Staff Eng, API Design & Governance

At eBay, we're more than a global ecommerce leader - we’re changing the way the world shops and sells. Our platform empowers millions of buyers and sellers in more than 190 markets around the world. We’re committed to pushing boundaries and leaving our mark as we reinvent the future of ecommerce for enthusiasts.

Our customers are our compass, authenticity thrives, bold ideas are welcome, and everyone can bring their unique selves to work - every day. We're in this together, sustaining the future of our customers, our company, and our planet.

Join a team of passionate thinkers, innovators, and dreamers - and help us connect people and build communities to create economic opportunity for all.

About the team and the role:

eBay’s Developer Ecosystem team builds the tools, platforms, and experiences that help developers create solutions that make buying and selling on eBay faster and easier. The team owns eBay’s Public APIs and Developer Portal, enabling developers to discover, integrate, and scale with confidence. At eBay, APIs are treated as first-class products because they power a broad ecosystem of applications that support buyers, sellers, and partners around the world.

We are hiring a Staff Engineer, API Design & Governance to help shape the architecture, quality, and long-term evolution of the systems and APIs that power these experiences. This is an individual contributor role for a hands-on technical leader who will design and build scalable, high-performance systems, lead complex technical initiatives, and influence engineering direction across multiple domains. A central focus of this role is defining clear, intuitive, and well-governed APIs and service contracts that enable consistent, high-quality integration across eBay’s platform. This person will partner closely with Product, UX, Data, Business, and Engineering teams, while helping raise the bar for technical design, implementation quality, and operational excellence.

What you will accomplish:

• Design and deliver scalable, resilient systems and APIs that improve end-to-end developer and customer experiences across eBay’s platform.
• Lead the architecture of high-traffic, distributed systems and service contracts that are intuitive, evolvable, and built for long-term reuse at scale.
• Establish and drive API design and governance standards across teams, including documentation, versioning, observability, and consistency across REST and GraphQL interfaces.
• Translate complex business and product needs into clear technical strategies and specifications, partnering cross-functionally to deliver solutions that balance performance, reliability, cost, and speed.
• Raise engineering quality through architecture reviews, code reviews, mentoring, and technical leadership that strengthens design practices across the organization.
• Identify and resolve bottlenecks, scaling challenges, and reliability risks proactively, helping improve platform performance, maintainability, and operational excellence over time.

What you will bring:

• 10+ years of software engineering experience, including deep expertise in building and scaling high-traffic, distributed, transaction-heavy systems.
• Strong proficiency in at least one modern backend language such as Java, Python, or Kotlin, along with strong fundamentals in software design principles, including SOLID and common design patterns.
• Deep experience designing and operating APIs at scale, including GraphQL schema design and evolution, efficient data fetching, backward compatibility, and strong understanding of API architecture across GraphQL, REST, and RPC.
• Expertise in distributed systems, multi-threading, concurrency, enterprise-scale architecture, and building systems with high standards for performance, availability, and observability.
• Demonstrated ability to create clear technical specifications and well-documented service contracts, and to drive API design consistency and governance across multiple teams.
• Experience working in Agile environments and using modern developer productivity tools, with additional strength in areas such as federated GraphQL, cloud-native or microservices architectures, modern frontend technologies, or large-scale platform strategy considered a plus.

Additional Details

This job posting relates to an existing vacancy within eBay.

eBay is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, and disability, or other legally protected status. If you have a need that requires accommodation, please contact us at [email protected]. We will make every effort to respond to your request for accommodation as soon as possible. View our accessibility statement to learn more about eBay's commitment to ensuring digital accessibility.

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