Senior Manager, Backend Services

A&E Television Networks, LLC; New York (NY); Hybrid; USD 179,487 - 210,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Healthcare coverage

401k matching

Other benefits

Job summary

A+E Global Media in New York, NY seeks a Senior Manager, Backend Services to lead a team that designs, builds, and operates GraphQL and REST APIs powering our consumer applications. You will shape architecture, set API standards, and mentor engineers to deliver scalable, reliable backend services.

You will bring 7+ years in backend engineering, 2+ years in engineering management, and strong experience with GraphQL/REST, cloud-native stacks, Docker, Kubernetes, and modern CI/CD practices to drive

Qualifications

• 7+ years of backend engineering experience.
• 2+ years of engineering management experience leading software teams.
• Strong experience designing and building GraphQL servers (e.g., Apollo, Hasura, or similar).
• Strong experience building RESTful APIs at scale.
• Deep knowledge of API design principles, schema modeling, and optimization.
• Experience with modern backend frameworks using Node.js or comparable.
• Familiarity with cloud-native architectures (AWS, GCP, or Azure).
• Experience with CI/CD pipelines, containerization (Docker), and orchestration (Kubernetes, Pulumi, or similar).
• Strong understanding of database technologies (SQL and/or NoSQL).
• Excellent communication and cross-functional collaboration skills.
• Experience leveraging AI-powered coding tools (e.g., GitHub Copilot, Claude Code, or similar) to improve engineering productivity, code quality, and development workflows.

Responsibilities

• Lead architecture, design, and implementation of scalable GraphQL services and RESTful APIs.
• Define and enforce API standards, schema design best practices, and versioning strategies.
• Drive decisions around backend frameworks, tooling, infrastructure, and observability.
• Ensure systems are secure, performant, resilient, and maintainable.
• Oversee API lifecycle management, including documentation, testing, monitoring, and deprecation.
• Hire, mentor, and develop a high-performing backend engineering team.
• Partner with Product, Client Engineering, DevOps, Research, and Architecture teams to deliver aligned solutions.
• Own roadmap planning, prioritization, and execution for backend services.
• Establish engineering best practices for code quality, CI/CD, testing, and deployment.
• Manage technical debt proactively while balancing feature development.
• Drive observability, logging, metrics, and performance monitoring standards.
• Lead incident response and root cause analysis for backend services.
• Implement reliability practices such as SLIs/SLOs and capacity planning.
• Ensure compliance with security and data governance standards.

Skills

Backend engineering

GraphQL

REST APIs

API design

Node.js

Cloud-native

CI/CD

Docker

Kubernetes

SQL / NoSQL

Communication

AI coding tools

Tools

Apollo/Hasura GraphQL servers

Docker

Kubernetes

Pulumi

AWS

GCP

Azure

Job description

Work Locations

With the exception of some select roles that have in-office requirements, A+E Global Media operates on a flexible model that allows for remote, hybrid or full time in office work (in certain locales). Office locations include New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Stamford, CT. Our list of eligible states in which employees may work remotely includes: California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.

Division Story

A+E's Technology team is deep-rooted in the heart of our business. We have great people and great technologies, and together we take on the toughest challenges. As innovators, we choose to iterate, pivot, and adapt quickly. We’ve reinvented the way A+E leverages technology to produce and sell world-class content. We’ve modernized our core solutions and embraced a cloud first approach. Perched on the virtues of our "Technology Code", we make technology better, create solutions together, and most of all, we have fun with it. Our team members are motivated individuals who help each other do remarkable things every day. Together we deliver best-in-class solutions that transform the way A+E works.

ROLE: Senior Manager, Backend Services

We are seeking a Senior Manager, Backend Services to lead a software engineering team responsible for designing, building, and operating a collection of GraphQL and REST APIs. This role combines technical leadership with people management, ensuring high-quality backend services that power our portfolio of consumer-facing applications and experiences. The ideal candidate brings deep backend engineering expertise, strong API design experience, and a proven track record of building and developing high-performing engineering teams.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Senior Manager, Backend Services Technical Leadership: Lead the architecture, design, and implementation of scalable GraphQL services and RESTful APIs. Define and enforce API standards, schema design best practices, and versioning strategies. Drive decisions around backend frameworks, tooling, infrastructure, and observability. Ensure systems are secure, performant, resilient, and maintainable. Oversee API lifecycle management, including documentation, testing, monitoring, and deprecation.
• Team Leadership & Development: Hire, mentor, and develop a high-performing backend engineering team. Foster a culture of ownership, accountability, collaboration, and continuous improvement. Partner with Product, Client Engineering, DevOps, Research, and Architecture teams to deliver aligned solutions.
• Delivery & Execution: Own roadmap planning, prioritization, and execution for backend services. Establish engineering best practices for code quality, CI/CD, testing, and deployment. Manage technical debt proactively while balancing feature development.
• Operational Excellence: Drive observability, logging, metrics, and performance monitoring standards. Lead incident response and root cause analysis for backend services. Implement reliability practices such as SLIs/SLOs and capacity planning. Ensure compliance with security and data governance standards.

