Senior Manager of Microservices

Realtor.com; Austin (TX); On-site; USD 130,000 - 160,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Inclusive medical, Rx, dental, and vision coverage

Flexible Time Off

Tuition Reimbursement

Job summary

A leading real estate technology company based in Austin, TX is seeking a Senior Manager of Microservices to lead critical platform engineering teams. Responsibilities include developing the API Gateway infrastructure, enhancing GraphQL federation, and ensuring robust security measures. Candidates should have extensive experience in software and platform engineering, with a focus on team leadership and innovative solutions. This role offers opportunities for significant impact and advancement in a collaborative environment.

Qualifications

• 8+ years in software engineering or platform engineering.
• 3+ years leading engineering teams as a manager.
• Expert-level knowledge in API Gateway technologies or Security Engineering.

Responsibilities

• Lead three specialized platform teams for API Gateway.
• Define and execute strategic roadmaps for platforms.
• Provide hands-on technical guidance on complex architecture challenges.

Skills

API management

GraphQL federation

Security engineering

Team leadership

Cloud infrastructure

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or equivalent

Tools

Tyk

Apollo

Kasada

AWS

Kubernetes

Job description

Recognized as the No. 1 site trusted by real estate professionals, Realtor.com® has been at the forefront of online real estate for over 25 years, connecting buyers, sellers, and renters with trusted insights and expert guidance to find their perfect home. Through its robust suite of tools, Realtor.com® not only makes a significant impact on the real estate industry at large, but for consumers, navigating the biggest purchase they will make in their life, by providing a user experience that is easy to use, easy to understand, and most of all, easy to make decisions.

Join us on our mission to empower more people to find their way home by breaking barriers to entry, making the right connections, and building confidence through expert guidance.

We're looking for a Senior Manager of Microservices to lead three critical platform engineering teams that provide enterprise‑grade "paved path" solutions for API routing, GraphQL federation, and security/bot protection serving 600+ developers and millions of users daily.

This role will build and scale the Frontdoor (API Gateway), our GraphQL Federation layer, and Product Security & Bot Protection teams—managing 8-12 talented individual contributors who maintain and enhance core infrastructure enabling secure, scalable service delivery across Realtor.com.

You will be responsible for the strategic direction, continuous enhancement, and operational excellence of our API gateway infrastructure (Tyk), GraphQL federation layer (Apollo), and security perimeter (Kasada).

What You'll Do

Team Leadership & Development

• Build and lead three specialized platform teams (Frontdoor, Pantheon, Product Security) with 8-12 individual contributors.
• Recruit, mentor, and retain top engineering talent with expertise in API management, GraphQL federation, and security engineering.
• Create career development frameworks and technical growth paths; conduct 1:1s, performance reviews, and team planning.
• Foster a culture of technical excellence, ownership, and developer‑first thinking across platform services.
• Establish team structures and on‑call rotations that balance operational excellence with innovation.

Platform Strategy & Enhancement

• Define and execute strategic roadmaps for Frontdoor (Tyk API Gateway), Apollo Federation, and Product Security platforms.
• Drive adoption of "paved path" solutions across a 600+ developer organization with a focus on developer experience, self‑service, and scalability.
• Enhance existing platform capabilities including authentication/authorization, rate limiting, GraphQL schema federation, and bot protection.
• Balance production system maintenance with feature development, technical debt reduction, and platform modernization.
• Evaluate and recommend new technologies (Kong, MCP on GraphQL gateway, security tools); drive POCs and architecture decisions.
• Partner with engineering and product leadership to align platform capabilities with business priorities.

Legacy System Retirement & Modernization

• Lead the retirement of legacy systems including rdc-x-api, Hestia/Kasbah, and PerimeterX.
• Develop migration strategies, coordinate with stakeholders, and execute safe transitions minimizing business disruption.
• Drive deprecation timelines, communication plans, and stakeholder management for platform changes.
• Ensure knowledge transfer, documentation, and runbook updates during modernization initiatives.

Technical Leadership & Operations

• Provide hands‑on technical guidance on complex API routing, GraphQL federation, OAuth, and security architecture challenges.
• Establish SLOs, monitoring, and observability practices for platform services; lead incident response and post‑mortems.
• Champion best practices for API design, GraphQL schema management, rate limiting strategies, and security controls.
• Drive automation, infrastructure as code, and operational efficiency improvements.
• Maintain expertise across Tyk Gateway, Apollo Federation, Kasada, AWS (EKS, CloudFront, WAF), and Kubernetes.

Cross‑Functional Collaboration

• Partner with Platform Reliability Engineering, Quality Engineering Operations, and Infrastructure teams on reliability initiatives.
• Collaborate with Security and Compliance teams on OAuth migrations, secrets management, and security standards.
• Support Application Engineering teams consuming platform services; gather feedback and prioritize platform enhancements.

How We Work

We balance creativity and innovation on a foundation of in‑person collaboration. For most roles, our employees work three or more days in our offices in Austin, TX, where they have the opportunity to collaborate in‑person, adding richness to our culture and knitting us closer together.

Who You Are

You're a proven engineering leader with deep expertise in API management, distributed systems, and security architecture. You understand that great platforms aren't just about technology—they're about developer experience, reliability, and making the right patterns easy to adopt.

What You'll Bring

• Experience: 8+ years in software engineering, platform engineering, or infrastructure; 3+ years leading engineering teams as a manager.
• Domain Expertise: Expert‑level knowledge in at least two domains: API Gateway technologies (Tyk, Kong, Apigee), GraphQL/Apollo Federation, or Security Engineering (Kasada, PerimeterX, Cloudflare).
• Technical Depth: Deep understanding of RESTful and GraphQL API design, AuthN/AuthZ (OAuth 2.0, JWT), request routing, and cloud infrastructure (AWS/Kubernetes/EKS).
• Track Record: Proven ability to scale engineering teams and lead complex platform migrations/legacy retirements.
• Education: Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent experience.

Bonus Points

• Experience managing teams supporting 500+ developers.
• Background in fraud prevention, identity management, or service mesh (Istio).
• Prior experience in real estate technology or high‑traffic e‑commerce.

How We Reward You

Realtor.com is committed to investing in the health and well‑being of our employees and their families. Our benefits programs include, but are not limited to:

• Inclusive and Competitive medical, Rx, dental, and vision coverage
• Family forming benefits
• 13 Paid Holidays
• Flexible Time Off
• 8 hours of paid Volunteer Time off
• Immediate eligibility into Company 401(k) plan with 3.5% company match
• Tuition Reimbursement program for degreed and non‑degreed programs
• 1:1 personalized Financial Planning Sessions
• Student Debt Retirement Savings Match program
• Free snacks and refreshments in each office location

Do the best work of your life at Realtor.com®.

Here, you'll partner with a diverse team of experts as you use leading‑edge tech to empower everyone to meet a crucial goal: finding their way home. And you'll find your way home too. At Realtor.com®, you'll bring your full self to work as you innovate with speed, serve our consumers, and champion your teammates. In return, we'll provide you with a warm, welcoming, and inclusive culture; intellectual challenges; and the development opportunities you need to grow.

Diversity is important to us, therefore Realtor.com® is an Equal Opportunity Employer regardless of age, color, national origin, race, religion, creed, gender, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression, marital status, status as a disabled veteran and/or veteran of the Vietnam Era or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local law. In addition, Realtor.com® will provide reasonable accommodations for otherwise qualified disabled individuals.