[Hiring] Senior Developer, API @YPO

Role Description

We are seeking an experienced Sr. Developer, APIs to design, build, and maintain the API platform that powers YPO's member ecosystem, Chapter operations, and Agentic AI platform. You will write production-quality code and own the technical implementation of APIs that sit at the core of YPO's digital experience.

You will partner closely with Product, Data Architecture, IT, and Security to deliver scalable, semantic API solutions that meet rigorous technical, privacy, and governance standards. You will also serve as a key technical collaborator for internal engineering teams and integration partners - ensuring that every API surface is performant, well-documented, and safe to consume.

This role requires deep backend engineering expertise, a strong sense of API product quality, and the ability to translate complex integration requirements into robust, maintainable implementations that stand up at scale - within an event-driven, domain-aligned, serverless-first cloud architecture.

Your API Portfolio

• Members API: Stable, semantic endpoints exposing member profile, identity, peer discovery, and graph relationships. The foundation of member experience.
• Chapters API: APIs powering chapter management, forum operations, event discovery, and role-based data access across YPO's global regional structure.
• Agentic Ecosystem APIs: Governed API contracts for AI agents (Peer Discovery, Event Discovery) built on OpenAI + RAG and Google Gemini. Agents consume only approved APIs. Agent reasoning must always be surfaceable.

Primary Responsibilities

• API Design & Implementation:
  • Design and implement production-grade RESTful and GraphQL APIs deployed via AWS API Gateway that are stable, semantic, and decoupled from vendor-specific backend schemas.
  • Ensure all APIs conform to YPO's canonical ontology and global member graph. No endpoint may directly expose Salesforce object structures.
  • Design APIs to operate within an event-driven architecture leveraging CDC, pub/sub messaging (Kafka and AWS EventBridge), and idempotent patterns.
  • Apply Domain-Driven Design (DDD) principles - bounded contexts, ubiquitous language, and domain events.
  • Adopt a serverless-first approach using AWS Lambda, Step Functions, and EventBridge where appropriate.
  • Write clean, well-tested, and well-documented code across the Members, Chapters, and Agentic Ecosystem API domains.
  • Define and enforce data models, versioning standards, authentication flows (Auth0 / Okta / OAuth 2.0), and integration patterns from first principles.
  • Apply performance-aware design - intentional pagination, caching strategies, query constraints, and rate-limiting.
  • Ensure every API response includes provenance and explanation metadata.
• Agentic Ecosystem Engineering:
  • Implement the API governance layer that controls how YPO's AI agents interact with member data.
  • All agent-facing APIs must support structured retrieval, citation-ready provenance fields, consent-aware filtering, and deterministic fallback.
  • Build and maintain kill-switch-capable API boundaries.
  • Instrument agent API integrations with feedback loop mechanisms.
  • Collaborate with data science and ML teams to translate agentic data flow requirements into governed, tested API contracts.
• API Lifecycle, Versioning & Governance:
  • Own the full API lifecycle: development, testing, documentation, versioning, deprecation, and migration planning.
  • Establish and maintain engineering standards for API versioning, backward compatibility, and breaking-change policy.
  • Build and maintain sandbox environments, integration test suites, and automated contract tests.
  • Work with Engineering leads ensuring reliable CI/CD pipelines, deployment automation, observability via Datadog, alerting, and uptime SLAs.
• Cloud Architecture, IAM & Security:
  • Design and enforce IAM boundary design using least-privilege principles.
  • Operate within and contribute to YPO's multi-account AWS strategy.
  • All cloud infrastructure must be defined and maintained as code using Terraform or AWS CDK.
• Developer Experience & Enablement:
  • Produce and maintain clear API documentation, example queries, and troubleshooting guides.
  • Support technical onboarding for new product teams and integration partners.
  • Identify and address developer friction proactively.
  • Act as a technical resource for Engineering peers consuming the APIs.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration:
  • Work closely with Data Architecture to ensure APIs maintain stable semantic meaning.
  • Partner with IT and Security to enforce role-based access and member consent policy.
  • Collaborate with Product teams to translate requirements into production implementations.
  • Evaluate and integrate third-party technologies that enhance YPO's member ecosystem.

Measure Success

• API Reliability: APIs meet defined uptime SLAs; issues detected proactively via Datadog.
• Code Quality: New endpoints ship with full test coverage; zero undocumented breaking changes.
• Developer Experience: Internal teams can self-serve from documentation; integration timelines reduced.
• Delivery: Roadmap milestones delivered on time, with acceptance test coverage.
• Agent Safety: Zero agentic API calls bypass the governance layer.
• Explainability: Every API response includes provenance and explanation metadata.
• Observability: All agent integrations emit metrics traceable to specific API behaviors.
• IaC Compliance: All infrastructure changes deployed via Terraform or CDK.

Qualifications

• Ability to work collaboratively in a multi-cultural organization.
• Excellent interpersonal skills, including strong diplomacy skills.
• Able to maintain discretion and integrity of confidential information.
• Resourceful and able to work independently with initiative and common sense.
• Possesses a distinct global mindset, sensitive to local and international customs.
• Demonstrate empathy through active listening and asking the right questions.
• Able to identify problems, research alternatives, and provide solutions.
• Analytical thinker with ability to influence and guide processes.
• Heightened awareness and understanding of YPO as an organization.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with attention to detail.
• Professional presence to interact easily with YPO members and executives.

Experience/Background

• 6–8+ years of professional software engineering experience with a strong backend or API platform focus.
• Proven track record designing and implementing RESTful and/or GraphQL APIs.
• Strong command of API design principles: contracts, versioning, backward compatibility.
• Hands-on experience with AWS API Gateway and REST API development.
• Solid understanding of event-driven architecture patterns.
• Applied knowledge of Domain-Driven Design (DDD).
• Experience with serverless-first patterns on AWS.
• Hands-on Infrastructure as Code (IaC) experience with Terraform and/or AWS CDK.
• Working knowledge of IAM boundary design.
• Familiarity with multi-account AWS strategy patterns.
• Experience with cloud platforms (AWS and/or Azure) and modern CI/CD practices.
• Demonstrated ability to write performant APIs.
• Experience designing APIs with explicit contracts and automated testing.
• Familiarity with graph-based data models.
• Experience working within privacy and consent frameworks.
• Strong communication skills to interface effectively with stakeholders.
• Active use of AI-assisted development tools in daily workflows.

Preferred Experience

• Prior experience building API layers for agentic AI systems.
• Experience with API governance for consumer identity or membership platforms.
• Background in membership organizations or community platforms.
• Deep hands-on experience with event streaming platforms.
• Experience with Elasticsearch or Search Orchestration Services.
• Working knowledge of data observability tooling applied to API performance.
• Prior exposure to third-party integration orchestration tooling.
• Experience designing APIs for agentic AI systems.

Education/Training/Certification

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, or a related field.
• Advanced technical training or relevant certifications in cloud, API, or software engineering disciplines are preferred.

Physical Requirements

• Ability to work flexible and/or extended hours as needed.
• Ability and willingness to travel domestically and internationally approximately 10–15% per year.

EOE

YPO is an Equal Opportunity Employer. YPO takes pride in supporting a diverse workforce and demonstrates this through its policies and practices. YPO does not discriminate in recruiting, hiring, training, promotion, or other employment practices for reasons of race, color, religion, gender, national origin, age, sexual orientation, marital or veteran status, disability, or any other legally protected status.