REQUIREMENTS

• 7+ years of backend engineering experience.
• 2+ years of engineering management experience leading software teams.
• Strong experience designing and building GraphQL servers (e.g., Apollo, Hasura, or similar).
• Strong experience building RESTful APIs at scale.
• Deep knowledge of API design principles, schema modeling, and optimization.
• Experience with modern backend frameworks using Node.js or comparable.
• Familiarity with cloud-native architectures (AWS, GCP, or Azure).
• Experience with CI/CD pipelines, containerization (Docker), and orchestration (Kubernetes, Pulumi, or similar).
• Strong understanding of database technologies (SQL and/or NoSQL).
• Excellent communication and cross-functional collaboration skills.
• Experience leveraging AI-powered coding tools (e.g., GitHub Copilot, Claude Code, or similar) to improve engineering productivity, code quality, and development workflows.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Experience building federated GraphQL architectures.
• Experience integrating with payment and subscription services (Stripe, PayPal, Recurly, etc.) or similar critical transactional systems.
• Experience integrating with SaaS Consumer Identity and Access Management (CIAM) platforms (Auth0, Cognito, LoginRadius, etc.)
• Experience implementing API gateways and service meshes.
• Familiarity with event-driven architectures and message queues (Kafka, SNS/SQS, etc.).
• Experience with microservices and domain-driven design.
• Experience with in-app purchase platforms (Apple App Store, Roku Pay, etc.)
• Background in media, streaming, content platforms, or high-scale consumer applications.

Leadership Competencies

• Balances technical depth with people leadership.
• Makes pragmatic architectural decisions.
• Drives clarity and accountability.
• Comfortable making tradeoffs under ambiguity.
• Invests in growing engineers into stronger technical contributors and future leaders.

Success in This Role Looks Like

• A well-defined and scalable API platform with clear standards.
• A highly engaged backend team delivering predictably.
• Improved API performance, reliability, and developer experience.
• Strong cross-functional trust and partnership.
• Reduced operational incidents and faster recovery times.

Compensation

Annual Pay Range: $179,487 - $210,000

Annual Incentive Target: 15.00%

The annual/hourly pay range displayed serves as a good faith estimate of the minimum and maximum base pay range for this role. Compensation for the role will be based on a number of different factors such as a candidate’s qualifications, skills, competencies, location, and experience. A+E offers a competitive total compensation package, which includes healthcare coverage, 401k matching, and a range of other benefits.

• A+E offers a competitive total compensation package, which includes healthcare coverage, 401k matching, and a range of other benefits.

Learn more at www.aegm.com/careers.

A+E Global Media proudly provides equal employment opportunity for all employees and job applicants, and makes employment decisions consistent with this principle.

The company’s employment actions and decisions – including recruitment, hiring, training, promotion, demotion, compensation, transfer, layoff, and termination – are made without regard to an employee’s race, color, religion, creed, age, national origin, ancestry, sex (which includes pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding, and related medical conditions), gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, marital status, alienage or citizenship status, physical and/or mental disability, medical condition, family and medical leave status, genetic information, military or veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.

A+E Global Media is a joint venture of the Hearst Corporation and The Walt Disney Company.

We are proud to be an affirmative action/Equal Opportunity Employer/Disabled/Veterans.

A+E Global Media includes A+E, The HISTORY Channel, Lifetime, LMN, FYI, VICE TV and BIOGRAPHY. We are in seven out of 10 American homes and have a cumulative reach of 342 million people worldwide. We also have 500+ million digital users across our sites and streaming apps, which include A+E Crime Central, HISTORY Vault and Lifetime Movie Club. We are in the story business, and just as the industry and art form have evolved, so have we. Since our founding in 1983 with just two cable channels, we have grown into a multiplatform, multimedia, multigenre content creator.

To learn more, please visit us at aegm.com.

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin or protected veteran status and will not be discriminated against on the basis of disability.

EEO Law and Supplemental Information

If you are an individual with a disability and would like to request a reasonable accommodation as part of the employment selection process, please contact [e-mail]

For additional information and review please contact [e-mail]