Senior System Engineer - Platform/API

O'Reilly Auto Parts • Headquarters, KY

19h • Onsite

About The Position

The Sr Systems Engineer Platform – API Gateway is responsible for developing, managing, and optimizing enterprise API platforms using both Apigee and Kong. This role ensures secure, scalable, and highly available API traffic across cloud and on‑prem environments, supporting enterprise integration and modernization initiatives. The engineer will operate and evolve a dual‑gateway strategy, supporting Apigee (cloud-native) and Kong (on‑prem / hybrid / cloud), while enabling standardization, observability, and long-term migration. This position is an on site role located in Springfield, MO.

Requirements

• 5+ years of experience with Apigee Edge / Apigee X including proxy development, custom policy creation, API product configuration, and environment management.
• Strong experience with Kong API Gateway (OSS or Enterprise), including declarative configuration, plugin development, service mesh integration, and hybrid deployment.
• Expertise in designing and building scalable, secure, and reusable RESTful APIs.
• Proficient in using OpenAPI/Swagger specifications for API documentation and contract-first development.
• Knowledge of API versioning strategies, rate limiting, quota management, and caching policies.
• Advanced proficiency in Java and Python for backend logic, service integration, and policy extensions.
• Hands-on experience with Google Cloud Platform (GCP) services including: Apigee X Cloud Run Cloud Functions Cloud Pub/Sub IAM & VPC Cloud Monitoring & Logging
• Familiar with GCP networking concepts (VPC peering, load balancing) and hybrid/multi-cloud API deployments.
• Proficient in building CI/CD pipelines using tools such as Jenkins, GitHub Actions, and Google Cloud Build for automated testing, deployment, and rollback.
• Strong experience with Terraform for Infrastructure as Code (IaC) to provision and manage API gateway components and cloud infrastructure.
• Version control using Git, branching strategies, and release automation.
• Deep knowledge of API security models, including OAuth 2.0, JWT, API Keys, and SAML-based integrations.
• Implementation of TLS, encryption, input validation, and secure token handling.
• Awareness of compliance standards such as PCI-DSS, SOC2, and HIPAA.
• Experience with Cloud Monitoring (Stackdriver), Prometheus, Grafana, ELK Stack, or equivalent observability platforms.
• Implementation of health checks, alerting, distributed tracing, and performance dashboards.
• Root cause analysis (RCA) and proactive issue detection using logs, metrics, and traces.
• Experience integrating APIs with enterprise systems, microservices, and cloud-native platforms.
• Familiarity with event-driven architectures and messaging services such as Kafka or Cloud Pub/Sub.
• Skilled in performance tuning of API proxies and gateways for low latency and high throughput.
• Implementation of caching strategies, load balancing, fault tolerance, and retry mechanisms.

Nice To Haves

• Experience with Node.js and scripting languages (e.g., Bash, Shell) is a plus.
• Experience with Kubernetes (GKE preferred) and containerization using Docker.
• Familiarity with Istio, Linkerd, or other service mesh technologies.
• Knowledge of managing and customizing Apigee or Kong Developer Portals.
• Exposure to GraphQL, gRPC, WebSockets, and asynchronous messaging patterns.
• Experience with advanced API security tools like Google Cloud Armor, WAFs, or bot mitigation solutions.
• Proficiency in GitLab CI, ArgoCD, Spinnaker, or similar modern CI/CD tools.
• Familiarity with secrets management tools such as HashiCorp Vault or GCP Secret Manager.
• Experience with API testing and validation tools like Postman, SoapUI, ReadyAPI, or Karate.
• Working knowledge of distributed tracing and observability tools such as OpenTelemetry, Jaeger, or Zipkin.
• Integration of monitoring systems with incident response tools like PagerDuty or Opsgenie.
• Google Cloud Certifications (e.g., Apigee API Engineer, Professional Cloud Architect).
• Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) or other relevant DevOps/cloud certifications.
• Industry experience in retail, e-commerce, finance, or healthcare with API-driven systems.
• Understanding of regulatory requirements like GDPR, HIPAA, or PSD2 in API environments.
• Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Systems, or equivalent practical experience.

