{"id":2494778,"url":"https://alion.io/job/gradera-lead-api-engineer","title":"Lead- API Engineer","company":{"id":4377760,"name":"Gradera","domain":"gradera.ai","url":"https://alion.io/company/gradera","size_band":null,"is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Ashby","truth_index":null},"role":"Backend","role_family":"Backend","seniority":"lead","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Hyderabad, India"],"countries":["IN"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":null,"salary_estimate":{"min_usd":25000,"max_usd":52000,"period":"year","method":"role_seniority_country_remote_cell","sample_n":51},"experience_years_min":7,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"API Gateway","optional":false},{"name":"GraphQL","optional":false},{"name":"gRPC","optional":false},{"name":"Java","optional":false},{"name":"Spring Boot","optional":false},{"name":"Swagger","optional":false},{"name":"Agile","optional":true},{"name":"Apache APISIX","optional":true},{"name":"Apache Kafka","optional":true},{"name":"CI/CD","optional":true},{"name":"Envoy","optional":true},{"name":"Istio","optional":true},{"name":"Kong","optional":true},{"name":"Service Mesh","optional":true},{"name":"Terraform","optional":true}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-08-31T15:14:10Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-08-31","last_verified_at":"2026-10-14T16:47:27Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":44,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":44},"description":"About Gradera\nGradera defines a new category of enterprise transformation called Software-Orchestrated Services™ - where software orchestrates human expertise, digital workers, and enterprise systems to deliver governed outcomes at scale. As an AI Native Services firm, we help enterprises redesign how work gets done across operations, product, engineering, customer experience, data, and enterprise workflows to move beyond fragmented AI pilots and disconnected automation toward measurable business outcomes.\nOverview\nWe are seeking a hands-on, collaborative Lead API Engineer to drive API architecture, backend service design, and the continuous evolution of our platform’s integration capabilities. As Lead API Engineer, you will provide technical leadership to the backend team, ensuring scalable, secure, and high-performing APIs that power our digital ecosystem.\nThis role is central to establishing API-first practices, defining robust contracts, and enabling seamless integrations across products, UI layers, and external systems. You will work cross-functionally to ensure backend services meet stringent non-functional requirements, while fostering engineering excellence, maintainability, and operational reliability.\nKey Responsibilities\nProvide technical leadership, mentorship, and guidance to the API engineering team\nLead the design, implementation, and evolution of API architecture and backend services\nChampion API-first development, ensuring clear contracts and comprehensive documentation (OpenAPI/Swagger)\nLead the implementations of APIs conforming to all NFRs including security, scalability, and performance.\nEnsure robust authentication, authorization, and data protection for all endpoints\nDrive adoption of best practices in API design, versioning, and integration\nOptimize API performance for low-latency, high-frequency interactions\nOversee observability, monitoring, and alerting for all APIs and backend services\nCollaborate closely with product, UI, and runtime teams to deliver integrated solutions\nCollaborate with the SDET to ensure comprehensive test coverage and effective test data creation\nLead the adoption of modern API tools, frameworks, and best practices\nEnsure engineering rigor, code quality, and documentation standards are met\nFacilitate clear communication, knowledge sharing, and effective documentation within the team\nSupport team growth through coaching, feedback, and skills development\nCore Qualities & Skills\nProven experience leading API engineering teams and delivering complex API projects\nDeep expertise in API architecture, design, and implementation (RESTful, GraphQL, gRPC etc.)\n\nStrong programming skills in Java 8 and above, Spring Boot, and Microservices.\n\nExperience with API security, authentication, and authorization (OAuth, JWT, RBAC, PKCE, define fine-grained access controls using ReBAC)\n\nExperience with API documentation and standards (OpenAPI/Swagger, Use Case, JSON Schemas, etc.)\n\nFamiliarity with data serialization with Protofbuf\n\nExperience with some API gateway is a must\n\nStrong understanding of performance optimization, scalability, and reliability for APIs\n\nExperience with observability, monitoring, and troubleshooting for backend services\n\nStrong collaboration and alignment skills across disciplines\n\nWillingness to learn, share knowledge, and adapt to evolving technologies\n\nSystem design skills and awareness of technical debt and tradeoffs\n\nShould have experience in usage of Generative AI at least in coding. Preferred to have experience in spec-driven development using AI.\n\nExcellent communication, documentation, and stakeholder management abilities\n\nComfort with ambiguity, discovery, and rapid change\n\nCommitment to engineering excellence, security, and responsible practices\n\nPreferred Qualifications\n7+ years of hands-on API or backend engineering experience, o with at least 4 to 5 years of hands-on experience in developing API based solutions. Experience must include at least 2 years of leading teams in API development.\nTrack record of architecting and delivering scalable, reliable API systems\nExperience with modern development practices (CI/CD, automated testing, code reviews)\nDemonstrated ability to mentor and grow engineers\nExperience working in cross-functional, agile teams\nHighly Desirable\nExperience with API gateways (e.g., Envoy, Kong, Apigee) and service mesh patterns (e.g., Istio)\nExperience with event-driven and streaming architectures (pub/sub, callbacks, Kafka, etc.)\nExperience with cloud-native infrastructure and automated provisioning (e.g., Terraform)\nExperience building developer portals and self-service onboarding for APIs\nExperience with API Gateways (Apache APISIX, KrakenD, …)\nAbility to perform API Domain Modelling with a strong product orientation, aligning technical design with user and business needs\nExperience thriving in fast-paced, ambiguous environments and balancing rapid delivery with technical excellence\nExperience leading or working with distributed, multidisciplinary teams\nSuccess Metrics\nAPI response time (median and p95)\nUptime and reliability of critical services\nTest coverage for API and backend logic\nDeveloper velocity and time from API design to production\nTime to First Prototype (TTFP)\nIntegration lead time for API consumers\nTechnical debt reduction and architectural alignment\nTeam growth, engagement, and retention\nStakeholder satisfaction and cross-team collaboration","description_format":"text","description_chars":5442,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":7,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":null,"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":[],"hiring_locations":[],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":[],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-10-14T04:07:40Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":26,"band":"fade","label":"Fading","p_open":1,"p_active":0.586,"p_room":0.45,"age_days":43,"expected_fill_days":23,"reasons":["conf:2","win:tail"],"computed_at":"2026-10-14T06:34:16Z"},"pay":null,"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/gradera-lead-api-engineer","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/gradera-lead-api-engineer.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-14T17:08:30Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":21914,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-15T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":4377760},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=4377760"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fgradera-lead-api-engineer"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fgradera-lead-api-engineer"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fgradera-lead-api-engineer"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/gradera-lead-api-engineer\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fgradera-lead-api-engineer"}]}