Software Engineer, APIs & Context Platform

Glean; Mountain View (CA); Hybrid; USD 210,000 - 260,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, Vision, and Dental coverage

Generous time-off policy

Home office improvement stipend

Annual education and wellness stipends

Healthy lunches daily

Job summary

Glean is hiring a Software Engineer to own and evolve their REST API standards in Mountain View. This hybrid role requires 5+ years of experience in software engineering, focusing on public‑facing APIs and developer platforms.

The ideal candidate is skilled in REST API principles and at least one modern backend programming language like Golang. Compensation ranges from $210,000 to $260,000 annually, complemented by benefits like Medical coverage, generous time-off policy, and home office stipends.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of industry software engineering experience, building and shipping public‑facing APIs.
• Proficiency in at least one modern backend language, ideally Golang.
• Deep fluency in REST API design principles including versioning and backward compatibility.

Responsibilities

• Own and evolve Glean's REST API standards.
• Design and ship new API endpoints for Glean's platform.
• Build the API gateway layer with routing and authentication.

Skills

REST API design principles

Golang

TypeScript

Python

Java

Education

BA/BS in computer science or related field

Job description

About The Role

Glean is building the horizontal AI platform that powers how employees use AI at work – not just in Glean, but across tools like Copilot, Gemini, ChatGPT, IDEs, and more. We seek creative engineers to build this context platform and deliver rich, trustworthy experiences across all those apps. This team owns the platform experience end‑to‑end: standards and tooling for REST APIs, SDKs and client libraries, agent SDKs and integrations, MCP servers, custom context such as code and memory, and the infrastructure and docs that make it easy to build on Glean. In a rapidly growing startup, this means working across multiple layers of the stack – backend services, developer tools, SDKs, and docs.

You Will

• Own and evolve Glean's REST API standards: versioning strategy, backward‑compatibility guarantees, deprecation policy, and OpenAPI specification tooling.
• Design and ship new API endpoints that expose Glean's platform primitives—search, knowledge graph, chat, agent and others—as stable, well‑documented developer surfaces.
• Build the API gateway layer: routing, authentication (OAuth2, API keys, OIDC), rate limiting, quota management, and per‑tenant usage metering.
• Define reusable platform primitives on top of Glean's horizontal layers (connectors, security/governance, knowledge graph, memory, model orchestration) so they can be composed by internal teams and external partners.
• Work across backend services, developer tools, SDKs, and documentation in a fast‑moving startup environment.
• Design, build, and evolve SDKs and client libraries that developers use to integrate with Glean from their own applications and agent frameworks.
• Instrument API usage to surface adoption metrics, error patterns, and latency SLOs.
• Champion the external developer perspective internally—bring customer feedback, friction points, and feature requests into the roadmap process.

About You

• BA/BS in computer science or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• 5+ years of industry software engineering experience, with meaningful time spent building and shipping public‑facing APIs or developer platforms in production.
• Deep fluency in REST API design principles: versioning, backward compatibility, pagination, error semantics, hypermedia, and OpenAPI/JSON Schema.
• Proficiency in at least one modern backend language (ideally Golang, or strong interest in learning it); experience with TypeScript, Python, and/or Java is a plus.
• Thrive in a customer‑focused, tight‑knit, cross‑functional environment – being a team player and willing to take on whatever is most impactful for the company is a must.
• A proactive and positive attitude to lead, learn, troubleshoot, and take ownership of both small tasks and large features.

Location

This role is hybrid (4 days a week in our Mountain View office).

Compensation & Benefits

The standard base salary range for this position is $210,000 - $260,000 annually. Compensation offered will be determined by factors such as location, level, job‑related knowledge, skills, and experience. Certain roles may be eligible for variable compensation, equity, and benefits. We offer a comprehensive benefits package including competitive compensation, Medical, Vision, and Dental coverage, generous time‑off policy, and the opportunity to contribute to your 401(k) plan to support your long‑term goals. When you join, you'll receive a home office improvement stipend, as well as annual education and wellness stipends to support your growth and wellbeing. We foster a vibrant company culture through regular events, and provide healthy lunches daily to keep you fueled and focused.

Equal Employment Opportunity

We are a diverse bunch of people and we want to continue to attract and retain a diverse range of people into our organization. We're committed to an inclusive and diverse company. We do not discriminate based on gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, civil or family status, age, disability, or race.