Principal API Architect/Engineer – API Platform (Python/Typescript)

Location: Pleasanton, California, USA; flexible hybrid work with at least 50% of each quarter spent in the office or in the field

Salary: $206,400–$309,600 USD annual base salary for the primary location; additional US locations range from $173,300–$309,600 USD

Company

hirify.global is a Fortune 500 company providing AI-powered platforms for managing people, money, and enterprise work.

What you will do

• Own the API architecture vision, governance model, standards, and review processes for Product Engineering.
• Define patterns for REST, GraphQL, SOAP, agent-ready APIs, data-centric APIs, authentication, authorization, versioning, errors, retries, and idempotency.
• Partner with product, platform, and engineering leaders to shape API roadmaps, identify duplication, and drive adoption of shared patterns.
• Lead cross-team API design reviews and make high-impact architecture decisions.
• Establish latency, observability, and SLO practices across the end-to-end request path.
• Evaluate API tooling, mentor senior engineers and managers, and communicate the API strategy to senior stakeholders.

Requirements

• 12+ years of experience building large-scale, mission-critical backend systems and APIs.
• 5+ years in a senior architecture, engineering, or staff-plus role responsible for cross-team or organization-wide API/platform architecture.
• 5+ years of hands-on experience with TypeScript or Python for web services and APIs.
• Experience with REST, SOAP, GraphQL, JSON, XML, WSDL, Swagger/OpenAPI, distributed systems, cloud architectures, gateways, and multi-tenant services.
• Understanding of the MCP protocol, agentic AI integrations, data platforms, API governance, observability, and SLOs.
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related discipline, or equivalent practical experience.

Nice to have

• Experience with AI-assisted code generation and review tools such as Cursor, Claude Code, or GitHub Copilot.
• Experience with Data Cloud or equivalent analytical stores and MCP/Data Cloud connectors.
• Experience building reference implementations and communities of practice.

Culture & Benefits

• Flexible work combining in-person collaboration with remote work.
• Opportunity to work with Product Engineering, platform teams, AI/Agent Factory, Data Cloud, and core services groups.
• Eligibility for the hirify.global Bonus Plan or role-specific bonus and annual refresh stock grants.
• Inclusive and accessible employment environment with accommodations available during hiring.