Responsibilities

• Lead the end-to-end design and development of APIs that facilitate secure, high-performance communication across distributed systems.
• Create API specifications using OpenAPI/Swagger, ensuring consistent documentation and developer-friendly interface contracts.
• Implement advanced traffic management policies (e.g., spike arrest, quota enforcement, request/response transformation, mediation, logging).
• Build and extend API functionality using Java and Python, integrating with microservices, data services, or third-party systems.
• Establish consistent API patterns, naming conventions, and versioning strategies that promote reuse and maintainability.
• Design APIs optimized for Google Cloud services, integrating with GCP-native components such as Cloud Functions, Cloud Run, Cloud Pub/Sub, and Cloud Storage.
• Configure and manage API proxies, developer portals, and key gateway components in Apigee Edge/X Enterprise environments.
• Administer Apigee instances hosted on GCP (Apigee X or hybrid), including runtime and control plane setup, VPC peering, and Security configurations.
• Monitor platform health, debug proxy execution flows, and resolve errors in real time to ensure 24/7 uptime and minimal latency.
• Optimize platform performance through tuning of connection pools, caching layers, circuit breakers, and distributed tracing.
• Develop custom plugins and extensions for Apigee as required to support business-specific logic.
• Enhance developer onboarding and productivity through well-documented APIs, sandbox environments, and intuitive developer portal interfaces.
• Define and implement Infrastructure as Code (IaC) using Terraform, automating the provisioning and configuration of gateway resources, environments, and network routing.
• Develop and maintain robust CI/CD pipelines using Jenkins, integrating static code analysis, unit/integration testing, approval workflows, and automated rollback strategies.
• Ensure secure and scalable multi-environment deployment patterns (Dev/Test/Prod), maintaining consistent configurations across environments.
• Integrate pipelines with code repositories (Git), secrets management (Vault), and artifact registries (e.g., Artifactory).
• Leverage GCP services like Cloud Build, Artifact Registry, and Secret Manager to build and secure deployment pipelines for API infrastructure.
• Enforce API security by implementing authentication and authorization mechanisms using OAuth 2.0, API keys, SAML, and JWT.
• Integrate with enterprise identity providers (e.g., Okta, Azure AD) for secure access control and identity federation.
• Perform regular security assessments and apply mitigations for known vulnerabilities (e.g., OWASP API Top 10).
• Ensure compliance with data protection and audit requirements (PCI, SOC2, HIPAA), including access logging, token handling, and data redaction.
• Utilize GCP Identity and Access Management (IAM), Identity-Aware Proxy (IAP), and VPC Service Controls to secure API access and protect sensitive data.
• Advocate for and implement Zero Trust principles at the API layer, ensuring secure east-west and north-south traffic using mutual TLS, fine-grained access controls, and real-time threat analytics.
• Implement observability and monitoring tools such as Dynatrace, Grafana, or ELK to gain visibility into API performance, usage trends, and error rates.
• Use GCP-native observability tools (Cloud Monitoring, Cloud Logging, Cloud Trace) to monitor API traffic and proactively resolve anomalies.
• Analyze telemetry data to identify bottlenecks, optimize latency, and proactively address issues before they impact users.
• Define health checks, alerts, and auto-remediation scripts to minimize downtime and maximize SLA adherence.
• Participate in on-call rotations and lead root cause analysis (RCA) sessions for high-priority incidents.
• Use KPIs such as latency, error rates, request volumes, and uptime to drive performance tuning and system improvements.
• Act as a technical liaison between architecture, development, DevOps, and InfoSec teams, ensuring seamless API integration and security compliance.
• Participate in design and architecture review boards (ARB) to validate API standards, design choices, and reuse of common components.
• Mentor junior engineers and provide guidance on API management best practices, gateway design, and automation strategies.
• Champion API-first development culture, driving adoption of modular, loosely coupled, and domain-driven services.
• Collaborate with cloud engineering and platform teams to ensure alignment with GCP architecture principles and multi-region resilience strategies.
• Collaborate with product teams to define API consumption models, pricing tiers, and usage metrics that align with organizational goals and customer needs.
• Participate in failure testing and chaos engineering exercises to validate API resiliency, scalability, and recovery under real-world failure scenarios.
• Manage the complete lifecycle of APIs — from planning, design, implementation, publishing, monitoring, deprecation, and retirement.
• Maintain an API catalog and ensure consistency with enterprise metadata and documentation requirements.
• Define and enforce governance policies related to API access control, rate plans, naming standards, SLAs, and operational handoff.
• Ensure API lifecycle activities adhere to GCP governance models, including organization policies, folder structure, and audit logging.
• Stay current with the latest advancements in API gateways, edge computing, cloud-native technologies, and DevOps practices.
• Evaluate and prototype new tools, patterns, and methods to improve productivity, quality, and time to market.
• Participate in proof-of-concept (PoC) initiatives, research assignments, and vendor evaluations to drive platform innovation.
• Continuously review and enhance existing services to improve reusability, security posture, and developer experience.
• Lead PoCs using emerging GCP API features (e.g., Apigee Advanced Security, Cloud Endpoints, Cloud Armor) and share findings with the engineering community.

Benefits

• Competitive Wages & Paid Time Off
• Stock Purchase Plan & 401k with Employer Contributions Starting Day One
• Medical, Dental, & Vision Insurance with Optional Flexible Spending Account (FSA)
• Team Member Health/Wellbeing Programs
• Tuition Educational Assistance Programs
• Opportunities for Career Growth

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level