systems.
• Ability to evaluate architectural tradeoffs and translate business and product requirements into maintainable technical solutions.
• Experience with AWS API Gateway and serverless architecture, including Lambda and Step Functions.
• Experience with event-driven systems such as Kafka, EventBridge and CDC patterns.
• Infrastructure as Code experience using Terraform and/or AWS CDK.
• Experience with OAuth2 and identity platforms such as Auth0 or Okta.
• Understanding of Domain-Driven Design and clear service/API boundaries.
• Experience building privacy- and consent-aware systems, including GDPR/CCPA considerations.
• Strong cross-functional communication skills and the ability to explain complex technical decisions clearly.
• Active use of AI development tools such as Copilot or Cursor.

Responsibilities

• Design and build production-scale REST and GraphQL APIs using AWS.
• Create stable API contracts that remain decoupled from underlying data and backend schemas.
• Design APIs over complex, highly connected data models, including graph-based or relationship-driven data.
• Solve architectural challenges involving caching, data consistency, concurrency, latency and performance.
• Define clear API and service boundaries using Domain-Driven Design principles and ensure backward compatibility.
• Build for scalability, reliability, resilience, security and observability; implement versioning and breaking-change strategies.
• Support CI/CD pipelines, observability and uptime requirements; manage infrastructure via IaC (Terraform / AWS CDK).
• Collaborate with Security and Data teams on identity, authorization, privacy and consent requirements.

Skills

Backend/API engineering

REST/GraphQL API design

Data modeling (complex/connected data)

Non-functional API requirements

Caching, data consistency, concurrency

Translate business requirements to技术方案

AWS API Gateway & serverless

Event-driven systems

Terraform / AWS CDK (IaC)

OAuth2 / IdP (Auth0 Okta)

Domain-Driven Design

GDPR/CCPA/privacy knowledge

Cross-functional communication

AI development tools (Copilot/Cursor)

Tools

AWS API Gateway

AWS Lambda

AWS Step Functions

Terraform

AWS CDK

Kafka

EventBridge

CDC

Auth0 / Okta

Job description

YPO, a global leadership community, is seeking a Senior API Platform Engineer to advance our API-first platform powering member ecosystem and governance. You will own API design, backend systems, and the move to a serverless, scalable architecture on AWS, collaborating across product, data, IT and security teams.

You will tackle complex data models, caching, data consistency, security and observability challenges while delivering production-grade APIs using REST/GraphQL, AWS API Gateway, Lambda